World Footy News

The readers of USFootyNews.com have chosen the 2009 Coopers Goal and Mark of the Year. Congratulations to Seattle and Portland's Martin Coventry on kicking the Goal of the Year and to Calgary's Dane Rolfe for taking the Mark of the Year.

Portland Power and Seattle Grizzly, Martin Coventry, took out the 2009 Coopers Brewery USFootyNews.com Goal of the Year. Thanks to all the USFootyNews.com readers, Portland and Seattle fans for voting! Thanks also to Coopers Brewery for providing the prizes.

Although Coventry's huge kick in the 2009 USFooty National Championship was not enough to win the National Championship, it did win Goal of the Year. The kick beat out a lovely pocket snap by Revo and Baltimore Washington Eagle RJ Wheelock and a nice left footer from OC Bomber Colter Alison.

Continuing the explosive growth of new clubs in England, the Guildford Crows are warming up for the 2010 season, and are on the lookout for friendly matches against other southern clubs to get underway.

Located around halfway between London and England's south coast, Guildford is the traditional centre of County Surrey and is only a few kilometers from the town of Woking, which was home to the old BARFL's Thames Valley Magpies in the early 1990s.

Leading the Crows is Tom Drake, a Briton who discovered Australian rules football while traveling in Australia, joined the Aberdeen Dingoes while studying in Scotland, and went on to represent the Scotland twice in 2009.

Among the sides running out onto Whitten Oval in this year's Harmony Cup will be Team Israel, who will be hoping to regain the title they won at 2004's inaugural Multicultural Cup.

Although the Australian Jewish community is not often associated with producing star players, it has provided us with such high profile off-field personalities as the late Carlton president Dick Pratt, Melbourne FC's merger saviour Joseph Gutnick, current Bulldogs chief David Smorgon and colourful 80s-era Sydney Swans owner Dr Geoffrey Edelsten.

Fans of international footy will be familiar with the Peres Peace Team, a side of Israeli and Palestinian players that came together for the 2008 International Cup with the support of the Peres Centre for Peace and a number of Australian business supporters. A social Aussie rules scene also exists in Israel, profiled by WFN in the article Footy in Israel - From St Kilda to the Dead Sea way back in 2005.

Coordinating the team this year is Michael Goldberg, a veteran of Israeli social footy and a member of Melbourne's "Shleppers". Goldberg spoke to WFN about the side's preparations.

The US Revolution kicked off their 2010 season with a winter camp in Austin, Texas. New head coach, Matt Bishop, was keen to get the team together with a series of camps throughout the year culminating with the big game against the Canadian Northwind in Toronto in early August.

There were a number of new faces looking to impress the Revo coaching staff, including Minnesota's big man, Andrew Werner. Werner spent much of 2009 playing footy in the Western Australian country leagues and is looking forward to contributing to the Revos.

No you didn't read that wrong, South America. While the AFL club the West Coast Eagles have been involved in footy development in the African nation of South Africa, it is now the South American continent that is drawing their attention.

Eagles Chief Trevor Nisbett told www.foxsports.com.au "There seems to be a lot of talented athletes coming out of there and most of them are obviously playing soccer and rugby," he said. "If we are looking at other players, why not look there. A lot of the guys over there are super well-built and are super athletes. From our point of view it's certainly worth looking at."

The Eagles have linked up with high profile player agent Peter Jess to set up assessment camps. Of the South Americans Jess said "because of the enormous cultural differences he expected South Americans to adapt more quickly to Aussie rules than South Africans. I have outlined to a couple of the club the benefit of South America as a talent pool compared to Ireland," he said.

Regular readers will be aware of the local presences of footy in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

The Surrey Park Panthers, a club playing in the fourth division of Melbourne's Eastern FL, will this year play host to a new league-within-a-club, aimed at introducing Indian migrants and students to Australian rules football.

Coordinating the project is WFN writer Ash Nugent, who says the competition is both about promoting Australian rules football, as well as building understanding between the Australian and Indian communities. The main target group for recruitment is Melbourne's large Indian student community, who come to Melbourne for tertiary studies after completing secondary school in India.

Initial sessions based around teaching basic skills, then kicking off a competition described as "a serious league but with a strong social element", that will also provide opportunities for players to move into senior football with the Panthers.

The Cincinnati Dockers, two-time defending USAFL Division 4 National Champions, have announced their schedule for the 2010 season.

They will kick off the season on the road at the John Harrell Memorial Cup Tournament in Louisville, KY on May 8th, play at home twice in a 7-match schedule, then return to Louisville in October for the 2010 USAFL Championships.

Based in Fairfield, Ohio and established in 1996, the Dockers are the oldest footy club of its kind in the United States. The match scheduled for September 25th this year between the Dockers and Kentucky's Louisville Kings will be the 14th anniversary of the first-ever Australian Rules Football match between two US teams.

The small town of Chichester, with a population of just over 20,000, is home to one of Britain's newest universities - the University of Chichester only being founded in 2005. The town is also home to one of Britain's newer university Australian football clubs, with the Chichester Cougars kicking off proceedings late last year.

Since being founded by members of the nearby Southampton Titans, the Cougars have played matches against Chippenham, Portsmouth and Birmingham Uni, recently breaking through for their first win.

Cougars founder Martyn Hinchey spoke to WFN about his club.

AFANA have given us details of how the North American TV coverage of AFL matches is shaping up for the 2010 season. Firstly there is no NAB Cup coverage. The primary US coverage will be via internet broadband on ESPN360.com. This is free if your ISP has a deal with ESPN [about 50% of US homes] or if you live on a university campus or US military base. AFANA have coverage schedules for virtually the entire AFL season and will be posting those soon.

Round 1 will have Richmond v Carlton, Geelong v Essendon and Western Bulldogs v Collingwood live. Three matches live per round for the balance of the AFL season.

ESPN360 will change names on 4 April to ESPN3 but otherwise remain the same just with an upgraded web page. ESPN2, a broadcast outlet, will carry 4 AFL matches during the course of the season including the Grand Final (live). The first match will be the Round 15 Geelong v Hawthorn match on a delayed basis. Two more will be selected at a later date.

The second AFL Middle East season is drawing to a close. The last round is still to be completed, but the Grand Finalists have already been determined. Ironically these two clubs, reigning champions the Dubai Heat and their neighbours the Abu Dhabi Falcons, will also face off in the final round.

AFLPNG’s Coca Cola Talent Path model has again delivered with six new signings to AFL Clubs under the international recruitment drive.

Richmond, Essendon, and the Brisbane Lions did not let the opportunity slip when attending PNG’s Coca Cola Talent Camp late in 2009, signing players to International Scholarships.

Gideon Simon (Western Highlands) and Nathan Malbak (Morobe) have been snapped up by the Richmond Tigers, Ezra Kautu (West New Britain) has been signed by the Brisbane Lions and Victor Rame (West New Britain) was taken by the Essendon Bombers (pictured below). Also recruited were Brendan Beno (Autonomous Region of Bougainville) who was wooed to the Lions, and Max Lavai (NCD) who was swooped on by the Bombers.

Beno and Kautu had actually been signed a few weeks earlier, but it was not widely publicised.

The World 18 that will head to Australia for the NAB AFL Under 16s has received a timely boost on two fronts. Recently retired Sydney Swans star Michael O'Loughlin has agreed to coach the inaugural team, having recently coached the Indigenous Boomerangs squad against South Africa. In addition, and no doubt in acknowledgement of the tough battle facing the World side, the AFL has slightly loosened the criteria for selection, in terms of age and opening the door slightly to Australian based immigrants.