World Footy News

worldfootynews.com is pleased to be able to confirm that Fijian players Inoke Ratu (aged 20) and Solomoni Loki (still only 17) will be continuing on the Western Bulldogs' International Scholarship List in 2010.

First signed up in October 2008, the Bulldogs this week confirmed to WFN that the players would continue to be developed by the club this year. Ratu has had ongoing issues securing a visa to Australia, but has continued his development in Fiji and assisted with Fiji's team at the recent Youth Oceania Cup.

Solomoni Loki, the younger of the pair, performed well for Fiji in the same tournament, being named in the Pacific Islands squad for the AFL Under 16 championships later this year (the international sides are allowed to field players up to 18).

When the Australian Football League announced plans to include a World XVIII in the AFL NAB Under 16 state championships in Western Sydney in 2010, there was genuine excitement that the team would provide an unprecedented pathway for young talent around the world. But clearly the squad was likely to be dominated by Papua New Guinea, South Africa and some Oceanian countries. The recent news that the AFL will now have two international sides - the World 18 and a Pacific Islands side, gives new impetus to those nations with smaller junior programs to put forward their young players.

It's likely that the nation providing the most to the World 18 will be South Africa, where a strongly supported program has nearly 20,000 juniors participating. But worldfootynews.com has had a chat to some of the other countries that would be chances to be represented - USA, Great Britain, China, Ireland, Canada, Japan and Sweden. At time of writing no response was received to our enquiries from some of the other obvious possible candidates in Denmark, Indonesia and Malaysia. In this first of two articles we talk to footy representatives from the United States, Great Britain and China.

A conference held in Zagreb in conjunction with the 2009 EU Cup last October set in motion long-awaited plans for the creation of an official governing body for Australian rules football in Europe. Chaired by Gerard Murphy of professional sports management consultancy firm Leading Teams, the meeting brought together representatives from a number of bodies across Europe and saw a proposal put to the AFL. Murphy's facilitation role was first established early in 2009, see AFL appoints Europe consultant.

AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis tells WFN, "We had a very productive meeting in Zagreb and with the help of Gerard covered a lot of ground and came to agreement on a lot of terms."

"One of them is to have a follow up meeting to formally establish a European Australian Football Association. The meeting will be held in Frankfurt on the 23rd and 24th of January. The board will most likely comprise of 6 board members plus one chairman."

"Among the six board members will be three external members who are highly involved in professional sports. The three internal members will be representatives from different leagues in Europe and Gerard Murphy will be the chairman of the board. The aim is to work more structured, united and respectfully in Europe. The AFL wants to do their share and finance a full-time employee hired by the European body."

It is intended that the meeting in Frankfurt will see the formal establishment of the new body, along with more detailed information on the membership structure and its funding.

The AFLPNG have accepted an offer for the PNG National Senior side to compete in the Australian Football League Cairns pre-season competition.

AFLPNG's Scott Reid explains, "It is seen as a taster for the possibility that a PNG Senior team could play in Cairns like the Tiwi Islands team in the Northern Territory comp. This has been something we have discussed over several years but with the current buoyancy of the PNG economy and in particular the mining and resources sectors and the increased AFL interest in PNG footy it is more of a realistic possibility than in the past".

Cairns is in Far North Queensland (FNQ), "relatively" close to Port Moresby. Such a move would be the first time an international side has been a regular member of an Australian Football league. With the NT Thunder playing in AFL Queensland's top league (recall our article Thunder to rumble across the land for a map of the region), perhaps it is a forerunner to PNG one day having a team in that ever-improving competition.

Rugby League in PNG has been keen to enter a side in the NRL, Australia's national Rugby League competition. If that ever occurs it will be a massive step forward for that sport in PNG, so it is encouraging to see smaller but similar progress in Aussie Rules. But first up, we wish PNG all the best in a successful pre-season in Cairns.

While clubs across Australia are into their preseason training in temperatures that today in many places are above 40°C, much of Europe and North America are in the deep freeze. Embracing that cold this weekend were the Columbus Jackaroos. The chilling event was covered in the following report by Chet Ridenour.


Columbus, OH – After a week of the biggest and most consistent snow falls of the season, the Columbus Jackaroos were keen as mustard to lace up their boots (literally), and have a rumble in the white, wintry tundra. Emerging from their warmed cars, dressed in plenty of layers, leaving only their rosy red faces exposed – a stark contrast to the abundance of skin shown in traditional attire – they stumbled in for an 11 am Saturday morning match. With about six inches of untouched powder on the local Thomas Worthington High School football field, these blokes, dressed in red and blue would square off in perhaps one of the most fun traditions yet for this young club, the Second Annual SNOW BOWL.

After the staging of the Coca Cola National Talent Camp in Goroka from the 4th to the 6th of December 2009, the Coca Cola Binatangs Under 16 and Under 14 Touring teams have been selected for the 2010 AFL Queensland Championships.

The Coca Cola National Talent camp brings together 120 of the best AFL playing Kids in the country between the ages of 13 and 18 each year and the 2009 crop lived up to some high expectations.

A real testament of the Coca Cola backed Talent Path Program’s exceptional player development ability was the interest shown by AFL Club Recruitment officers who attended.

We have regularly provided an annual summary of Australian football's international progress. Since beginning this website in 2004 we have had the good fortune to be able to report that each year has been an improvement on the last. Perhaps a day will come when this is no longer the case, and certainly throughout the 20th century the sport's expansion had its peaks and troughs, its false dawns.

Yet we are clearly seeing a run of good news, with growing playing numbers and quality. Even just focussing on the last two years, 2008 saw a record number of teams at the International Cup, including bringing in China and India, the two nations that represent over a third of the world's population. The tournament was at its highest standard ever come the finals, justifying the new International Scholarship Lists which were made easier for clubs to use. AFL clubs also began looking more closely at Samoa and Fiji. Other highlights included continued progress in South Africa, France, England and Canada (amongst others), a NAB Cup match in Dubai, commencement of work on an oval in Tianjin (China), and domestically the AFL bullish towards expansion into the Gold Coast and Western Sydney.

So how could 2009 top that? And what chance for 2010 to continue the trend?

As the new year begins we present below the club premiers and provincial champions from across the world of Australian football for 2009. This is the fourth year in a row that we've compiled the list (see Club Premiers 2006, Club Premiers 2007 and Club Premiers 2008).

It was a year that once again saw powerhouse clubs dominate some leagues. At Australian state league level, former strugglers Central Districts made it an incredible 8 out of the last 10 in the SANFL in South Australia (well deserved but perhaps becoming an unhealthy dominance for the league).

The West London stranglehold on London premierships was loosened, with the Shepherds Bush Raiders finally losing their grip on London's Conference, going down to the Clapham Demons. But West London's Wildcats racked up their 6th straight London Premiership title, maintaining the club's run of silverware.

North Beach won their sixth straight in the WAAFL (Western Australian amateurs) A grade and the Goodwood Saints won their fifth straight in the SAAFL (South Australian amateurs) A grade and the Logan Cobras made it four in a row in Brisbane's women's league

Three-peats went to Rheinland in Germany's top division, and the same for the Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Premier Division and the Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs in Wellington.

Australian rules football may be expanding internationally at an ever increasing rate, yet in most countries where amateur clubs and leagues exist, footy is still struggling to get a foothold at university level.

At universities in the United Kingdom if a student wants there to be a new sports team, it is up to the student to create it. With this in mind, Tim Smith has penned the following article, based on his experiences founding the Birmingham University Sharks with some tips and pointers for others in the same position.

WFN has now completed its Country Snapshots section for Oceania, the Middle East and North, Central and South America. They are available from the pulldown menu above titled Countries, and add to the previously completed section on Africa.

Over the coming months we hope to do the last two regions - Europe and Asia.

As always, let us know if there are any significant errors or omissions.

Dozing off watching an agonisingly slow session of Australia v Pakistan Test cricket, one wonders (although some of the best cricket still comes from Test matches) where would cricket be today without the money, participation and new fans brought to the game since the 1970s World Series Cricket revolution championed the one-day match format.

In an increasingly time and space poor world, most team games have their smaller or shortened versions which encourage wider participation and are used to promote those sports in new markets. In comparison Australian Football, the big game on a big field, has been slow to embrace smaller formats.

One Australian Football enthusiast behind a stall at the University of Birmingham Sports Fair last September has led to the establishment of the United Kingdom's fourth active university-based club. The University of Birmingham Sharks now boast a squad of 22 players, ready to take on the other university sides and local senior UK teams in fixtures throughout the spring.