World Footy News

On March 21st of this year, the revamped Harmony Cup will see the first-ever Team Albania take the field at the Whitten Oval, promising to bring a big supporter base from the Victorian Albanian community and featuring a few high-profile names on the field.

So far, only one player of an Albanian background has so far played in the AFL, with Adem Yze's celebrated career with the Demons spanning more than a decade, however at a suburban and country footy level there have been plenty of Albanian champions come through the ranks. Adem has confirmed for the Harmony Cup side, as have his brothers Damien and Ramadan who are local footy stars in the Goulburn Valley, and the Albanians are confident of their chances.

Adam Lika from Team Albania spoke to WFN about the side's preparation.

The Flying Boomerangs depart Australia today for the third such tour of South Africa and their fifth international series overall. Twenty five Indigenous teenagers will spend two weeks in the country, conducting clinics, experiencing the culture and playing a match against each of the two South African primary development squads - the Inland and Coastal teams as discussed in Lions name elite training squads.

The youth Indigenous Australian squad is the same concept that travelled to South Africa in 2006 and 2008 and hosted a return visit from the South Africans in 2007. Each tour has seen three matches played and so far the Indigenous Aussies are undefeated against that country. However in 2009 when they toured Papua New Guinea the two matches were split. They'll again have their work cut out for them as the South Africans rapidly improve and contain both youth and experienced senior players, although the Inland/Coastal split will obviously reduce their strength. It should be a good test for all the teams involved and great practice for the new development structure being used by AFL South Africa. The Australian players’ selection follows their attendance at the Qantas AFL KickStart Camp in Melbourne last August.

The 2010 Flying Boomerangs squad will be joined by recently retired AFL players Michael O’Loughlin (Boomerangs coach), Chris Johnson (assistant coach) and Malcolm Lynch.

With the announcement that there will be separate World XVIII and Pacific teams for the AFL NAB Under 16s this year, and given the initial Pacific squad following the Youth Oceania Cup featured no Papuans (who were unable to make it to the tournament in Fiji), there have been some queries as to whether Papua New Guinea players will represent the World XVIII, the Pacific team, continue to be eligible for Queensland as in the past, or none of the above.

Andrew Cadzow, whose official title these days is AFL Asia Pacific Development Manager, clarified that "The PNG boys targeted will be 17/18 years of age for the Under 18 Pacific Team".

So as we'd previously assumed, PNG players will be added to the initial Pacific Team that was listed. As the international sides are able to field older players than the Australian state squads, it would be reasonable to assume that younger Papuans who may be coming through the Queensland representative teams would still be eligible for that state, so hopefully we'll see one or two there as well. Pictured are some PNG's elite young Under 13 and Under 15 players.

Back in 2004 and 2005, teams from some of Melbourne's multicultural communities came together to take part in the Multicultural Cup, an Australian rules football lightning tournament organised by Aussie Rules International.

After a hiatus of four years, the tournament is back in 2010, renamed the Harmony Cup, featuring some new sides and planned for March 21st. Teams from the Greek, Italian and Lebanese communities are back onboard, along with Team Africa and Team Asia from the 2008 International Cup. Also planning to attend with a few players with International Cup are India, and newcomers Indonesia and Albania.

Team Indonesia - branding themselves the "Indo Footy Stars" - are being coordinated by Fawwaz Sungkar, who took some time to talk with WFN about the team's preparations.

While back in the US over the Christmas break in Collingwood's pre-season training, Shae McNamara appeared on breakfast television show "The Morning Blend" in Milwaukee. The host's reference to the Collingwood Mudpies is sure to upset a few fans of the Carringbush. Shae was very keen to see the sport promoted in the United States. A little free press on home soil is always welcomed by the USAFL and Shae comes across as a pretty good salesman.

The interview video can be watched here.

It seems the Brisbane Lions have developed a real appreciation of the prospects of international football players. This month Papuan Donald Barry, 21, began training with the Brisbane Lions as an international scholarship listed player. The Lions sat on the announcement for some time and worldfootynews.com was waiting for the official word before running a story. Brisbane has now gone public, and two younger PNG players have also been scholarship listed.

Barry left his family in Port Moresby to play for Manunda Hawks in Cairns in 2007, Coolangatta and the Lions reserves in 2008 and Mt Gravatt seniors in the strong AFL Queensland competition last year. After forcing his way into the Mt Gravatt side in Round 2, he played every game until he had to miss the grand final with a hamstring strain, with local media noting prior to the match that he would be missed.

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By all reports the inaugural Australian football Oceania Youth Cup in Fiji was a great success, with Tonga the surprise winners, see Tonga the champions in rollercoaster day.

Now thanks to AFL Fiji we have a pictorial story of the work behind the scenes and some of the on-field action. In particular thanks to Damian Ames, Robert Wolfgramm, Max Wolfgramm and Alea Williams, the latter two for the photos you will find in our album.

As Fiji battened down for Cyclone Mick, we were honoured to host this inaugural international event. Thank you and congratulations to AFL Asia-Pacific’s Andrew Cadzow and his staff for making it so. We held it at Cathedral Secondary School Grounds in Suva. Teams from Nauru, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji competed. Pre-cyclonic windy drizzle couldn't dampen their good will and desire to succeed.

Joining the various team staff, umpires, local supporters and diplomats in braving the Melbourne-like elements (minus the cold) were a number of AFL club recruiting personnel assessing the potential on display. AFL representative, Jason McCartney, was special guest for the occasion. By all reports, our visitors were impressed with the staging of the tournament, if not the weather.

Sudip Chakraborty was a member of the Indian Team at the 2008 International Cup. He has been assisting Darren Ross draw up plans for the soon-to-be-officially-relaunched AFL India.

Unfortunately registration of the organisation is a drawn out process, and is still several weeks away. But that hasn’t stopped Chakraborty promoting the sport in the meantime.

In this second article on the World 18, we speak to Ireland, Sweden and Canada about the likelihood of their Leagues contributing players to the international side headed to the AFL Under 16s later this year. The squad will probably be announced in March, and separate to a Pacific Islands squad also competing. As international players will in general have had less exposure to the sport, the two international sides can field players up to 18 years and will compete in Division 2, but nevertheless under the watchful eye of AFL club talent scouts.

See also our poll.

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.