World Footy News

Five Irishmen have been picked up by AFL clubs in the pre-season rookie draft but Brian Moran was left disappointed after St Kilda decided against offering him a deal after a three week trial. All the signings were expected and have previously been reported by worldfootynews.com with Tommy Walsh joining the Saints, Chris McKaigue singing with the Sydney Swans, Carlton and the Brisbane Lions supplementing their Irish talent by signing Zac Tuohy and Niall McKeever respectively; and James O’Reilly becoming the first Irish recruit to join Richmond.

In another amazingly positive and unexpected move the Australian Football League has decided to field two international sides in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships in 2010, to be staged in western Sydney.

Originally a World side was to be selected to compete in Division Two of the tournament against Australian states and territories Queensland, NSW/ACT, Tasmania and Northern Territory, giving international youth an unprecedented chance to be exposed to AFL scouts and to compete at a higher level. The recently selected Oceania Training Squad was likely to fill most of the World spots, but the AFL has now decided to field both World and Pacific Islands teams.

The addition of the Pacific Islands team opens the door for many more juniors from around the world, with South Africa likely to dominate the World XVIII but presumably a number of spots up for grabs for players from other countries. The only downside is that the strength of the international teams will be less than a single side, making it that much more difficult to be competitive with the Aussie opposition.

Footage has been posted on Youtube of Carlton's international scholarship player Peter Labi. After earlier moving to Queensland to develop his game with Nambour, in 2009 the 17 year old Papuan went on to have a great season for Mt Gravatt in the main AFL Queensland league, and also played five games as a "top up" player for the Brisbane Lions reserves. Indigenous player, Mt Gravatt star and former Brisbane Lions premiership player Darryl White took Peter under his wing, as did the club's coach David Lake, no doubt fast tracking his rise to prominence. Labi moved down to Melbourne in the last few weeks to commence his first AFL pre-season.

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Plenty of goals from the young speedster, and a nice handball at 4:08.

In good news for the future encouragement of African immigrants to take up Aussie Rules, Sudanese born Majak Daw has been rookie listed by North Melbourne. After much hype during the year it looked like Daw was a good chance to be drafted in the full AFL Draft (see Majak day for Africa gets closer) however come the end of the day his name had not been read out.

Offering renewed encouragement was that both the Kangaroos and the Western Bulldogs invited him to train with their clubs leading up to the rookie draft, and North Melbourne duly selected him with their first selection (pick 9 overall). He fits in with North's recent efforts to integrate better with migrant communities, and they made it clear he was a project player.

Speaking of his local community, Daw said "They're very proud of me to be the first Sudanese," and "A lot of them are migrants, refugees, come from a war-torn country and don't expect this to happen. When something like this happens it really means a lot to them. It gives them a lot more confidence to sort of go out and be more involved in the community."

You can read more about Daw in North punts on touch of Majak. May he provide us all with corny headlines for many years to come.

Perennial champions, the University Blues, faced off against the ever improving Waitakere Magpies who are yet to achieve a flag since their formation in 1990.

The Blues, Premiers in the past decade 7 times (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007) had steam-rolled their way into the finals with a crashing win by 112 points over bottom of the table Takapuna Eagles in Round 10 before smashing usually tough competitors, the Mt Roskill Saints, by 181 points in the Second Semi Final to go straight through to the big one.

Women's Australian football is on the rise in Canada. It started as a co-ed programme in 2003, and then a school girls clinic in 2004 culminating in the first ever all-female footy match played in Canada. Now momentum is building for an epic rematch against the USA Freedom team.

After the first ever youth Oceania Cup Jason McCartney and scouts from four AFL clubs assisted to select an initial Oceania training squad.

"The standard, ability and attitude of the players was a highlight. No doubt they have great athletic capabilities and a real appetite and appreciation, even respect for this new game of AFL. They will be part of a very competitive World squad for 2010." McCartney said.

The Oceania Training Squad will no doubt contribute heavily to the World team that will compete in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships in Australia next year, something WFN will be hoping to follow up with the AFL in the coming weeks - we expect to see PNG players added, but will other nations feature besides obviously South Africa's young talent? The squad is:

Tonga is the shock winner of the inaugural AFL Oceania Cup for Under 16s. Going into the tournament PNG was favoured but pulled out with visa and flight issues, leaving New Zealand to carry favouritism.

After both Tonga and NZ went through Day One undefeated it looked like their first up clash on the Sunday morning would decide the winner, and it did, but not before more thrills.

In a gripping contest the Tongans defeated the Kiwis by just 6 points, only to be rolled by arch rivals Samoa later in the day. That left the door wide open for New Zealand to march through and claim the 2009 title. But a small matter of Nauru stood in their way, having also worked their way into a chance to snatch top spot on percentage. Bad kicking for goal and a gutsy contest from the smallest nation in the tournament saw the New Zealanders suffer a one point defeat, leaving Tonga top and the youth champions of Oceania (excluding Australia and to be fair, PNG) for 2009. Tonga's exciting victory was capped with an unexpected visit by their Prime Minister. Nauru's win slipped them into second and the Kiwis fell to third.

On the 22nd of November under lights on a very cold and wet evening, the Tokyo Goannas won their fourth consecutive Japan AFL Premiership, a remarkable achievement in a rapidly improving competition. The Goannas defeated the Eastern Hawks by 38 points in a dominant display of hard-running and relentless ball-pressure.

The Under 16 New Zealand Hawks accounted for both Samoa and Fiji on the first day of the Oceania Cup held in Suva Fiji this weekend. The Hawthorn scouts present would have been very pleased with their recent international scholarship signing, Kurt Heatherley, as he was named best for New Zealand in both games. The following is the Kiwi perspective of the day courtesy of Rob Vanstam, head of AFL New Zealand.

The Hawks' first match against Samoa was played at the Cathedral Gardens grounds right on the sea's edge on Suva's coastline.

A forty to fifty kilometre wind straight down the ground was a huge advantage for the New Zealand team in the first quarter and they went into the first change with a two goal lead. The Samoan team fought back strongly with three goals of their own to take a slight lead into the half time break.

The Hawks could not utilise the breeze as well as they would have liked in the third term and kicked only one goal to level the scores but leaving an up hill struggle in the final term with Samoa having a huge breeze at their advantage.

In the absence of Papua New Guinea (withdrew due to immigration and flight problems), New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga have emerged as the leaders after day one of the two day youth Oceania Cup in Suva, Fiji.

Day 1

NZ 5-3 (33) defeated Samoa 4-3 (27)
Tonga 2-9 (21) defeated Fiji 1-4 (10)
Nauru 4-1 (25) defeated Samoa 3-4 (22)
NZ 8-2 (50) defeated Fiji 2-7 (19)
Tonga 7-6 (48) defeated Nauru 1-3 (9)

A summary and photos of the day follow...

In a very disappointing result Papua New Guinea, red hot favourites for the youth Oceania Cup, have pulled out of the tournament.

Preliminary reports suggest that the withdrawal was a combination of immigration issues and a flight cancellation.

The good news is that scouts from Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton and the Brisbane Lions are in Suva for the tournament, although the loss of PNG and strong winds will no doubt reduce the quality on display.

The change should leave the door wide open for New Zealand to win the inaugural tournament. A new draw has been hastily arranged. Each team with play the other once, with the highest ranked side the winner (i.e. no finals).