World Footy News

Over the last weekend of October, the Victorian Amateurs Under 18 Representative side went on the footy trip of their lifetime - off to Auckland to play the New Zealand Falcon under 20s. Though there would be a significant age disparity in the Falcons' favour, the Victorians were tipped to have the edge in skill level.

Despite a concerted effort from the New Zealand AFL, Aussie Rules remains far from a mainstream sport and many of the Junior Falcons would lack real understanding of the game, though it is likely they would have a high level of natural ball skills.

The young Ammos went on to win the series 2-zip, though it would be very fair to say the New Zealanders would be pleased with their efforts.

Game 1

VAFA Under 18s	8.11 (59)
NZ Falcons Under 20s	5.6 (36)

Game 2

VAFA Under 18s	16.11 (107)
NZ Falcons Under 20s	12.12 (84)

For a related story profiling some of the young Victorians ready to embark on their trip, read Snowdog's Pups to take on New Zealand.

The post AFL-season trade period has seen plenty of footballers change clubs this year, with international footy followers noticing a few ups and downs in the fortunes of Irish imports.

Irishman Colm Begley has elected to return to the Emerald Isle, after breaking into St Kilda's senior team only once this season. Begley moved to the Saints at the end of 2008, after playing 29 games with the Brisbane Lions over three years, starting in 2006.

Also delisted by St Kilda was Khan Haretuku, a Sydneysider drafted as a NSW rookie by the Saints last year, of Pacific Islander descent via New Zealand.

Fellow New Zealander Adam Campbell was delisted by the Fremantle Dockers, after managing just 13 senior games over the past four seasons. Campbell was born in Christchurch, moving to Australia at age 16 and making very quick progress after taking up the Australian game.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, Swans coach Paul Roos has told the media he is not putting any pressure on Tadhg Kennelly to return to the club, after recent speculation the Irish superstar was considering a return to the AFL. Kennelly has told Irish media his brain was "fried" over the decision of which football code to play in 2010.

Melbourne's The Age newspaper today ran a substantial article on European footy, including interviews with Australian Football League Germany president Malte Schudlich, and fellow German Jörg Pareigis, president of the AFL Sweden.

Topics covered include the relationship between European clubs and the AFL, the International Cup, and moves in Germany for the AFLG to join the German American Football community as an umbrella organisation (a move that would give the AFLG greater government recognition, without actually switching to gridiron).

The full article can be read at Against the odds, oval ball bounces into Europe.

The Montpellier Fire Sharks recently achieved the first appearance of a French Australian rules football club on national television, with a report on the club appearing on l'Equipe TV on October 23rd.

The Fire Sharks also got some media coverage with their visit to the Seaquarium Grau de Roi for the launch of European Shark Week, an initiative starting this year hoping to save shark populations in Europe's seas.

As a further tie-in to the Shark Week charity, the Montpellerains are looking at hosting a future Sharks tournament, where the club would play other 'Sharks' sides from around the world - such as Glasgow or Birmingham Uni from the UK, or even any of the many Australian clubs with that name who want to make the trip.

Despite mixed results lately AFL sides are continuing the Irish experiment by signing up and trialling several new youngsters in advance of the November deadline for finalising lists. Recent headlines have been dominated by the news of Irish players turning their backs on the Australian game to return home but clubs are continuing to take a punt on the chance of finding a new Kennelly or Stynes.

Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun this morning reported that AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has raised the prospect of the next stage of expansion to include clubs in Tasmania and either North Queensland or a third Western Australian AFL club.

Speaking at a Latrobe University alumni function last night, Demetriou said "if we were to have another team down the track you would have to say that Tasmania is the logical place for that team to be - and we have expressed that view to the Tasmanian Government."

"Beyond that, if we were to go to 20 teams and who knows, that may or may not happen, you'd have to think it wouldn't be a team in Melbourne because we've got 10."

"But a place like Western Australia, which is a booming state, or even northern Queensland, are the two places that have some attraction."

While the prospect of an AFL club in Tasmania, a state with a relatively small but traditionally footy-mad population, is sure to please many football fans, a move to 20 clubs anytime in the future has raised discussion of how far the talent pool can be stretched.

For international footy followers, more clubs could potentially open the way for more recruitment of non-Australian based talent. A North Queensland club, based in Townsville or Cairns, could be ideally located for tapping into the growing footy community in PNG and the Pacific Islands, with Cairns having already played host to a match between a young Oceania side and a Queensland representative team earlier this year.

For more, visit the original article Tassie gets a guernsey in Demetriou's vision for the future.

The newly-formed AFL Italia has received some attention from the local media since the Azzurris' debut EU Cup appearance, with some positive coverage on Italian TV available via the group's YouTube channel YouTube.com/user/FootyItalia.

The AFL Italia has also created plenty of interest back in Melbourne, where the sizable Italian community has produced plenty of VFL and AFL stars over the years.

Next on the calendar for the Azzurris will be a friendly against German club the Frankfurt Redbacks in Milan on November 7th.

Photo courtesy of AFL Italia.

Former Sydney Swan Tadhg Kennelly has been given an All-Star award in just his first season as a senior footballer having helped his native Kerry win a record 36th All Ireland triumph. The Awards are the equivalent of the All Australian team of the year. Kennelly was named in the All-Star team at left half forward and sees him emulate his late father who twice received the award in 1979 and ’80. Cork’s Michael Shields, once on the books of Carlton, was named at full back in the team.

The AFL Fiji was officially launched last Friday, with AFL Oceania Development Manager Andrew Cadzow telling the local press that he predicted the Fijians had the potential to be a top ten finisher in the 2011 International Cup.

In an interview in the Fiji Times, Cadzow said "In the last International Cup, 16 countries participated and come 2011 tournament 24 countries are set to take part. There is no doubt whatsoever on Fiji to make the top 10 countries by then."

"This region (Oceania) is a magnificent region for this sport. We are looking at 10,000 people playing the sport in next 18 months... Currently, the Oceania region has a very low participation in the sport but we will see amazing statistics in next three years."

"We will have the Fiji U16 squad (for the Oceania Cup later this year) selected on Monday. We couldn't get players from the whole of Fiji but definitely we will expand our search throughout the country by next year."

"We will also have a national senior squad by next year. We are really excited about the development of the sport."

Western Bulldog hopefuls Solomoni Loki and Inoke Ratu also rated a mention in the local media this weekend, with an article entitled Local AFL hopefuls told to improve kicking game detailing their struggles with the Australian game's unique skill set.

On April 20th this year Australian Navy frigates the HMAS Sydney and HMAS Ballarat set sail for a world tour which included a July stop on the United States northeast coast. The trip was for several reasons including taking part in operation Northern Trident. It wasn't all wargames and the Aussie sailors combined forces to take on one of the top USAFL sides, the Baltimore-Washington Eagles. Both men's and women's matches were played. In the men's, the match-fit Americans proved to be too strong, winning Eagles 16.9 (105) to HMAS Sydney / Ballarat 10.2 (62).

A gallery of the day can be seen on the Australian Navy website.

An interesting article in the Irish Times notes the absence of the International Rules series this northern autumn and how it has left a hole in the GAA calendar. The AFL pulling out of this year's planned series, despite it being the GAA's 125th anniversary year, came as a shock in the emerald isle. In the article Sean Moran goes on to analyse the reasons and implications, including how as the game "softened" in attempts to rein in the perceived over physicality of the Aussies, maintaining AFL fans' interest became more difficult.

Nonetheless as WFN stories show, IR matches continue to tick over at women's, masters' and amateur club level around the globe. And the 2008 series seemed to come up with the best refinement of rules thus far for bringing out skillful, competitive play on both sides. Perhaps the hybrid is slowly fading or maybe it is simply lying dormant waiting for another northern autumn or southern spring for interest to bloom again?

Carlton today signed the 17 year old PNG speedster Peter Labi who is currently 189cm tall and weighs 84kg. Labi was a member of the PNG Mosquitoes that claimed the International Cup at the MCG in 2008 and in 2009 has been playing with AFLQ side Mt Gravatt after three years of football in PNG.

This season he has played 13 games for Mt Gravatt including three finals and playing on the losing side in their grand final loss to Morningside. He also played five games with the Brisbane Lions' reserves as a top-up player.