World Footy News

There were a few international connections on Grand Final day for the 2009 AFL season. Once upon a time it was difficult to find any.

Alas for St Kilda's Irish recruit, Colm Begley, the story of his year continued, unable to break into the powerful Saints side for the Grand Final. Nor could James Gwilt, of Papuan heritage.

The day was supposed to allow the finalists of the national Under 16s competition to play on the MCG, but the bad weather saw a late decision to move both divisions to Visy Park. Papua New Guinea's David Meli (pictured), international scholarship listed by Essendon, play well for Queensland in their win over NSW. He was mentioned in a match report as being amongst the best, although not in the match report best players.

Later in the day Canadian Mike Pyke represented Sydney in the traditional half-time sprint and it promised to be intriguing to see how well the big man could run. Sadly he slipped at the starters gun, never recovered and soon disappeared from view. We'll never know how he would have gone - maybe next year.

Of course plenty of Scandinavian viewers would have been happy with the result of the big match, with a long association now between Geelong and the Danish league (in particular through Cats star Jimmy Bartel, a visitor to several of the Scandinavian leagues).

The USAFL has announced the seedings for the 2009 National Championships to be held in Mason, Ohio with a record number of teams playing this year. The seeding Committee has finalized the seeding pools for almost all divisions, with Division IV and the women's division still requiring some final revisions (added when available).

As always, this has been a difficult task, especially given the complexity inherent in a national competition (e.g., trying to compare teams that never played each other during the season, or did not play many or any games during the season). The goal of the seedings is to promote a lively and balanced competition based on the information available. The nature of this task is inherently imperfect, and although we know this subject could be fodder for endless debate, we assure you that we have done our best.

The seedings and some rationale behid them can be viewed below.

Port Adelaide AFL professional, Suva-born David Rodan, and his fiancée, Carla Di Pasquale recently travelled to Suva, Fiji, to promote the code and talk through the aims and objectives of the game they hope will bring the youth of Fiji into Aussie Rules football.

Rodan and Pasquale plan, with the assistance of Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs football clubs, to run clinics at schools around the country, aimed predominantly at 14-15 year old boys. The footy clinics are planned for once a week in schools, taking on up to 90 kids per session.

WFN have previously had a detailed look at 3 of the competitions in NZ - Auckland, Otago and Waikato. Here is a brief synopsis of the Canterbury Australian Football League based in Christchurch on the South Island.

The Geelong Football Club has secured its second flag in three years with a thrilling come from behind victory over the devastated St Kilda Football Club, which was gallant all day after being the dominant team of 2009. The final margin of 12 points didn't reflect the pulsating final minutes when there was nothing between the sides.

In what would come as a shock to most, Irishman Martin Clarke has decided not to pursue a new playing contract and return to his homeland after three seasons with Collingwood. Clarke, who turns 22 in November, played 46 AFL games with the Magpies after he came to Collingwood at the end of 2006 from County Down on a two-year international rookie contract.

He made his rapid ascent to senior AFL football with his debut in round 12, 2007 against Sydney after being temporarily elevated to the senior list due to a long-term injury, and earned a permanent spot on the senior list for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Clarke’s last AFL game was against Sydney in round 12 this year, and he was named as an emergency for the preliminary final against Geelong.

He will return to Ireland to study teaching and be with his family.

The 2009 Australian Football League Grand Final will be played between two of the most dominant teams in recent memory. St Kilda finished the minor round with 20 wins and 2 narrow losses. Geelong will be playing in their third Grand Final in a row and have an imperious record over 2007-2009. The football public await an intense battle of the sort seen in 2005 and 2006 when Sydney and West Coast battled out thrillingly tight contests.

However, the result doesn't always live up to the hype as one side cracks under the weight of expectation, but in terms of season form these are the two power sides of 2009 and the odds are good for a classic match. And despite it often being said that Grand Finals regularly have blow outs, out of the last 12 AFL Grand Finals only 4 have been decided by 40 points or more, with 3 being by 10 points or less.

In worldfootynews.com's third preview of teams for the 2009 EU Cup, we spoke with coach of the England Dragonslayers (and new assistant coach of the GB Bulldogs) Robert Fielder about their preparations for defending the title, as well as Juan Martin and Antonio Avila in Spain and Doug Pate in Andorra about their respective teams.

Footy in the Madrid area took an important next step this year with the creation of a second team and the commencement of a local league. The Andorrans completed their debut season in the Catalan league and will be keen to make a good impression in their first EU Cup appearance.

In other EU Cup news, team Catalonia have announced their withdrawal due to financial difficulties, meaning organisers are currently looking at 14 national sides, plus the EU Crusaders to be confirmed. A finalised draw will be available soon.

Our final preview, covering the Irish Exiles, Germany and the Netherlands, will be on WFN soon.

Whether you are a Cats fan wanting to see them make it two out of three, a Saints tragic wanting to see them break the long and painful drought or a neutral just wanting to watch the big game, finding somewhere to watch it when you are overseas is not always an easy task. Once again World Footy News is proud to present you with a wide list of venues to watch the 2009 AFL Grand Final around the world. Feel free to add any venues that are not listed below in the comments section and we will add them to the main list.

Please note: The information is entered here in good faith. worldfootynews.com is not responsible for any incorrect information posted to this story. Wherever possible attempt to check ahead to make sure the party you are planning on attending is still going ahead and has room for you. There have been cases of sell outs and late changes e.g. when a venue could not secure a telecast.

AFL Britain has named a new Head Coach and Assistant Coach for the Great Britain Bulldogs, to prepare for and contest the upcoming International Cup in 2011 and beyond. Since the initial event in 2002, the Bulldogs have developed steadily and have been recognised as one of the stronger European teams and equal 9th in the world according to the 2008 World Footy News rankings. Now the new coaching pair have the task of taking the squad to the next level, to compete with the increasingly professional approach apparent in such teams as Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and South Africa.

In perhaps a good omen for the St Kilda Football Club ahead of this year's AFL Grand Final, the West Coast Saints have taken out the 2009 British Columbia premiership in Canada's west. The following report is courtesy of Myk Aussie.

What a great summer weather drive it was for me from Calgary to Vancouver especially to watch the NWPAFL Grand Final. The North West Pacific AFL competition also known as BC Footy is now a 5 team league and rapidly growing competition in British Columbia, Canada. The Grand Final was between the undefeated Burnaby Eagles coached by Matthew Bell and the West Coast Saints coached by Ward Frost. Neither of these sides had won a premiership. The UBC Fields were in great condition and I was gladly surprised at the excellent crowd in attendance eagerly waiting for the start of the Grand Final (one report put it at around 300 people).

Round two of the Japan AFL season has been (mostly) played and won, with another emphatic win to the Tokyo Goannas, who after only two rounds, are already looking like favourites for the flag.

The Goannas started the round with a 108 point victory, their 15th in succession since 2007, over the Komazawa Magpies in Chiba.

The reigning premiers booted 5.4 to nothing in the first quarter on the way to an 18.22 (130) to 3.4 (22) demolition job. Although led tenaciously in the ruck by Tanaka, the Magpies had no answer to the ball-winning ability of the Goannas midfielders, Wilson and Jones especially prominent.

At Shinshiro Sogo Park, accuracy in front of goal gave the Nagoya Redbacks a tough win over the Tokyo Leopards.

The Leopards came out all guns blazing, dominating the first quarter 6.4 to 2.0 For the rest of the game, however, inaccuracy in front of goal cost Tokyo dearly. At half-time they had 15 scoring shots to 6, but the margin was only 14 points. As the saying goes, poor kicking is poor football, and the Redbacks came to life in the second half, running out 14.7 (91) to 9.14 (68) victors in a hard fought affair.

The Osaka Dingoes - Senshu Powers game will be played in October.