World Footy News

After much discussion and speculation over the past twelve months, the Danish AFL and AFL Sweden have announced that they are preparing to host Europe's first full-scale, all-local International Championship series in the Øresund Region of Denmark and Scania.

AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis stated in correspondence to European league committees during the past week that the tournament will be played under IC eligibility rules, meaning all local players, with each team playing four full-length 16-a-side matches over the week from July 31st to August 8th next year.

Assuming that eight European nations are able to mount a squad on the required scale, the teams are to be separated into two divisions of four sides, one division playing its matches in the Copenhagen area, the other over the bridge in Sweden.

The Scottish Australian Rules Football League this year has bounced back in a big way after a few tough seasons, 2009 being the first time in four years for the home and away series to be completed without any matches being forfeited.

The year began with the consolidation of the Glasgow and Edinburgh sides to one team in each city, joined by newcomers the Aberdeen Dingoes from the east coast. The three clubs now having a total of 65 active players, with plans for further clubs in Stirling, Dundee and Perth.

SARFL board member Douglas Hunter had a chat with World Footy News about the league's progress, future expansion plans and junior development.

The Adelaide Crows recruiting manager, Matt Rendell, recently returned home after watching the conclusion of the 2009 NAB Under 18 Championships. Rendell had two very dramatic predictions, one of which could rock the AFL and both of which should have positive ramifications for international Australian football.

His teammates nicknamed him Bobby because they didn't know how to pronounce his name, but Alipate Carlile is keen to make sure it's his football skills and not his unusual name that makes headlines.

Carlile is a cousin of fellow Port Adelaide footballer David Rodan. Born in Fiji, he moved to Country Victoria as a youngster and took up football, eventually being selected with pick 44 by Port Adelaide in the 2005 draft. He's now a regular in the team and was recently featured in an article in Adelaide Now. "Alipate Carlile happy with earfuls, but not bagfuls," mentions his impressive season, a bit about his childhood and background, and his aspirations (along with Rodan) to start a football league in Fiji. Carlile sees great potential for Fijians playing the Australian game as, "Fijians seem taller than the Irish, are closer and have a more intimate knowledge of the game."

Other footballers in the AFL of Fijian extract include Naitanui of West Coast (born in Sydney to Fijian parents) and Setanta Ó hAilpín (half Rotuman - one of Fiji's indigenous ethnic groups).

The Scottish Australian Rules Football League will this weekend hold national team trials in the city of Stirling, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The session is intended both to help efforts to create a team based around the town's university, and also to choose the Scottish Puffins squad for this year's EU Cup in Croatia.

Local newspaper the Stirling Observer reported in Aussie rules at the University that; "AFTER a build up of six years in Scotland, Australian Rules Football is finally coming to Stirling.

In 2003 Scotland's first Aussie Rules football teams were launched simultaneously in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the sport quickly gained popularity in the cities.

For a period of time each city had two competing teams and these have since been consolidated to form the Edinburgh Bloods and the Glasgow Sharks. In 2009 Aberdeen launched the Aberdeen Dingoes.

On Saturday, August 22 at 2pm, the Scottish national team will be training at Stirling University and will also be selecting new players for the Scotland team on the day. All interested players are invited along to get involved in the sport, learn more, or join the team currently being formed in Stirling."

For more information visit the Scottish ARFL website.

First there was "GC17" now there's "Team GWS" as the campaign name for the AFL's proposed 18th football club. The branding has been unveiled this evening at a function held by the AFL, at Swans vs. Geelong game at ANZ Stadium.Launched by the AFL’s Chief Executive officer Andrew Demetriou, the unveiling marks the next stage of the AFL’s expansion plans, designed to engage the community and businesses of Greater Western Sydney in the campaign for a new team.

“The launch of Team GWS is one of the first steps in the journey towards the development of the identity of the football team,” Mr. Demetriou said. “As this campaign takes shape, we are encouraging the fourteen diverse communities of Greater Western Sydney to join Team GWS and be a part of history. Team GWS is a team we can all be proud of, and be part of, based on unity and inclusion.

The US Women Freedom team today ended the playing part of their tour down under with a narrow loss to the VWFL team. On a cold blowy Saturday afternoon the Freedom failed to capitalise on some good movement into the forward line on many occaisions.

The Freedom came out on fire continually driving the ball forward with a handy breeze. Poor kicking though saw them fail to capitalise fully with 2.5 on the scoreboard while the shellshocked VWFL was scoreless. Sarbarker and Harrington being the Freedoms goalkickers.

The second quarter proved the value of the breeze and how well the two sides were matched when this was almost reversed and the VWFL kicked 2.5 to the Freedom's two points.

The Norway Polar Bears, or "Isbjørnene" in Norwegian, will take the field for the first time ever on October 3rd, traveling to the city of Karlstad in Western Sweden for a full 18-a-side Test match against the Swedish Elks.

The Polar Bears are aiming for at least 50% Norwegian players in the team, as well as to include representatives from all three Norwegian clubs - Oslo, Ås and Tromsø.

The Elks for their part are selecting Team Sweden under IC rules, with AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis tipping the side to be very similar in composition to the Elks squad that visited Melbourne last year.

The following is an extract from The Bendigo Advertiser

Coached by Kangaroo Flat’s senior coach, Darryl Wilson, Bendigo won 8.4 (52) to 3.2 (20) before a crowd of more than 1500 as the Freedom marked the third match of its first tour to Australia. Although it had just a couple of training runs before the historic clash, Bendigo’s squad dominated the first half.

As reported in a previous article, Liam Ackland traveled to Adelaide from Auckland to trial in an SANFL Under 18 game for the Glenelg Tigers against the Central Districts Bulldogs on Saturday 25th July.

Not the usual World Footy News - but until we get the World Footy Classifieds together, we have the following offer from Munich Roos coach David Mudge:

Does anyone have a spare set of footy jumpers they are willing to swap for a set of North Melbourne Kangaroos (blue & white) jumpers?

I am coach of the Munich Kangaroos and this season we invested in some shiny new jumpers. Therefore we have our old jumpers lying around doing nothing. If only they were a different colour, I could use them for internal practice games and trainings. Therefore I thought if one of you is in the same situation of having two sets of jumpers, we could swap a set and both clubs end up with a set of training jumpers, or a set of jumpers for starting a new team.

Let me know if you know of anyone who could be interested. If it works out, we could do the swap at the EU Cup in Samobor.

Any takers, leave a message on this story and we will pass it on to Dave Mudge and the Roos.

The Asian Championships is the goal of all teams in the Asian region. Being played in tropical conditions, subject to vagaries of weather and in a lightning premiership type format, the day is a true test of stamina, team management and above all, depth.

Yet, for all the elements of luck that can play a part with the draw, with injuries and other factors, usually the best side wins.

Whilst many internationals are played during the year, and nearly all clubs have some sort of intra-club domestic competition, like racehorses aiming at the Melbourne Cup, it is the Asian Championships that all conditioning is aimed towards.

This year is the 10th edition of the Championships - Hong Kong and Singapore have won 3 each, Indonesia (as a combined Jakarta-Bali side many years ago) 2, and Dubai 1.

Coinncidentally it is the 10th year of the Malaysian Warriors Football Club and they will be hosting the Championships on Saturday, 5th September at the Royal Selangor Polo Club, situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.