World Footy News

The Women’s USAFL team have been on tour in Australia since August 7th and so far have played two tough matches, going down in both but losing no respect along the way. The first match was against a team of first year players in the current Sydney Women’s AFL (SWAFL).

An accumulation of effort between SWAFL and US Footy saw the first ever match between a rookie representative side from the Australians and the US Freedom Team. The Americans had arrived missing two players due to a lost passport at LAX, but with some handy-work and cooperation of the taxi industry - the Freedom recovered their two players in time for the main event.

Australian actor Eric Bana appeared on US comedian and tonight show host Jimmy Fallon's show and promoted the game of Aussie Rules - attempting to teach Fallon some of the finer points. He then gave VB, St Kilda and AFL Grand Final a good plug. A good year to be a Saints fan.

You can watch the video here.

Freedom Coach Wayne Kraska gives us the genesis of the current tour and US Women's footy.

In 2005 after a group of players had been gathered together to play an exhibition game at the Atlanta USAFL National Championships it was suggested that a women’s team in Atlanta would be a good addition for the Atlanta Kookaburras as a club. Being the President of the club at the time there appeared no one really interested in taking on the role to coach this team, so after separating myself from the coaching ranks of the men's team, it was left to yours truly. After our first training session at Scott Nathaniel Park in Decatur, Georgia, I was contacted by Kathryn Hogg who along with a few others had been the driving force behind the trial games in Atlanta in 2004 and the year before in Kansas City.

The following is Essendon's media release on Meli's signing.

Essendon has signed exciting Papua New Guinea prospect David Meli. The 178cm, 76kg small forward is the second International player ever signed by the Bombers (after Irishman Michael Quinn at the end of 2008) and the first player signed by the club under the AFL's International rookie system.

The 16-year-old PNG resident (he turns 17 in September) is currently living on the Gold Coast to further his football career. He is expected to begin training at Windy Hill in November.

On Saturday August 1, the small town of Mason Ohio played host to the 2009 49th Parallel Cup, an annual event that matches the USA National Australian Rules Football Team, “Revolution” up against “Northwind”, the Canadian National Australian Rules Football team. The 49th Parallel is the average latitude that marks the border between the US and Canada. It was a football match that eventual saw the US Revolution victorious by 8 goals and leaving the Northwnd think tank scratching their heads on what had possibly gone wrong for football in Canada on that one beautiful August day in the small town Mason.

On a day where bigger issues overwhelmed the football, the Vietnam Swans defeated the Laos Elephants by 4 points in a important warm-up game for the upcoming Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur.

Craig Senger had been a player with the Jakarta Bintangs Football Club and tragically lost his life in the recent Jakarta bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels.

Prior to the match, the Australian Ambassador, the Deputy / Minister Counsellor from the Indonesian Embassy and Dave Kainey (“Official Legend” of the Jakarta Bintangs and former Swans President) addressed all players and spectators. A minute's silence was observed.

The Chippendham Redbacks entered the ARUK Southern league in 2008, winning only one match in their debut season. In a remarkable transformation, the Redbacks lost only one match this year, last weekend defeating the Bournemouth Demons to win their first-ever Southern Premiership.

This report courtesy of the Chippenham Redbacks.

In breaking news AFL club Essendon have international rookie listed Papua New Guinea's David Meli. The future AFL club, the Gold Coast, listed Amua Pirika and Stanis Susuve in firsts for the game, but the listing of Meli is perhaps an even more significant step forward.

We've followed the rise of Meli from being an emergency for the Mosquitoes 2008 International Cup squad through to his performances for the Queensland under 16s (see Meli to the fore for Scorpions) and the Southport Sharks, as one of the wave of PNG players on scholarships in the Sunshine state. High hopes were held that he would be drafted, and in fact it could be argued AFL clubs were slow to take what is almost a "free hit" outside the draft.

More on David Meli's recruitment soon.

The nine Irish players involved in the Australian Football League have enjoyed mixed fortunes this season with some players making huge strides forward while others appear to have slipped down the pecking order at their clubs. Pictured is Essendon's 2009 debutant Michael Quinn.

On 7th August, 1858 Melbourne Grammar played Scotch College in Richmond Park in what is generally regarded as the first official Australian football match ever played.

On 8th August, 2009, 151 years later, almost to the day, history was created when the under-18 St John’s School Malaysian Warriors took on the Australian International School Malaysia and scored a meritorious victory, winning 17.6.108 to 5.6.36.

This will become the day every year that future Malaysian teams commemorate the first game of Australian Rules Football played, and won, by a team of indigenous Malaysians.

The Pearl River delta region in southern China is famous for two small territories controlled by Europeans until very recently. The larger city of Hong Kong was administered by the British until the closing years of the twentieth century, whilst across the bay the Portuguese maintained their outpost of Macau.

Macau is a small, densely-populated city of about half a million inhabitants, best-known for being the Las Vegas of Asia.

The Hong Kong Dragons have been playing footy since the early 1990s, with a long history of being a power in the Asian footy scene. In Macau however, the presence of Australian rules was restricted to the occasional locally-based player commuting across the water to play in Hong Kong.

This year, this is set to change with the beginnings of Auskick and school footy in Macau.

As many would know Australian rules footy has been played in New Zealand for over a century. The Great Depression eventually caused the first incarnation of the game to flounder and die out in the early 20th century. In the early-to-mid-70s the Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington competitions were re-established. This decade has seen the emergence of the Waikato League and a football presence again in Dunedin, Otago.

Over 2 articles we'll look at the 5 AFL New Zealand centres - WFN thanks the Auckland, Otago and Waikato centres for their information.