World Footy News

The Ontario Australian Football League would like to announce the recent re-launch of their league website.

With a fresh new look and added multimedia experiences, the league is hoping the new enhancements attract local and international interest and assist with promoting Australian football on Canadian soil.

The league would like to thank previous web master, Salvatore Capoferri for all his hard work on the previous site, his volunteer work was greatly appreciated.

The league would also like to thank their newest Silver Sponsor: RM Communications for the development of the new site.

The new website can be visited at OAFL.ca.

The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) are sending their Under 18 age group representative team to Auckland in October to play the New Zealand Under 20 team in two matches over the NZ Labour Day weekend in Auckland.

The New Zealand Under 20’s team had initially been included in the Senior National Provincial Championships to be held at Parrs Park Auckland whilst confirmation of the Victorian side's touring availability was determined. With the amateur side's attendance confirmed, the Senior NPC will now revert to its normal format with the four regions Wellington, Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury contesting for senior honours.

The two matches between the New Zealand Under 20’s and the Victorian Amateur Under 18’s will take place in conjunction with the Senior NPC with the first game on Saturday October 24th at 2.00pm and the second match on Monday October 26th at noon.

The pool rounds of the NAB Australian Under 16's Championships have recently concluded. Queensland, substitute home to many promising Papua New Guinea footballers, had a fantastic tournament. The Scorpions (Queensland team) went undefeated through their three matches. Most of the pool games were played at the Blacktown Oval, the future home of the West Sydney team in the AFL. And looming as PNG's next big thing was talented youngster David Meli.

We are pleased that our good friends at AFANA announced this week that new leadership has stepped forward for day-to-day operations in the organization. This follows the retirement of Rob de Santos and Ann Solomon several months ago. Kimber Smith, AFANA's marketing and PR director, will be expanding her role and will join forces with Joe Fidler to provide interim leadership for AFANA. Kimber will head up management and marketing initiatives and Joe will coordinate operations.

"I am pleased that Kimber and Joe have stepped forward to provide interim leadership for AFANA,” said Rob. “I am sure they will provide exactly what AFANA needs to begin to move into a new era. I've promised that I will make myself available to provide counsel and technical support to them throughout the transition. After 14 years, it is time for me to seek new horizons and for AFANA to get newly invigorated leadership."

"We are committed to the organization's long-standing mission to promote viewership of Australian football in North America," said Kimber. "At the same time, we will be exploring different-yet-appropriate avenues to further support the mission and raise awareness and interest in the sport in the US and Canada."

Preparations for this year's EU Cup in Samobor, Croatia are well underway, with 12 sides having confirmed by the July 1st deadline. Aussie Rules Europe have capped the final squad number at 16 national teams.

Reportedly on the list so far for Europe's 9-a-side Championships are Central Europe's Austria, Czech Republic and hosts Croatia, in addition to fellow continental Europeans Spain, Catalonia, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.

From the British Isles, Scotland and the reigning champions England Dragonslayers have confirmed.

The most surprising announcement is the exciting news of a confirmation of attendance from Russia - a country so far unknown to the international footy scene. WFN will have some information on this development as soon as we know more!

It's still an open race who will fill the final four places, with previous champions Sweden not yet locked in, nor the Welsh who are still to make their EU Cup debut despite playing a number of tests against the Dragonslayers in recent times. The newer squads from Iceland and Norway have also indicated an interest in coming.

The usual EU Cup conference will this year feature a meeting with AFL Europe's Gerard Murphy. While this reporter is merely speculating about what is on the agenda, I'll be optimistic that this will see steps towards greater collaboration between all sides in Europe and the creation of a European governing body.

Our readers will also be very interested to hear if there is any further discussion about an 18-a-side championship under full IC rules in future, featuring the big guns of Ireland, Denmark, British Bulldogs or possibly even the Peres Peace Team.

Heading into the half way point of the Ontario Australian Football League season the contenders are starting to separate themselves from the pretenders, and many clubs start to set themselves for a serious run into September action. Many of the clubs have a lot of work to do while others will be looking to keep the momentum going as they build towards September.

AFL agent Ricky Nixon is planning to further his interest in the Irish market by establishing coaching clinics in Irish primary schools. His exploits are currently being told in a three part documentary on Irish television called ‘The Oz factor’.

Nixon who has previously been very unpopular amongst the Gaelic Athletic Association establishment has claimed that “This will probably put the fear of God into GAA people but we’re starting to look at potential talent at a younger age. And if the door was shut in my face in Ireland in the past I expect it will be slammed in my face now.”

Four schools, whom Nixon has declined to name, have agreed to the programme which begins when the new school term gets underway in September. Nixon is aware of potential criticism but remains unrepentant. “People will overreact to these clinics and will insinuate that I’m only here to fleece your country of its young talent, but the reality is that I’ll be lucky to get one layer from this initiative. I’m doing it to drum up more interest in the AFL in Ireland and get more kids au fait with the skills of our game from an early age.” says Nixon. “An Irish guy actually came to me with the proposal and he’s got clearance from the schools involved. We’re starting off with four clinics and the schools are more than happy to go along with it.”

Winis Imbi was born in PNG and spent his first eleven years there. At that stage his mother moved the family to Portland in the western district of Victoria to be near relatives. Winis began playing footy in the local junior competition and shone thanks to his pace and ability to read the game. For those that have had the privilege of watching the Mosquitoes you have to almost wonder whether these assets are genetic!

By his mid-teens he had caught the eye of scouts from the North Ballarat Rebels. Awarded a scholarship to attend St Patrick's College, he moved to Ballarat hoping to make it all the way to the AFL. Imbi was a member of the Rebels' 1997 premiership team,. This was a line-up that also included Adam Goodes, Shannon Watt and James Walker. He and Walker, who was recruited by Fremantle, were subsequently named in the TAC Cup team of the year. But on draft day Imbi missed out.

During the next four seasons he worked hard to crack the big time. Rookie-listed by Essendon he made a number of appearances in the Ansett Cup and even won the club's reserves best and fairest in 1999. A short stint at North Melbourne followed, but injuries ended his AFL hopes.

Imbi took over as coach of Portland in early 2008 after his team had gone back- to-back and there had been a raft of retirements. He stepped in and rather unexpectedly , despite fielding a side with an average age in the low 20s, they lost only one more game in 2008. On grand final day the Tigers held out the Imperials to complete a hat-trick of premierships for the first time in the club's 123-year history.

For those wondering, Imbi has not been a part of the PNG squads at the International Cups. Given eligibility criteria it would be this writer's belief that he would be ineligible unless special consideration was given.

For more on this story, read Portland's Plan - Play Hard.

New Zealand Falcons representative Liam Ackland has secured a trial with the Glenelg Under 18 team next month. Glenelg is part of the South Australian National Football League and home of many champion AFL and VFL footballers, with Stephen Kernahan and Bryce Gibbs immediately springing to mind for this Carlton supporting correspondent!

Liam attended the 2008 International Cup as a sixteen year old. This forum was a great opportunity for potential youngsters to perform in front of a myriad of talent scouts from the AFL clubs. Amua Pirika from Papua New Guinea was soon signed by the Gold Coast consortium and is now playing for Southport in the Queensland AFL competition and the Gold Coast in the TAC Cup.

After securing a position in the 2008 International Cup squad, Liam was afforded the opportunity of attending an Australian Institute of Sport Scholarship camp in Canberra last December through funding contributed by AFL New Zealand (newly renamed from the similar "New Zealand AFL") and the AFL itself. The AIS camp provides the best young talent from throughout Australia to be monitored by all of the 16 AFL clubs. NZ has had a sprinkling of attendees at events similar to this and they have always presented and performed well.

It was a perfect day for footy at the weekend as the annual Brit Cup took place in Reading, hosted by the local Kangaroos. The event was extremely well-attended, with entries from London, regional England, Wales and Scotland, and the standard was as high as has been seen in recent years, with all teams contributing some great footy to the proceedings.

WFN caught up with one of the Columbus Jackaroos founders, Chet Ridenour. While his club is in the midst of their second season he is travelling South and Central America. Ridenour presided over the rapid foundation of an Aussie Rules football club that managed to win their first ever match, and bring a breath of fresh air to the US footy scene. In the interview we discuss Chet's football journey, what went into forming the club, recruiting, football stories and much more.

The podcast of the interview can be found here.

The Paris Cockerels last weekend became French Cup champions for the second year running, defeating Perpignan 69-11 in the final of the tournament held in Bordeaux.

Six sides competed for this year's Coupe de France, with Paris, Strasbourg, Montpellier and the hosts Bordeaux Bombers joined by new squads the Toulouse Crocodiles and Perpignan Tigers. While Perpignan competed in the Catalan Premiership this season, the tournament was the first appearance for the Crocodiles, who impressed in taking out third place.

The Cup also made headlines in Australia, with Melbourne daily newspaper The Age featuring the article Injecting a Little Ooh La La into football on page 2 last Monday.

A full report will appear soon, all scores are available on the Footy Record.