World Footy News

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.

Tom Cruise, according to the Herald Sun is the latest Hollywood star to find an appreciation for the Australian variety of football.

Cruise, currently in Melbourne, attended the Collingwood-Essendon clash at the MCG.

Following a bit of an American theme - visiting players from the Dallas Cowboys NFL side attended the thriller between Geelong and St Kilda, having a kick on television at Etihad Stadium in Geelong jumpers.

Both matches were played to a high standard in front of bumper crowds.

Meanwhile before a smaller crowd, the Demons did it for Irishman Jim Stynes (who WFN reported earlier is currently battling cancer), posting a spirited win against the West Coast Eagles at the MCG.

Today NFL players Terence Newman and Courtney Brown from the Dallas Cowboys will visit the Lexus Centre to meet Collingwood players Nick Maxwell, Anthony Rocca and Josh Fraser. The team-mates of Aussie punter Matt McBriar will no doubt feature in the Melbourne media in the next 24 hours. In other Aussie rules-NFL crossover news, Jy Bond has been dropped by the Miami Dolphins but hopes he will get a chance with another franchise to join McBriar, Sav Rocca and Ben Graham as an Aussie NFL punter in the upcoming season.

Toronto, Wednesday July 1st 2009: On a perfect Toronto day for football, AFL Canada in conjunction with one of the largest leagues outside of Australia, the Ontario Australian Football League (“OAFL”), held their 3rd Canada Day Football Carnival. Canada Day is national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country. It's also a great chance for the OAFL to showcase Aussie Rules and give their national side a match against quality opposition.

Once again the AFL and Bigpond have made the full round of AFL matches online, given the loss of Setanta Sports coverage in Great Britain. Full details here.

Melbourne Football Club president Jim Stynes has held a press conference to announce that he is battling cancer and will have to step away from his duties, although not his position, for the rest of 2009. Arguably the greatest success story in the so-called Irish experiment of recruitng Gaelic players to Australian football, Stynes is still remembered for his remarkable robustness, playing 244 consecutive games despite numerous injuries. He also won the 1991 Brownlow Medal as the best player in the AFL that year.

Stynes, 43, has been a passionate advocate for the charity Reach, which he founded in 1994 to assist youth suffering from depression. In more recent times he has also dedicated himself to rescuing the Mebourne Demons from their financial problems, taking on the role of President and bringing former players and supporters back to the club.

“Three weeks ago I found out that I had a lump in my back. The guys thought we should take it out and have a look at it. I found out that it was cancerous and so I was sent in to do a whole lot of follow up tests, scans and so on,” he said. “I thought it might be located in the one area but it’s not. It has spread quite a bit and I have a journey to go on. I need to understand it and work with it.”

The best wishes of all football supporters will be with him. More details in Stynes prepares for fight of his life.

The Gold Coast's Papua New Guinean recruit, Amua Pirika (pictured), has made his presence felt at the 2009 NAB Under 18 Championships, which concluded in Melbourne today. Due to the creation of the Gold Coast Football Club, to enter the AFL in 2011, Queensland's Under 18 side has effectively been the Gold Coast TAC Cup Under 18 side. Coach Guy McKenna has rotated many players through the team, using the experience as a development process.

Since the excitement of being listed by the Gold Coast, Pirika and fellow PNG youngster Stanis Susuve have been starved of opportunities due to various circumstances that will be discussed in a future story when certain information is no longer embargoed. But Pirika played for Queensland against Tasmania and in today's game against the Northern Territory the 18 year old was unleashed with great effect, kicking 3 goals and being named his team's third best player in their 1 point loss. Hopefully the breakout game will boost his confidence and if worst came to worst and the Coasters did not persist with him all the way to 2011, then shining in front of all the AFL club talent managers will have been a good career move.

Given the dearth of available talent being predicted over the coming years, it is ironic that the Gold Coast, with an array of draft picks, has been the first club to take any kind of punt on players developed as Aussie Rules players outside of Australia.

Nick Naitanui has started his career with two exciting games that have the AFL community buzzing. With his stunning performances interest in talent from the Fijian-Australian's ancestral home must be at an all-time high. This makes the establishment of AFL Fiji all the more timely. The initial meetings will be held in Suva on July 10th and 11th.

The first meeting is open for all interested people to discuss AFL Fiji. AFL Oceania Development Manager Andrew Cadzow has said that they will advertise this through all papers and media.

The second meeting will be the first formal meeting of the steering committee of AFL Fiji. Cadzow says, "Very important we get as many as possible to the first meeting to ensure we add to the quality of our steering committee. At the second meeting we will be outlining and planning for the commencement of AFL Fiji including Junior Development, Talent Pathway, Auskick (Fiji Kick), Competitions, Finances, Resources, Academy, Volunteers/Staffing/AYAD, Formalising Advisory board".

The meetings will be hosted by Cadzow and steering committee chairman Damian Ames.

"We are looking at an 8-10 person Committee with representatives from all regions, Nadi, Labasa etc. As well as Australia".

Last weekend, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, hosted the first annual Canadian National Championships for Women and Youth.

Forty-seven women from Calgary and Edmonton travelled from Alberta to contest the Nationals, which were played in a round-robin format against the Vancouver-based West Coast Wildcats. It is believed to be the first matches of 18-a-side women's club football played in North America.

The AFL has announced that as an interim solution to the loss of Setanta Sports coverage, as reported earlier on WFN, UK fans will be able to watch all eight matches live at no cost (other than their own ISP costs) this weekend via the AFL website, at bigpondtv.com/aflliveuk and there are further links here. The AFL also announced that coverage should be unaffected in other regions, and AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan stated that the AFL was in discussions about selling its UK broadcast rights to an alternative television network for the remainder of the 2009 season.

Full details can be read on the AFL website at AFL's broadband offer for UK fans.

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