World Footy News

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.

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".