World Footy News

In February, as part of ongoing efforts to provide an organised football structure in Europe, with a view to the formation of AFL Europe, the Australian Football League appointed Gerard Murphy to liaise with European leagues.

Murphy has previously had an association with the AFL and has moved to the UK in a promotional role with the English Premier League (soccer). The AFL has advised leagues to deal with Murphy to "work on building an AFL Europe body over the next 6 months".

In a message addressed to affiliated leagues and prospective members of AFL Europe, the AFL stated that "The AFL’s desire is simply that the most effective structure exists to ensure the game develops within the region and we can support affiliates in an appropriate way".

After the traditional November to February break, the Asian Australian rules football scene bursts back into life this month.

So far, the global economic crises have had a minimal effect on the clubs, with most reporting reasonable numbers at training, and also being able to maintain the all-important levels of sponsorship.

The next six months are going to be packed with football action, kicking off with a number of ANZAC Day matches. Further highlights include a number of regional cup tournaments in the Philippines and Thailand, the Crikey Cup between Bali and East Timor to be played in Darwin, the open and masters Bali 9s and the annual Asian Championships, this year to be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Read on for more details about all these events.

The GB Bulldogs will look back on their recent defeat in Ireland by the Warriors with mixed feelings. No-one likes to be on the wrong end of the scoreboard when the siren goes and to face that sort of turnaround after a convincing win in Dublin at the end of 2007 definitely rubbed salt in the wounds. That being said, there were a number of positives to take from the experience as well.

PNG's Stanis Susuve debuted in the Gold Coast’s first formal game against the Eastern Ranges in Round 1 of Victoria’s elite TAC Cup (Under 18 competition). Susuve was among the Gold Coast’s better players on the night and kicked a goal as well, although his team suffered a comfortable loss. In Round 2 it all came together and the Coast smashed the Western Jets by 134 points. Hopefully countryman Amua Pirika will join him in the side too.

The new club have a bye this week, but read here for a great article from PNG’s “The Courier” newspaper (pictured). Fantastic to read about what the change was like in terms of culture shock for these guys leaving their native countries.

Also of note was the debut of impressive 19 year old Ali Pinda for Bacchus Marsh in the very strong regional Victorian Ballarat Football League. Unfortunately his team was on the wrong end of a big loss. Read here for a match report from Bacchus Marsh’s local paper.

The Dutch Australian Football Association have announced plans to launch a four-team domestic league this year, with clubs under formation in the cities of Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Utrecht and The Hague.

The Eindhoven Eagles and the as-yet unnamed side from The Hague held their first training sessions this week, with Amsterdam and the Utrecht Saints to hit the track next week. The clubs will have a few more weeks to recruit, before the season kicks off in earnest in June, although May 10th will see a practice match between Utrecht and the Rest of Holland.

Joost van der Hulst from the Utrecht Saints told WFN "The local league will be 9-a-side. Recruitment so far is going quite well, both Dutchies and Aussies - the Utrecht Saints have almost a full team now, the other three city teams need a couple more."

Footy has been played on and off in the Netherlands since around 2003, with the Flying Dutchmen formed in late 2006 and playing regularly over the last two years. With the creation of the new local league, the Flying Dutchmen will continue as a national representative side, with a schedule of six home-and-away matches planned against the Paris Cockerels, Rheinland Lions and Berlin Crocs leading up to this year's EU Cup in Croatia.

Their first two home fixtures, against the Berliners in March and against the Parisians last weekend, both resulted in big wins for the Hollanders, boding well for their coming matches. Their next fixture will see them travel to Cologne on June 20th, for a match against the Rheinlanders.

Footy in Britain has now spread well beyond the traditional heartland of London, with the development across the countries progressing steadily for several years. At a London league committee meeting, we caught up with Gavin Mahoney - the man tasked with taking footy in the capital to the next level. We discuss his impressive background in the sporting industry and his new role in the UK.

The Miami Dolphins have reportedly signed 30 year old Jy Bond, son of former Richmond player (and 3AW football commentator) Graham Bond as a punter. Bond has been in training over the last few years to get a shot at punting in the NFL. He was drafted to Richmond under the father/son rule some years back, but never played senior football for the club.

Bond is likely to have to compete for the punting spot throughout the preseason until either he or incumbent punter Brandon Fields is cut from the squad. Ben Graham and Sav Rocca both went through this process before making the final roster to debut in the NFL.

Former Sydney Swans and Collingwood forward Nick Davis has also been in the US in recent weeks for punting trials and has reportedly had interest from the San Diego Chargers (the former club of Darren Bennett). Further trialling could also see him win a preseason slot with an NFL club to compete for a punting spot when the regular season rolls around. Davis along with a group of other hopefuls from Australia have been showing their wares in specially organised sessions in front of a number of scouts from various NFL clubs and colleges in the US.

There have already been some Australians offered college scholarships this year to play gridiron football, such as Alex Dunnachie who has a full, four-year scholarship at the University of Hawaii. Dunnachie was playing Under 19's for Banyule in the VAFA in 2008.

Prior to their first game in this year's French league, the Paris Cockerels played two friendly matches, with an 18-a-side match against the North London Lions in Paris, and the second one against the Flying Dutchmen in Amsterdam.

Although the Cockerels went down in both matches, they put in some good performances, even leading the traditionally strong North London side with ten minutes to go in their match. Here is a brief report of those games.

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The following is a brief summary of the March '09 tour of Papua New Guinea by the Indigenous Boomerangs side.

The match in the capital, Port Moresby, was the Under 18 PNG Kupundas triumphant by one point, 9.12 (66) to 9.11 (65) at the University of PNG track oval. Of just as much interest was the excellent turnout of around 2000 to 2500 spectators (different sources). Best players for PNG: Kayne, Nicholas, Pena, Norman, Carbry and for the Flying Boomerangs: Ah Chee, McMasters, Crowe, Crook-Harrison, Wilson.

A detailed review of the match was written in PNG's The National, by Peter Pusal - see Rules tourists get pipped by a point. Apparently the match finished with a thrilling last gasp goal - "The Boomerangs led 9.11 (65) to Kupundas 8.12 (60) with less than 30 seconds of play remaining in the match when Logo gathered the loose ball from a desperate surge up field and snapped a goal from 40m to grab an amazing win on the stroke of full-time".

What was expected to be a more developmental PNG side (drawn mainly from Highlands and Momase) took to the field in the town of Lae for match two. With a game under their belt the Australian Aboriginal young men came out of their shells in a strong performance, winning 7.10 (52) to 2.2 (14). But excitingly a crowd of 7000 to 8000 turned out for the youth match, a great sign of interest in the game.

AFL Oceania's Andrew Cadzow summed up the two matches as "Huge crowds and magnificent football". The PNG AFL then hosted a fundraising dinner at the Grand Palace restaurant after the match in which B Mobile announced a K300,000 sponsorship of AFL PNG’s junior programmes over the next three years.

You can check out photos from the tour in our new media gallery (click on the image above or visit the gallery through the Multimedia menu at the top of this page - more photos from international footy to be added in the coming months).

The Dubai Heat, who recently secured the AFL Middle East silverware, have won the 2009 Dubai 9s tournament. The tournament is now in its third year and featured a record eight teams, but quite remarkably, the Heat remain its only victors.

The below summary is courtesy of Dubai Dingoes Club President Phil Temple.

This year’s event saw the return of the Dubai Celts Gaelic Football Club and the arrival of the Bahrain Blues, a likely starter in the next AFL Middle East season. Abu Dhabi Falcons split into two sides, whilst the Dubai Dragons, Dubai Heat, Doha Kangaroos and tournament hosts the Dubai Dingoes also took part. Eight teams in total was the tournament’s largest to date.

Supporters of international Australian football often hope that as newcomers to Australia take up our game that their talents will be recognised by AFL scouts, ultimately leading to greater interest in international recruitment, i.e. immigrants playing the game will open Australian eyes to international development. It's also just great to see more people taking up the sport.

One of the groups that have been viewed as likely prospects are the many recent tall athletic Sudanese immigrants. Many of them seem to take up soccer, but slowly Aussie Rules is picking up converts. This would probably accelerate if a Sudanese youngster made it to AFL level. But even someone making state league level must be an inspiration to some of the young players being offered a choice between sports.

So it is good to see Andrea Miar, a 23 year old Sudanese refugee, has been doing well in the new Tasmanian state wide league. We reported in New state league for Tasmania that 2009 would see this competition sit above the northern and southern Tassie leagues, and Andrea Miar's side, Launceston, is one of those competing at the top level.

Miar moved to Launceston, Tasmania, with his family when he was 9 years old. He's now studying information technology at a TAFE (technical college), and excelling on the footy field as an agile ruckman. With plenty still to learn about Australian football, Miar should still have a lot of improvement to come. An AFL call-up is highly unlikely, though if a 24 year old Canadian Rugby player can make the leap, perhaps he's worth a gamble?

You can read more about his story in a Mercury article Sudanese ruckman on the up, by Adam Smith.

At the 2008 International Cup dinner those attending were treated to a great video package put together mostly during the event but also containing footage from the Peace Team's preparation in their homeland. The man behind the moving tribute to the players of the tournament, Rob Dickson along with his young son Byron died after a car accident on the road between Sun City and Pretoria in South Africa. His wife Dusty and son Gabriel were also injured in the accident and are currently being treated in hospital. Our thoughts are with his family and the family of his wife Dusty who along with Gabriel are still in a South African hospital.

Dickson also produced the recently released "The Essence of the Game" documentary which profiled the game's 150th year and featured the International Cup and in particular the Peace Team. Dickson's football background was highlighted by his time with Hawthorn (17 games) and the Brisbane Bears (2 games). Many Australians will best remember him for winning the Channel Nine television reality show Australian Survivor.

Going back into the WFN archives Dickson was also involved in a Vietnam footy tour CARE AFL All Stars meet Hanoi Swans for HIV/AIDS awareness. Dickson was due to meet up with the AIS AFL Academy tour next week and it seemed he would continue to tell the story of the emergence of international football talent on film for some time to come. Dickson was clearly a man with a broad vision for all aspects of the game, and the game will be poorer for his loss.