World Footy News

The Japan AFL Top League will this year kick off with seven sides, with the Nagoya Redbacks joining the current member clubs from Osaka and Tokyo. The season will feature seven home and away rounds, with teams playing all other sides once.

The first round will see Australian-based club the Tokyo Goannas travel to Nagoya on Saturday April 25th. The Redbacks were undefeated at home in their career in the Nippon AFL, as well as in the recent challenge series against the Osaka Dingoes, and will be keen to keep their perfect record intact.

Back in Tokyo, university clubs Komazawa Magpies and the Tokyo Leopards host the visiting Osaka Dingoes and university graduates Eastern Hawks respectively.

The seventh club in the Top League are the Senshu University Powers, who have the bye in round one.

Also on the schedule for this season is the annual international Narita Cup, a possible Goannas vs Japan All Stars match in July, and a road trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Asian Championships in early September.

The season will wrap up in November, with semi-finals to be held on November 8th and the Grand Final on November 22nd.

On the 29th of March, Aussie Rules in France took a step forward with the start of the first-ever national championship. Around 60 footy enthusiasts gathered in Montpellier to enjoy a nice day of footy. Two games were played during the day, which saw the Bordeaux Bombers playing against the Strasbourg Kangaroos, and the Paris Cockerels taking on the Montpellier Fire Sharks.

Not only are Queensland Australian football competitions the launching point for many young Papuans to begin their football scholarships but the local clubs have excelled in supporting the AFL PNG organisation and other parts of Oceania in other ways.

At the annual AFLPNG Junior Championships in 2008 each team that attended had their jumpers supplied by an AFL Queensland affiliated club - Redland, Noosa, Mt Gravatt, Aspley, the Brisbane Lions and Coorparoo. It's one very practical way in which individuals and clubs that are looking to support the international growth of the game have been able to make it happen.

According to a recent article, "Footy Aid", an AFLQ initiative to get football gear into the Oceania region, has seen over 2000kg of second hand (and sometimes new) jumpers, boots, footballs and general football resources filter into countries like PNG, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji in just the last 18 months.

Congratulations from WFN to all involved and read on for the full article here Local football helps PNG

For Queenslanders interested in helping, to make donations to assist the "Footy Aid" program, please drop gear into your regional AFLQ office or contact Andrew Cadzow at afloceania@aflq.com.au.

On a humid and wet Gold Coast evening the GC team made its first on field debut for points - and it also saw new recruit Stanis Susuve from PNG play his first game for them. With their AFL debut not set to happen until 2011, this is the building blocks for what will come then. The TAC Cup, the elite under 18 competition made up mostly of Victorian teams as the development pathway and dinner table for AFL scouts and recruiters ever hungry for new talent. Most of what they see from the Gold Coast boys though will be off the table as these youngsters will be outside the draft system already committed to the new enterprise.

Whether that is best for these youngsters in terms of their football future is debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is best for the Gold Coast Football Club’s future. It should guarantee that along with a number of other draft concessions that they can enter the AFL competition with a strong and competitive player group but also with a bunch of home grown talent that has gone through the same talent development finishing school as the match hardened Victorians that dominate the draft each year.

Hailing from County Longford, Michael Quinn is set to make a remarkable debut on Sunday on the other side of the world for the Essendon Football Club. It will be the fastest transition to senior AFL ranks of all the Irish recruits to have come so far. Few would have thought that Marty Clarke would be bettered, yet here we have it in Round 2 of the 2009 season. Quinn has done plenty to impress his adopted club working overtime to develop his skills, fitness and body to give him the first shot at the big time. Quinn showed his determination in a final quarter burst in the NAB cup game against the Bulldogs - but many of those Irishmen who have come before him have been given a taste of things in preseason almost as a reward for making the big transition. But make no mistake any match for premiership points is no token reward and Essendon fans and the folk of County Longford will be watching his debut closely.

Another who might take a glance at Quinn's debut might be agent Ricky Nixon, who reportedly rubbished Essendon's trialing and signing of Quinn who was not identified as part of Nixon's scouting network in Ireland last year (and Essendon did not join Nixon's program either). Quinn's success might provide a rethink on how Nixon and his scouts look at the attributes of potential Irish talent. Quinn has been named in the forward pocket for the match against the Fremantle Dockers kicking off at 1.10pm tomorrow at Docklands Stadium.

As we move toward the start of the 2009 season, USFootyNews.com will be previewing the Top 10 teams in USFooty as voted in the preseason USFootyNews.com and WorldFootyNews.com poll.

At Number 9 in the Preseason Poll is Chicago United. Chicago finished 2008 ranked 10th with a record of 6-1. They also repeated as MAAFL Premiers. In 2009, Chicago looks odds-on to "three-peat" as MAAFL champions. They have a favorable MAAFL schedule, hosting both No. 10 Nashville Kangaroos and the Milwaukee Bombers. Head Coach Paul Drake agrees. "Have to like that schedule indeed and it certainly bodes well for a stab at the three-peat."

Photo courtesy of Fernanda Schwartz.

In great news for international footballers looking to make it to the game's highest level, Gold Coast have announced that Papuan Stanis Susuve has been listed alongside his teammate from the Mosquitoes, Amua Pirika, to join their squad. And the Gold Coast coach, former West Coast Eagles premiership player Guy McKenna, has expressed a hope that more PNG players will join the AFL-endorsed club in coming years. If either recruit is successful when the club debuts in the AFL in 2010 then surely AFL scouts will encourage greater investment in international markets. An AFL Papuan New Guinea press release follows.

The Dubai Dingoes will today host the third Dubai 9s tournament at Sharjah Wanderers Sports Club. This year’s tournament will be attended by eight teams and follow the rules used in the AFL Middle East season.

The bulk of the sides in this year’s tournament are members of AFL Middle East. The Dubai Heat, Dubai Dragons and Doha Kangaroos are all attending. Abu Dhabi will split into two teams for the event. Noticeable absentees are runners-up the Muscat Magpies. Dubai’s Gaelic club the Celts will take part, as they have done in the past. Rounding out the group are the Bahrain Bombers, a potential precursor to a Bahraini side in next year’s AFL Middle East season.

For those interested in attending, the day begins at 8.30am with a draw to determine scheduling. Qualifying matches run until 1.05pm followed by finals which will conclude by 4pm. Each team will be involved in a minimum of four matches.

Food is available all day, the venue is fully licensed and there will be a bouncing castle for the kids. A gala dinner at Le Meridian Dubai will follow the event. This will include a memorabilia auction supporting the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

With an ever increasing array of international talent in the AFL, or players with strong/recent international links/heritage, it's timely to review how some of them are going now that the 2009 season is underway. Beyond the breakthrough of getting an AFL contract, it remains an uphill battle. In fact for the current crop it seems the biggest challenge at the moment is just getting past injuries to make it onto the field.

PNG have continued their great efforts in securing scholarship places for their junior and development players. Added to the success of the recent One Tribe tour of PNG it all bodes well for future success in so many ways for Australian football in PNG. Scott Reid, Chairman of the AFLPNG Board, was kind enough to give WFN a brief rundown on this year’s crop of footy exports - a staggering 24 in all.

And in news just in, expect information on yet another exciting development for PNG footy shortly.

Google Australia today got into the April Fool's Day theme with the unveilling of the "gBall". While the use of GPS technology has clearly come into play in the coverage and analysis of AFL matches, its introduction into the actual gameball is yet to become a reality.

The Gball product is described as follows "This weekend around the country, the gBall(BETA) will change Australian rules football as we know it. Building on our core strength in search, Google was approached by a number of Australian rules football leagues to apply our technology in their search for new talent. In response, Google, in partnership with the official supplier of matchballs to the AFL, Sherrin, has developed the gBall. Incorporating specially developed Google technology, it will be used in all school and amateur competitions - and will go on sale to the public - this weekend."

The rest of the mock article can be read here.

The Gold Coast Football Club has been awarded the 17th licence to compete in the AFL competition. AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, in a message to the GC17 board said:

"This is an historic decision of the AFL Commission and it is only the sixth time since the AFL Commission was established that a licence has been awarded to a new club.

"It is not a decision that the Commission has made lightly and it has been made after a long period of investment in Queensland and a rigorous process over the past two years in which the Gold Coast football, business and wider communities have made clear their support for and ability to sustain an AFL team.

"It is also a decision that we have made after a rigorous process to validate the business model for a Gold Coast Football Club. We are confident that we grant the licence knowing that you have put in place the foundations to build a strong and sustainable club which will serve well the Gold Coast community".

However, the licence remains subject to finalisation of the agreement between the Queensland State Government and the Gold Coast City Council on the terms by which the land for the stadium will be transferred, and a decision by the Federal Government on further funding for the stadium. Both of these issues are expected to be resolved soon.

The Queensland club debut in the primarily Victorian TAC Cup Under 18s this weekend, and are on track to enter the VFL in 2010 and the AFL in 2011. If a west Sydney side is to be formed for a 2012 AFL debut then major developments are likely to be announced by the end of this year.