World Footy News

The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland will this year introduce a second division to its league, comprising reserve teams from the established clubs and new teams from around the Emerald Isle.

The move is hoped to make the creation of new clubs easier, with the league finding it difficult to expand in recent years due to start-up clubs struggling on-field against the powerful Dublin and Cork-based sides.

The ARFLI’s Ciaran O’Hara tells WFN that, while the ARFLI Premiership will this year see the same five clubs from 2008, the league is hopeful the second division could see the debut of the Kingdom Kangaroos, Mayo Mariners and Galway’s Midwest Magpies, in addition to the rebirth of the Clare Crows and Belfast Redbacks.

O'Hara also tells us the league is launching Rec Footy this year, as an avenue to taking the game to the nation's schools and colleges.

In international news, the Green Machine will this year take on Wales and Scotland for the inaugural Celtic Cup, as well as the return of the tri-series against Great Britain and Denmark.

In some respects the breakthrough that many of us involved in international footy have been awaiting has occurred. Papua New Guinea's International Cup hero, 17 year old Amua Pirika, has been signed by the Gold Coast Football Club, the proposed 17th club in the Australian Football League.

Pirika first came to prominence when he kicked three goals for PNG against a Queensland Colts side in the Queensland Under 16 championships in 2007. In 2008 he played for Nambour in the AFLQ Northern Area U18 competition, booting a league leading 65 goals. At just 17 he finished equal 11th in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup best player voting, and was 3rd in the goalkicking with 15. That included 4 in the semi-final against South Africa, previewing his grand final form.

Originally listed for IC08 as 184cm, he was obviously in a growth spurt as he was soon quoted at 190cm - certainly he played tall in the Cup grand final at the MCG (Mozzies at last in MCG thriller), taking several strong marks in an unstoppable burst, booting four goals in total to drag the Mosquitoes to a come-from-behind victory. And for tens of thousands of fans gathering for the following match, an AFL final between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn, he provided a great highlight, curling a check-side goal through the big sticks after the siren to put the icing on the cake of PNG's 8 point win.

For many French people, the role Australia played in the first World War may seem pretty small, but there is one village in the north of France that will never forget what the Aussies did for them.

During the first and second battle of the Somme a large number of Australians and New Zealanders died to free the small village of Villers-Bretonneux. The village was almost destroyed during the conflict, and the Australian government helped to rebuild it. Since then the village is closely bonded to Australia, and a big sign in the school courtyard saying “Never forget Australia” is here to remind everyone of what the diggers did.

Every year Villers-Bretonneux host the second biggest ANZAC ceremony behind the one in Gallipoli, involving the Australian ambassador in France, and numbers of other French and Australian officials.

We all know how important is ANZAC day in the footy community, hence the officials of French footy along with Aussie Rules Europe (ARE) have decided to organise the first 18-a-side game in France since WWI (probably played in Villers-Bretonneux) as a part of the 2009 ANZAC Day ceremony.

Paul Roos today discussed Kennelly's departure from the club “As a Club we knew Tadhg was going to go at the end of this season and we accepted that and were respectful of Tadhg’s decision...based on the last two years and Tadhg’s genuine concern for his body, the injury problems he has had with his groins, shoulders and knees, it has fast-tracked that decision by six months.

“We have always known that family commitments back home and also a burning desire to play for his county Kerry and follow in the footsteps of his late father Tim Kennelly, would one day take him back. We are totally supportive of Tadhg’s decision. It has come six months before we thought it would but we completely understand that Tadhg wants to go back and have an impact. His genuine fear is that if he got injured this year, as has been the case the last couple of years, he would never fulfil his ambition that he has long had and it would genuinely haunt him for the rest of his life.” He went on to say “Tadhg’s contribution to the Swans has been sensational and led to our Premiership win in 2005, the sacrifices he has made to play with us, leaving his family and friends, have been extraordinary. His competitive drive has allowed him to become a star player of the AFL and we'll miss him but obviously respect his decision, will continue to support him and he will always be welcome back at the Football Club.”

Tadhg Kennelly is set to announce his retirement from the Sydney Swans and AFL football this afternoon at a scheduled press conference at 3.30 pm. Reports of his return home were reported here and denied by the Swans and by Kennelly himself in the past two weeks. Obviously the cat was let out of the bag early and further reports last week suggested that the Swan's players had already held a send off party for him, again the Swans denied his departure. But it seems that with Paul Roos' return to the club this week, Kennelly has had a sit down with the coach to inform him that he will be returning home to Ireland.

His departure would seem to make it less likely that Kyle Coney will return to the Swans despite Kennelly saying last week that he thought there was still some chance of his return. Kennelly's presence may have been the best tool the Swans have at their disposal to both encourage him to return and to help him to settle in. In fact it is possible that Coney's decision not to return to Sydney may have been prompted by the revelation of Kennelly's plans prior to Christmas.

A small piece of Australian football news appeared in the Solomon Star News recently. The article, to coincide with Australia Day, discusses the 5-year Australian role in that country as part of a Regional Assistance Mission, and various efforts to interact with locals. Of particular interest is that the footy program has continued. It is being suggested as a role model for the introduction of cricket. From Aussies and Solomon Islanders – enjoying the partnership:

This could follow the model used by RAMSI personnel who, since arriving in 2003, have managed to introduce Aussie Rules football to many Solomon Islanders with a regular Saturday afternoon Auskick clinic run by RAMSI personnel for the past five years.

Captain Robert Coales, an Australian public servant currently serving in RAMSI’s military contingent as a personnel officer, says he looks forward to umpiring these games, now held at the Honiara Secondary School ground, each Saturday.

“For me it’s a chance to get out of headquarters, to interact with the community and to be involved in the game I love.”

Captain Coales says it is great to see how far the local players have developed in the past five years; some of them are excellent.”

It was recently reported that Western Bulldogs international scholarship player Inoke Ratu was unable to receive a visa to visit Australia due to his father's links to the military rulers of Fiji. An article in the Fiji Daily Post has raised hopes that the ruling was in fact due to an error by Ratu, thus potentially clearing the way for him to travel to Australia for training with the Bulldogs. The article says:

"My chances are really good. That’s what the Australian High Commission told me,” Ratu said.

“They were not happy with a section of the application I filled out”.

“It had nothing to do with my dad being in the military,” he added.

The Bulldog officials are also confident Ratu will have his visa application approved and will be training with his teammates within a matter of weeks.

Let's hope the reports are correct this time.

Although AFL South Africa lost its marquee event for 2009, the NAB Cup match between Collingwood and West Coast in Cape Town (now moved to Subiaco due to sponsor issues blamed on the global financial crisis), there's still a very busy schedule of exciting events planned.

worldfootynews.com spoke with Operations Manager Anthony "Joel" Kelly, Lions captain Mtutu Hlomela and North West Provincial Development Manager July Machethe, about what will be yet another exciting year for the game in this footy hotspot, which includes tours by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Geelong College, as well as a development camp by Fremantle and the launch of further programs focussed on footy, health, education and employment.

The story of footy is about change. Except that it does not all come from the top, or from the centre.

In the words of Australian artist Paul Kelly’s song… ‘From little things big things grow’….

The way in which the game is played around the world, often involving smaller teams on smaller playing fields, and sometimes with some rule modifications, may shape the future of the game in Australia. And what better day to discuss the future of Australia's indigenous sport, with a global view, than Australia Day?

This will most likely be our final article on unofficial World Rankings for 2008 until our final list is released, based on the user comments so far and a final vote by worldfootynews.com staff.

In this article we consider where to rank the countries that did not attend IC08 but which have been deemed eligible for ranking based on good numbers of players that would qualify under International Cup rules. These countries are: Tonga, Spain (Catalonia), France, Germany and Croatia (see Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - other countries to consider for further discussion).

During the off-season, as has been pointed out by numerous scribes the AFL clubs love to tie up with visiting celebrities, sports or others, for photo-ops thereby garnering some useful publicity. However, living in Asia, and being an inveterate televised sports watcher it always strikes me as remarkable the number of chaps one sees in the crowd shots at international cricket and tennis wearing AFL jumpers.

So let's get all us international footballers wearing our club guernseys when we grace international events that have significant television audiences!

The search for a major sponsor in these deteriorating economic times has been a difficult task for some AFL clubs, so it would have been a great relief for the Western Bulldogs to secure Mission Foods for the next 3 years, worth $4.5million. In a press release the club stated that Mission Foods’ products will be distributed nationally and be available from all leading food retailers and independent supermarkets from Monday 19th January 2009. “Mission Foods have chosen to partner with the Western Bulldogs to spearhead their launch into the Australian market place for the Mission brand”, said Western Bulldogs President David Smorgon.

Established in 1949, Mission Foods is part of Mexican based group Gruma Corporation, with operations spanning Mexico, the USA, Central and South America, UK and now Australia. Mission Foods are exclusively focused on the manufacture of flatbread and Mexican products and corn based snacks with 60 years experience manufacturing over a quarter of the world’s tortilla’s.

From an international footy point of view the introduction of a large Mexican company is enticing. To the best of our knowledge Australian football has no presence on the ground in the country of 107 million people. With Mission Foods CEO Juan Gonzalez reportedly a "sports nut" no doubt the Doggies will want to get him on board as a supporter of the club. Wouldn't it be tremendous if they could also stoke an interest in introducing our great game to Mexico? worldfootynews.com has contacted both the Western Bulldogs and the AFL with some initial thoughts on this. We'll keep our readers informed if there are any developments.