World Footy News

Ben Graham today moved to be the first Australian, barring any unforeseen incidents in the next two weeks, to play in an NFL Super Bowl. The remarkable journey that has played out as the post retirement scenario for the former Geelong Football Club captain sees him as one of the combatants in a sports event that captures global attention. Both punters met in the centre of the field 90 minutes prior to the start of the game and wished the other good luck, Rocca’s Philadelphia Eagles going into the match as overwhelming favourites. Graham was under an injury cloud going into the match with groin trouble, but was ultimately cleared to play.

The Arizona Cardinals lead early and took a 24 – 6 lead at half time. Graham punted once for 34 yards and held for one successful field goal and three extra point conversions in the first half. Rocca launched a huge 58 yard punt to the 5 yard line (which was returned 10 yards) just before half time and held for two successful and one unsuccessful field goals kicked by Eagles kicker David Akers.

USA tennis star Andy Roddick, in Melbourne for the Australian Open was given some Aussie Rules tips by Richmond AFL stars. The AFL players also joined a round of tennis too and apparently impressed. The mutual publicity stunt achieved some good coverage in Melbourne.

The Herald Sun featured the story in the article Andy Roddick handy, but Tigers are ace.

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With the 2009 introduction of a Northern Territory representative team into AFL Queensland's top league, the Velocity Sports Cup, the participating clubs will be playing matches at venues right across the state (QLD) and territory (NT). The NT Thunder (appropriately named after the storms that accompany the wet season) open their campaign on Saturday 4th April at 7pm with a home game in Darwin at TIO Stadium against 2008 premiers Southport. That will be the first of 5 matches at that venue in the minor round, but they will also play 4 home games around 1300 km south, in Alice Springs, right in the heart of the Outback. With the squad split between the two locations, surely their alternating travel must be the world's longest distance for a home game? Such flexibility is something international clubs will appreciate.

The pride of the Top End will of course play away games in Queensland's two biggest population centres, Brisbane and the Gold Coast (around 2000 / 2800 km away from Alice / Darwin), but their journies do not end there. The demanding travel schedule also includes trips to Townsville and Cairns, both in Queensland's north (see map below). All in all the Thunder are set for a tough initiation into Queensland's league, with the players likely to rack up more kilometres than any other Australian footy team. The possible exceptions are Western Australia's two AFL sides, Fremantle and West Coast, but even they will only travel 10 times in a 22 round season, compared with 13 for the NT side (given 4 home games are in Alice).

Inoke Ratu on paper, joined the Western Bulldogs last year when Western Bulldogs became the first AFL club to make use of the International Scholarship List, which allows clubs to effectively quarantine young international talent by signing them to $1000 per year contracts. This gives the club the opportunity to develop the player overseas (or for $20k they can look to move them to Australia). But Ratu's visa has been rejected and the Western Bulldogs are understood to be today set to appeal the decision to deny Inoke Ratu a visa to enter Australia.

Diplomatic tensions between the Australian governement and the interim Fijian goverment have seen a ban on Fijian military entering the country. While Inoke Ratu is not a member of the military, his father is and it seems that is enough for the Department of Immigration to deny the visa. Commenting on his visa rejection Ratu said "I'm a bit disappointed at the moment - everything that has been my target, my aim this year has been turned down just because of my visa application."

This snag comes as a blow with wider implications for the scholarship scheme with the Bulldogs the only club so far to have used it to take a chance on a foreign prospect. It seems that clubs other than the Bulldogs have seen little attraction in it so far and this situation is not likely to enhance how it is viewed.

Some of South Africa's finest cricketers were introduced to Australian football and the AFL South Africa program today. Pictured above are, left to right, South Africa’s Lonwabo Tsotsobe, the AFL’s Jason McCartney who coached the AFL South African team at IC08, Collingwood’s Sharrod Wellingham and pace bowler Makhaya Ntini.

A group of South African cricketers and staff, including Johan Botha, Makhaya Ntini, Hashim Amla and Albie Morkel, visited the Lexus Centre in Melbourne to meet Collingwood players and staff, including captain Nick Maxwell, Harry O’Brien, Sean Rusling and Anthony Corrie, as well as AFL staff David Matthews, Kevin Sheehan, Jason McCartney and Kevin Sheedy. South Africa are currently touring Australia, and although they lost the recent Twenty20 matches, they won the series that counted most - knocking off the Test champions 2 wins to 1.

According to a press release, members of the South African touring party have developed an interest in Australian Rules football having seen how the game has grown in South Africa in recent years, with 17,300 participants now registered in South Africa. Coach Mickey Arthur explained that he follows the sport having gained an interest through his name who happened to be the brother of former AFL player Matthew 'Spider' Burton. The cricketers appeared to enjoy kicking the footies around.

Amla (pictured below studying a football), already a star in Test cricket and touted as a future captain of South Africa, was interviewed on Collingwood TV (warning to international readers, Bigpond probably not available) and although he conceded (whilst dodging football's) that he was unaware of the game being played in his homeland, he could see it had possibilities. Kevin Sheedy gave the cricketers a presentation on AFL South Africa's grass-roots work and was also interviewed.

HRG Australia has announced that it has been appointed to provide corporate travel management services to what was described on industry website e-Travel Blackboard as Australia’s largest and most prestigious sporting body, the Australian Football League (AFL).

The article stated that:

Following a successful tender process, the AFL awarded HRG Australia the contract, citing the company’s innovative and flexible approach as key reasons behind their decision.

"With the AFL set to expand to Western Sydney and the Gold Coast, and with an eye on future global development, we wanted to appoint a company that could work with us as we broaden our horizons," commented Ian Anderson, Chief Financial Officer of the AFL.

We bring this to the attention of our readers as it's nice to continue to see references to "global development", something that was missing for many years. It isn't a major breakthrough, just another small sign of how times have slowly changed.

worldfootynews.com didn't manage to get a match report from Canada's North West Pacific AFL / BC Footy grand final back in September 2008, with game played in the immediate after-glow of the third International Cup. Given that it is turning out to be a slow news week and we've belatedly received this report, here it is, courtesy of Stuart Grills.

Australian Football, in any sense, can be seen as one of the funniest and unpredictable games played on this earth. Consider the ball shape, the amount of player on the field, the different methods to move the ball toward goal, the size of the field and so on. And if you add to the mix the ability of coaches and staff to manipulate and control player movement, style and approach the game becomes even more unpredictable. But no one could ever really say the Australian Rules Football lacks entertainment value!

The march to the NFL Super Bowl continued this weekend for Ben Graham and Sav Rocca as their respective teams set up a head to head clash in next week’s NFC Championship match. This should see the first Australian, and indeed first former Australian rules footballer play in the world famous gridiron football final.

Both punters had solid games and no doubt their clash next week will feature in the Australian media, ironically unlike in their former sport the two will not take the field at the same time during the game. Hopefully the origin of the two competing punters is not lost on the US media either and Aussie Rules can gain another free plug across the country.

Graham’s Cardinals defeated the Carolina Panthers 33-13 with Graham punting 4 times for 43.5 yards average and 36.3 yards net average. He held for Neil Rackers 4 from 5 field goal attempts and three extra point conversions. Rocca’s Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Giants 23 to 11 this morning with Rocca punting 4 times for 42 yards average and 40 yards net average. Rocca also held for David Akers' two successful field goal attempts and two extra point conversions.

The Cardinals will host the Eagles next Sunday.

An article appeared in the Herald Sun about actor Michael Vartan, who regularly watches games on cable and has struck up a friendship with AFL star Brendan Fevola so now "roots for" the Carlton Football Club.

The Hollywood star, best known for his supporting roles, had a leading role in the 2007 Australian horror film Rogue, where his character does battle with a monster size man eating crocodile.

See the full article Brendan Fevola's Carlton guernsey gift to US Michael Vartan

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Watch the video above and go to USFootyNews.com to vote on your favourite USFooty photo of 2008!

The Australian Football League's David Matthews today told worldfootynews.com that the AFL intends to stage the fourth Australian Football International Cup in 2011.

Originally the tournament was to switch to a 4-year cycle but during the International Forum staged during IC08 Matthews, head of AFL National and International Game Development, expressed an interest in it remaining at 3-year intervals.

Matthews also suggested that keeping the event in Melbourne may be beneficial, but has now told us that the AFL's Roger Berryman, who was the primary event coordinator for IC08, will be managing a tender process to determine location and timing. Encouragingly the AFL say they have had interest from several international affiliates and other Australian states in relation to hosting IC11.

More details as they become available.