World Footy News

The inaugural USFootyNews.com All-Star Team was voted on during the month of October. Here are the results.

The battle for Australian hearts and minds, in football terms, continues unabated. And it seems the field of battle is spreading to include neighbouring nations.

The Rugby League World Cup is currently being staged in Australia. As would be the case with a true Australian football World Cup, the Aussies are dominating. However the gap to the next rung of sides is not as great as in Aussie Rules, and the defence-oriented game helps keep the scoreboard relatively respectable. Nevertheless it has been interesting to hear quite a lot of criticism of the tournament, with some media lambasting the level of promotion and/or the quality. But Australian football can only look forward to a time when our International Cup reaches the same level as the RL World Cup, which itself sits a poor third to the Rugby Union WC and soccer's WC.

Disturbingly for Aussie Rules fans, there is talk that Rugby League is now rapidly growing in Oceania (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa etc), and moves are afoot to locate an NRL (Australian National Rugby League) club in Port Moresby, PNG. Meanwhile negotiations are under-way for the AFL to vacate its major venues for up to 2 months if Australia is successful in its bid for the 2018 soccer World Cup finals.

As anticipated in Territorians headed to WAFL or AFLQ, the Northern Territory will enter a team in the top Queensland league in 2009. The side will play home games in Darwin and Alice Springs, and be coached by former indigenous AFL player Michael McLean.

Although the program is football at a state league level, all the players will be required to be either studying at school, TAFE or university, completing an apprenticeship or traineeship, or working in full-time employment.

It will be interesting to see whether this will lead Queensland towards becoming a major centre for Aussie Rules in the years ahead - perhaps a second tier elite competition, below the AFL but above the other state leagues. Probably not, but it is a step in that direction.

The global financial meltdown has already reached Australian sport.

With the AFL proposing two new AFL clubs in the next few years, some have urged they delay the program until the world economy turns around. Originally a new stadium on the Gold Coast was mooted, but with the area's two major investment management firms, MFS and City Pacific, and major developer Raptis, enduring financial problems this year, that now appears off the cards in the short to medium term. A re-development of the old Brisbane Bears ground at Carrara is now more likely. See New stadium plans off the table as GC17 puts its case.

Nevertheless, the AFL Commission appear determined to push ahead with the new clubs. Whether that resolve holds firm should be revealed next week as the Commission meet to discuss the issue.

It could be argued that the current economic climate makes a Tasmanian bid more attractive than West Sydney, though it's also worth noting that one of the vocal supporters of a Tassie bid, formerly Australia's richest person, Andrew Forrest, lost over half his wealth, on paper at least, in the share market fall this year. Ironically he has been replaced at #1 by Frank Lowy, the man behind soccer's big push in Australia. Convincing any sponsor to get on board, be it in Sydney or Tasmania, will be a difficult task. Perhaps the likeliest decision by the AFL is to proceed with West Sydney with caution, not stopping the project, but not fully committing to it until the economic outlook is clearer.

Finding a major sponsor is proving elusive for some of the Melbourne-based clubs, and it wouldn't surprise to see the AFL needing to put more money into them in 2009 than already the case.

The AFL has also warned clubs on the possible loss of existing sponsors and a downturn in members. The League has also vowed to cut its own spending, with reportedly up to $5 million cut in 2009. Hopefully that won't impact on the relatively modest international budget - it's in just such times that bold undertakings can yield their greatest benefits.

The inaugural Finnegan's Cup match, the first International Rules game to be played in Malaysia will take place between the Malaysian Warriors Australian Football Club and the Malaysian Orang Eire, the Malaysian Gaelic Athletic Association on November 22nd at 2.30pm at Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur.

This should be a real fun day, both teams know each other well with numerous of the Irish lads having played Australian Football with the Warriors and vice versa, some Warriors having played the Gaelic game with the Orang Eire.

Wihilst there is bound to be plenty of banter and craic, with national pride at stake, one can be assured no quarter will be asked or given.

To the winner, be the spoils

A full report will appear on www.worldfootynews.com in due course.

Details of the game can be found on www.warriorsmalaysia.com

The following article is by Irishman Ian McCourt. "Wicklow to be exact - where they play bad GAA but in beautiful surroundings". He came to Melbourne in the hope of sunshine and gold, of which he has only found one. He was delighted to see Ireland beat the Aussies in the International Rules series.

Despite the fears of the GAA, the first match of the 2008 International Rules series went off without a hitch in Perth, with Ireland winning by the slimmest of margins. With the series being judged on aggregate scores, Australia's fight back in the final quarter and Ireland's one point lead ensured that the next game would be a closely fought affair. For the second match, the series moved to Melbourne and the International Rules road show rolled into town leaving me with two stark choices. Either swing it with the real fans. Feel the passion; hear the noise; join forces with the fan on my left; swill beer with the fan on my right; and scream in unison with indignation as the umpire gets another decision wrong. Or, get tickets that would allow me to hob-nob it with the bigwigs in the members’ section of the ground. I thought about it for a second and jumped aboard the Good Ship Prawn Sandwich.

Many of the best Australian football athletes play in the AFL - but not all of them. Check out this incredible mark, or "hanger" colloquially speaking. If you've ever seen one like that live, you'll know that it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you'll talk about it for weeks to come.

The player was Saad Saad, playing for Seymour FC in the 2005 Grand Final. Seymour play in Victoria's Goulburn Valley League. A breath-taking moment unique to our game.

[youtube:NVoXHYWto08]

The first Gaelic football players from player agent Ricky Nixon's talent search program in Ireland are arriving in Australia. Nixon has sought to become the conduit by which Irish players are introduced to AFL clubs (see Nixon makes good on Irish scouting pledge).

The Age has reported that Conor Meredith (18) and Niall McKeever (17) arrive this week in Australia, McKeever to spend 1 week each with North Melbourne and Richmond, and similarly Meredith with Richmond and St Kilda. James Kielt arrives later to trial with the Roos and possibly the Saints.

Two more players are reportedly due in soon, and 20 year old Tom Parsons has stayed on since the International Rules Tests to look for an AFL contract.

"We have got to look to new markets to find talent, especially with the two new teams (Gold Coast and West Sydney) on the horizon in the next four years and us being hamstrung in the draft by the concessions they will receive," said Richmond football manager Craig Cameron.

Update 12/11/2008: County Kerry's tall forward Tommy Walsh, 19, last month named the Gaelic Athletic Association's young footballer of the year, will train with St Kilda.

Just as international footy continues to grow, so worldfootynews.com needs to expand if it is to do the game justice. We wish to advise our readers that we've had quite a few changes of staff in recent weeks, probably the most changes in our four year history.

Leaving us due to the demands of work and academic pursuits is Peter Parry, one of our stalwarts going back to pretty much our first days. Primarily covering International Rules, Peter contributed over 70 articles, with a particular interest in the bridge between Australian and Gaelic football at amateur club level, not just the elite Tests. He'll still be based in Adelaide (but previously spent time in Wales), and no doubt we will still see Peter popping on to WFN for a comment now and then.

The Bali Geckos won their home tournament the Bali9s for the fourth time at Canggu Club on November 1st, 2008. This year four teams contested, the Geckos, their perennial rivals the Jakarta Bintangs, Timor Leste Crocs and Borneo Bears.

The Crocs and the Bears are new clubs, and whilst they were well defeated by their more experienced opponents they can be proud of their efforts and their participation augurs well for the future.

Played on a nine-a-side, round robin format, this type of football demands good running skills and plenty of depth on the interchange bench, often putting visiting sides as a disadvantage. In the preliminary rounds the Bintangs carried all before them, narrowly defeating the Geckos and having good wins over Borneo and Timor Leste. Bali won their other two games to qualify for the final.

In the final however, with the addition of some fresh legs, Bali began better and held a good advantage at half time. The Bintangs fought back in the second half to get within 3 points, but the fresher and fitter Geckos were able to kick away and win by 11 points.

The AFL in partnership with Football Victoria and the Department for Victorian Communities has established the Multicultural Program to assist people from diverse cultural backgrounds to integrate into Australian society through Australian Football. Obviously the program is not entirely without its own self-serving goals - to bring on a new generation of footy fans and players. But in doing so it offers many benefits to immigrants.

The program began in early 2006 employing 3 Multicultural Development Officers based at various AFL clubs (Western Bulldogs, Collingwood, Hawthorn). Recently Richmond and Essendon joined the program.

Michael Roberts, better known to international footy as an Australian who spent time as development officer in Samoa and was a key official guiding them through the recent International Cup, has joined the Multicultural Program, working with Richmond for the Central East region of Melbourne. This particular area is seen as having many children with backgrounds that are from Greece, China, Italy, Vietnam, Indonesia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.

We're hearing a heck of a lot about Barack Obama now that he is US President-elect. Certainly much of the world looks to him as someone that inspires hope that he will lead the world's most powerful nation in good directions.

But the big question is - has any AFL club got him on board yet? It's a regular occurrence for celebrities and politicians visiting Australia to declare their support for one club or another - Collingwood's Eddie McGuire seemingly in the wings as often as not. But no word yet on Obama support for an AFL club.

Perhaps USFooty can send him a congratulatory Revolution jumper?