World Footy News

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?

Australian football appears to be on an encouraging trajectory in Oceania (the region around Australia, New Zealand and PNG and including the island countries such as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and many others). The formation of AFL Oceania appears set to continue the exciting growth of recent years.

Possibly the biggest threat to the game's future in this region is climate change. Many of the small countries in the area are low-lying and particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and increases in severe storms. Salt damage to soils will precede the inundation. Already we are starting to see the first repercussions of these effects, such as in Climate change refugees to be resettled in PNG.

Of course these people have a lot more to worry about than sport, but as a football website, it is interesting to ponder what the effects climate change will have on Aussie Rules. We've seen drought delay football seasons in Australia, and in the years ahead we may even see whole emerging football nations threatened. It seems unlikely that the public and political will exists to prevent some of the serious medium to long terms effects - most of the world's countries continue to increase their per capita energy usage, and most countries are still fundamentally committed to population growth as a cornerstone of their economic system. Population tends to be the proverbial "elephant in the room" that doesn't get mentioned.

An interesting article about Australian football appeared in the New York Times - in 1910. The historic piece was quoting Major Peixotto, leader of the Pacific Coast Amateur Athletic Union. It dates back to an era when the sporting landscape was vastly different. The professional sporting bodies of today did not exist, and a variety of amateur associations encouraged endeavour across a range of sports, some of which no longer exist - basketball teams even competed in weight divisions.

It seems that Australian football was being exhibited in California and met with enthusiasm. "Practically a similar summing up as that of the major's is the consensus among the Californians who have seen the game as demonstrated as it is now being taught on the coast. Its general absorption of most of the other types of contests with the leather spheroid has proved the rule whenever the issue was football", wrote the Times.

The AFL Middle East got underway on Friday 24 October, with three matches in three different Gulf countries. Over 400 spectators attended the matches, giving a strong indication that the league will be a success.

In a Dubai derby, the Heat defeated the newly-formed Dragons, whilst the city's third club ventured to Qatar to defeat the Doha Kangaroos. In the third match, the Muscat Magpies defeated the visiting Abu Dhabi Falcons.

AFL Middle East Commercial Manager Stephen Nugent gave us a run-down of first round results.

Final Scores: Ireland 4.8.9 (57) d Australia 3.8.11 (53)

Ireland defeated Australia comfortably, although finally on the scoreboard by 4 points, in the second Test at the MCG, taking home the Cormac McAnallen Cup, after winning the Perth Test by one point a week earlier.

The historic record of international matches played is now 15 wins Ireland, 14 Australia and two draws.

Kade Simpson won the Jim Stynes Medal as Australia's player of the tournament, while Graham Canty was the winner of the best Irish player in the series.

Two last quarter overs by the strong marking Drew Petrie brought Australia close to the Irish with only minutes to play.

The game was a success on the field, despite the media critics and despite the showers which have greeted both games.

The Vienna Dingoes were formed back in 2004, becoming the Vienna Kangaroos a few years later. Some talk was heard late 2007 about the creation of a second club in the southern city of Graz, but plans went back into hibernation and the Kangaroos remained Austria's only club.

All this changed last weekend, when the Graz Down-Under Dogs hosted the Vienna Kangaroos on Saturday October 25 in the village of Zwaring.

As the traveling Vienna team were light on numbers, they were assisted by a few new Graz recruits pulled together from various parts of the world in a common goal to try this unusual game. American, Finnish, German, Australian and Austrian nationalities joined under the Kangaroos banner to take on the talented-yet-untested, 100% Austrian, Graz Doggies.

Most impressively, it was the all-local Graz team who took away the points, with a one-point victory over the Kangaroos, 13.10 (88) to 13.9 (87).

Report courtesy of Ben Chick from the Vienna Kangaroos, photos courtesy of Monika Sax.

Chris Bandy has been in the job as Head of Australian Football Development in Indonesia for a year, after an Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development grant allowed for the introduction of Australian Football into Indonesian Schools.

The initial results have been highly encouraging, and it is expected that a fully-functional junior competition will be set up in Jakarta next year. WFN recently interviewed Chris on his adventures in what is a challenging, but most interesting and rewarding environment.

As previously reported, the Calgary Kookaburras travelled down from Canada to the US Nationals where they defeated all their opponents in the Women's division, finishing with victory over the Atlanta Lady Kookaburras in the final. Below is a complete report on their tournament, courtesy of AFL Canada.

The Calgary Kookaburras have capped off a stellar 2008 season by winning the US National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Kookaburras were unbeaten in four games to win their first National Championship, overwhelming the previously-undefeated Atlanta Lady Kookaburras in a thrilling final.

The tournament win was made more remarkable because Calgary finished last in the 2007 US Nationals when they merged with the Washington First Lady Eagles. Losses to Milwaukee, Arizona and Atlanta during that tournament sparked the Calgary women into a vigorous off-season fitness program and led to the development of the first full-season women’s footy league in North America during the 2008 summer. Regular matches and dedicated women’s footy training sessions helped to give the mostly-Canadian squad the skills needed to take out the 2008 title.

The AFL has confirmed that Collingwood will play West Coast in the NAB Cup (AFL pre-season competition) in South Africa. The clubs will face off at Newlands Cricket Ground, a Test cricket venue in Cape Town. To accommodate the match and other scheduling issues, the first round of the NAB Cup will span three weeks. The full fixture is here.

Cape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa and the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many government offices are located. Western Cape is one of the four provinces being developed by AFL South Africa. Although participation in Aussie Rules is growing rapidly in South Africa, it will be a challenge to get a large crowd to this match, so hopefully a major media campaign will be used to raise awareness leading up to the game. Newlands hosted Brisbane versus Fremantle back in 1998, drawing 10,000 spectators. It's current seating capacity is 25,000. Regardless of crowd figures, the match will be a tremendous boost for the local players and development staff.

The game is 12pm local time, 9pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time, on February 7th. It follows the successful UAE match between Adelaide and Collingwood early this year.