World Footy News

The Australian Rules Football League Ireland (ARFLI) have had many ups and downs in their short history, although two things have always been assured - a strong squad sent to the International Cups and strong clubs out of Dublin.

But away from the Republic's capital only the Leeside Lions have thrived. Several regional sides have come and gone, such as the Clare Crows (no longer active). However in 2008 momentum has been building, and although there can be no guarantees, there are real hopes for several new clubs in time for the 2009 season.

We've previously reported on attempts to kickstart the Mayo Mariners and Kingdom Kangaroos (see ARFLI season running, Mayo and Kerry clubs postponed). Those efforts are continuing and joining them in the race to start next season are the Midwest Magpies, to be based in Galway. The club has been established by Eoin Budds, Aiden Cunningham and National team player Ray Colleran. They are looking for players and officials. More details on the ARFLI website here.

Ironically the key to having more teams in ARFLI is just that - having more teams. By increasing the number of regional sides there will be less travel and more local rivalries, thus improving the chances of retaining players and indeed clubs. Success should in theory breed success. After several false starts it would be tremendous to see ARFLI expand to 7 or 8 clubs in 2009, and it would go part way to ensuring the Warriors continue to keep pace with nations such as PNG, New Zealand and South Africa, at least in the short term.

As expected the AFL has told the Tasmanian AFL bid team that their proposal is very good but they will have to wait as the Gold Coast and West Sydney are next.

The bid team travelled to AFL House, led by Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett. Under the theme Ready When You Are, the presentation showed that the Launceston Aurora stadium, with a capacity of 21,000, would provide a similar deal to Geelong's successful arrangement with the 25,000 capacity Skilled Stadium (Kardinia Park). Combined with corporate support such as a 3-year $4 million deal with confectionary maker Mars and a fervent supporter base, the Tasmanians are believed to have demonstrated they are ready as soon as the AFL gives them the nod.

In 2007 the team at worldfootynews.com analysed the results from international Australian football over 2005 and 2006 to produce their consolidated view of how the world's Aussie Rules teams ranked against each other as at the end of 2006. The results were presented in World footy rankings for 2006. We fully concede this is a subjective analysis, but we thought it worthwhile to give it a go given no other world ranking system is in place.

The focus was on nations perceived to be capable of fielding full squads of local players (non-Australian) under International Cup rules, including 18-a-side on the field. The 2005 International Cup results were used as a starting point. Teams were ranked from Australia at number 1, Papua New Guinea at 2 (just squeezing out New Zealand) down to France at 17 (just qualifying as borderline able to field a full all-French squad).

We are about to undertake this process again, using IC08 as the starting point. But this time we want to involve our readers. Not in an actual vote, which is too hard to monitor in terms of balancing out country biases, but in a discussion of how the process unfolds. So here we welcome comments from our readers and writers. The topics up for discussion in this piece are the status of the Peace Team and Catalonia, and whether to rank Great Britain as one nation.

Now the wind and rain have settled back into the British Isles, there is a chance to look back at a manically busy year of footy in Great Britain. Alongside a steadily developing raft of domestic competitions, 2008 saw huge growth in international footy being played and planned for the near future, with adult and junior fixtures being played in Britain, mainland Europe and Australia.

Probably foremost in many minds was the International Cup (IC), the tri-annual event attended by footy playing nations from across the globe and a chance for the best of the Brits to test themselves against their peers from 4 continents.

Focused preparation had been underway for over a year, giving the coaching staff opportunities to see many more players in action and decide where they could fit into the game plan.

A benefit of this was the chance to look outside the traditional recruiting grounds of the London-based competitions, with 12 players selected from clubs across regional England and the fledgling Welsh league – a real endorsement of the development of British players outside the Aussie-laden and more experienced clubs in London.

The license bid team pushing for a Tasmanian side in the AFL is due to present its case to the AFL Commission on Friday, led by Tasmania's political leader, Premier David Bartlett. The widespread belief is that the AFL will receive the bid but proceed with their plans for Gold Coast and West Sydney sides (the latter perhaps on a slower timetable). In which case the Tasmanians will have to watch on, frustrated again.

Perhaps that reality is already causing frustration. In previewing their case, key bid member and ANZ Chief Economist Saul Eslake stirred up the debate by referring to the West Sydney region, in some respects seen as Tasmania's competition, as Boganville. That's a suggestion that the people of West Sydney are bogans (a derogatory term suggesting they lack sophistication or class). It also has cache because it sounds very much like Bougainville, a semi-autonamous island of Papua New Guinea that was often in the news a few years back. It's a strange call by Eslake, who is very much the public face of ANZ, one of Australia's biggest banks - one wonders what other ANZ staff and shareholders think of their Chief Economist alienating potentially 2 million customers in the western suburbs of Australia's biggest city?

The first game of former AFL player Ben Graham for the Arizona Cardinals today saw him punt 3 times against the St Louis Rams. His first punt of 38 yards was inside the ten with no return yards. He held well for kicker Neil Rakers two successful field goal attempts, from 44 and 22 yards. In the last quarter he punted 50 yards to the St Louis 11 yard line, but the punt was returned 33 yards. His last punt was also a 38 yarder which was not returned following a fair catch at the St Louis 13 yard line. He also held for Rakers' four successful extra point conversions. All up three punts at an average of 41 yards, but only 31 net yards – with all three punts inside the 20 yards line.

Via considerable media coverage Graham again put the game of Australian Rules Football front and centre in another US state as his background was explained to the fans of his new team. It is hoped that he has done enough to impress his new team (which needed Graham to perform as both punter and holder), as they now have secured a playoff spot as they cannot be headed in their division.

The AFL have released some promotion for the upcoming Collingwood versus West Coast match in Cape Town. Pleasingly the video launched via their website features a background on the South African national side, which should serve to educate fans in both Australia and South Africa that the sport is now on the ground in South African communities. No word yet as to whether the commercial will be aired on television in Cape Town.

The game is scheduled for 12:10pm South African time on Saturday 7th February 2009 at Sahara Park, Newlands, Cape Town, and is the start of the 2009 NAB Cup. After the match, locals sides Khayelitsha and Nyanga go head-to-head.

The advert and further information directing people to the AFL South Africa website can be viewed at: www.afl.com.au/southafrica

Robert Harvey was today named the 2008 AFLPA Madden Medalist. The medal recognizes his outstanding on field performance and off-field football achievements, personal growth and community spirit throughout his 21 seasons at the St Kilda Football Club. The medal was presented at a gala lunch at the Peninsula in the Docklands today. Harvey edged out Peter Bell, Shane Crawford, Scott West, David Neitz, Mal Michael and Nigel Lappin for the top honour.

The Top three votes breakdown for the four awards was as follows.

The Madden Medal Presented by AMP
Robert Harvey 28 Votes
Peter Bell 16 Votes
Shane Crawford 15 Votes

Earlier in the day Peter Bell spoke of his football journey after winning The Open Universities Australia Personal Development Award. The award comes on the back of his achievements including obtaining a law degree from the University of Melbourne and serve as AFLPA President from 2002-2007, in between captaining a football club and winning AFL Premiership’s. He is currently CEO of Simpking International Consultants.

Footy is not a new sport in Perpignan, anyone who follows footy in France remembers the game organised between the French national team and a selection of English players back in 2005 that brought 500 spectators to the ground. But soon after that, the local Saint Estève Saints disappeared and footy in the south of France with it.

But during the summer of 2008, a young ex-rugby player decided to bring footy back to life on the Mediterranean shores. After discovering the game on TV and realising that the St Estève team no longer existed, he decided to give it a go, and contacted the Saints former president to start the club again.

“At first I found footy fun, but I did not understand any of the rules" says young Tigers president But after reading them he realised that "Aussie rules is a great sport that deserves more recognition".

In the process the Saint Estève Saints became the Perpignan Tigers. For now no players from the Saints have joined the Tigers, but there's no doubt that some of them will bring their knowledge to the young team.

Damien, the Tigers president, tried to organise a tournament in November with the help of the nearby Montpellier team, but unfortunately he was forced to cancel the event. There is no doubt that the Tigers will play a major part in the future of footy in France.

Ed: World Footy News welcomes Olivier Tresca to our team of reporters. Olivier was a pioneer of French footy, as well as more recent experience in Scotland.

The Madden Medal award recognizes both the well documented on-field success but also the achievements that AFL players have had in their community and personal development endeavours. Two players that are retiring this year that are up for a number of the awards are Peter Bell and Mal Michael, both of whom have received plenty of coverage on this site in terms of their backgrounds and international connections.

The winners of the awards have been determined by the Executive Committee of the AFL Players’ Association who all cast votes on a 3, 2, 1 basis for each award. The Madden Medal committee consists of the AFLPA Executive; Joel Bowden (President), Brett Burton (Vice-President), Luke Ball, Adam Goodes, Tom Harley, Nick Maxwell, Robert Murphy, Luke Power, Ashley Hansen AFLPA CEO Brendon Gale, and past player representative Simon Madden. The awards will take place this Friday in Melbourne and the achievements by all the retiring players below are worth noting.

The North Melbourne Football Club has added Irishman Conor Meredith to its rookie list for 2009. The 19 year old is one of Gaelic Football’s brightest prospects and was identified by List Manager Cameron Joyce during a special training camp held in Ireland in August. He then travelled to Melbourne for trials with the Kangaroos and Richmond.

“Conor showed good speed at the camp. He is a good height and in time could play half back, half forward or even through the midfield. The one thing that stood out was his ability to kick the AFL ball pretty well, which for me is half the battle,” Joyce said.

After an impressive showing, despite being unfamiliar with the oval-shaped football, Meredith from County Laois was given a two year deal. “We are delighted to have Conor on our rookie list for the next two years. The coaches are excited and looking forward to working with him and want to give him the best possible chance to reach his potential in the sport,” Joyce added.

While it looks like former Geelong captain Ben Graham is coming to Arizona (as punter for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals), it was current day players that impressed the footy locals in the Grand Canyon state recently.

The Western Bulldogs AFL team were in Phoenix on their preseason high altitude trip to Arizona and were closely observed by members of the Arizona Hawks and Ladyhawks teams. The USAFL players were able to take part in some drills with the Doggies and legendary Carlton Premiership player, and Bulldogs Assistant Coach, Peter Dean was kind enough to take the Hawks players for a few drills and impart some words of wisdom from his own fifteen year playing career with the Blues.

Arizona Hawks' Adam Smark told us “Witnessing the amazing work ethic and dedication of players at the elite level was a great experience for those present and the chance to meet and talk to the players was an amazing opportunity. There are fans of the club everywhere who would cherish such an experience and the Hawks and LadyHawks who were in attendance certainly appreciated the time in the presence of the Bulldogs."

"Thanks to the Western Bulldogs, Hawks President Laki Kondylas and club legend and AZAFL premiership captain Darren Toohey for giving the Arizona clubs the chance to experience such an event, and good luck to the Western Bulldogs for 2009.”

He went on to add “It was certainly an eye opener for the US folks since you would be hard pressed to find a team of elite sportsmen here in the US willing to let people at our level of involvement in the sport actually take part in drills and be so welcoming to everyone. I can’t speak highly enough of how great the Bulldogs were and how inviting they were to share the experience with us.”

"Dogs hit skies for Phoenix" which appeared on the Bulldog's website gives some background to the trip.