World Footy News

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.

The Vietnam Swans scored a meritorious 6 goal victory over the Malaysian Warriors in wet conditions at the RMIT University ground in HoChiMinh City on 25th October to annex the LINFOX-LOSCAM Cup for the first time.

The Warriors have had the edge over the Swans in previous encounters and the result was sweet revenge for a 15 goal drubbing suffered in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the year.

This game served as en excellent warm-up for the Swans as they move on to the inaugural IndoChina Cup scheduled to be played at the Phomn Penh International School on November 22nd.

From an Asian football perspective, this is a particularly exciting encounter as it will see the rebirth of the Cambodian Crocs (or Khmer Roos or Angkor Whats?), a team that had gone into decline over the past few years.

Thanks to the efforts of Greg Eggins and others, the Crocs are alive and well and will be joined by the exciting new force in Asia, the Lao Elephants, the well-established Thailand Tigers and the rapidly improving Vietnam Swans. This should be a great contest and hopefully will become an annual event to join the ever growing pantheon of tournaments in the South East Asian region.

A full report is available at the Vietnam Swans website.

A day before the match, the AFL and the GAA hope for a crowded house at the MCG for the second International Rules series contest between Australia and Ireland even given predicted showers.

At the same time, the game exists in another crowded environment.

October is the time of Australia-India Test cricket from India, V8 Super Car racing, this year a Wallabies’ Bledisloe Cup match against New Zealand in Hong Kong, the soccer and basketball seasons, the Rugby League World Cup in Sydney and, via pay TV and news reports, the MLB World Series and the English Premier League.

Above all, in Melbourne, is the spring racing carnival.

While International Rules has to compete for media attention, in a sense the crowding problem demonstrates the need for Australian Football to have an international dimension.

Andrew Cadzow has wasted no time in the new position of AFL Oceania Development Manager. His appointment started in late April 2008 after sustained success by himself and others with Papua New Guinea. In July he undertook a study tour of the region, meeting with people such as the Australian High Commission, local football committees, media outlets, Olympic committees and AVI (Volunteers abroad), and producing a report on the current situation and opportunities.

At the 2008 International Cup the region performed very well, with PNG finishing 1st, New Zealand 2nd, Nauru 5th, Samoa 10th, and Tonga appearing for the first time, playing in the adjunct Multicultural Challenge.

During the tournament officials from the Oceania nations took part in an Oceania meeting, in addition to the International Forum. Cadzow has released the Oceania Plan 2009 - 2011. It discusses a three to five year vision and continues on the theme of increasing participation, identifying and providing pathways for potential AFL talent, determining funding streams, and events and promotion. Further details follow.

After recently sending a partial squad of Timorese nationals to the NTAFL's preseason community tournament, the Crocs are entering a team in the Bali 9s to be held this weekend. Crocs are coming from Timor-Leste, as well as some players travelling from Melbourne, Sydney and Darwin.

As Luke Gosling explains, "these Australian-based players are all connected with Timor-Leste through previous work in the country on capacity building and a wide range of development projects from music and cultural exchanges, financial systems development, water projects and health."

The Timor Crocs would also like to recognise the support of 'The Tradie' Magazine as a new sponsor to the club. Their support will enable some additional shorts for the team.

Joining the Crocs in this tournament will be local opposition from Jakarta and the Borneo Bears, as well as hosts the Bali Geckos.

Read on for some photos of training on the beach in Dili with a few of the Crocs.

Illustrating once again that the hybrid code fills a bigger niche than just at elite AFL v GAA level, in the first half of October, an under-23 representative squad from the 4 "traditional" Australian football states (members of the Australian Amateur Football Council), toured Ireland to play 4 International Rules matches against some prominent local Irish GAA clubs. This tour follows on from a similar tour in 2005 as reported on WFN. Also planned was a match against an All-star side from the Irish Aussie Rules leagues, but sadly that did not go ahead. The following is a summary of the AAFC tour.

Australian Squad

South Australia
Shane Jordan, Toby Haseldine (Salisbury North) Fraser Pinkney (Pembroke Old Scholars) Martin Wilson (Plympton High Old Scholars Camden) Ryan Richter (Broadview)

Tasmania
Allan O’Sign (North Launceston) Daniel Ellis (Launceston) Nicholas Buller (South Launceston) Nick McKenna, Jesse Wells (Burnie Dockers)

Victoria
Jack Watts (University Blues) Ben Dowd (St Kevin’s Old Boys) Brendan Iezzi (Old Trinity Grammarians) Andrew McGuinness (Old Brighton Grammarians) Peter McGettigan (St Bedes Mentone)

Western Australia
Steven Wood, Simon Jones (University) Brad Wedgwood (North Fremantle) Scott Horsburgh (Wesley Curtin) Jarrad Heller (Collegians)

As expected, the Brisbane Lions have cut Irishman Colm Begley from their list. Begley was rookie listed at the end of 2005, debuted late in 2006, and played 19 games in 2007 leading him to be named the Lions' rookie of the year. In a demonstration of just how quickly life can turn against an AFL player, 2008 was spent mostly off the field with a quad injury and with a change of coach Begley's career, with the Lions at least, was ended.

The sudden death decision would seem to be quite harsh given Begley's on field form and may be based more on coach Michael Voss' perception of other aspects of the player. The 22 year old will most likely enter the upcoming drafts in an attempt to continue in the AFL, and must surely be a reasonable bet with a late draft pick, given he has shown he can play the game but would still have some improvement in him.

Up and coming 19 year old Irishman Pearce Hanley, who ironically replaced Begley in Brisbane's side on debut, remains on the club's list.

Once again, due in part due to the involvement of a second country with a large diaspora, and perhaps the recent history of violence, the International Rules Series seems to have a growing international audience, perhaps rivalling the AFL Grand Final in terms of overall interest, not just on television but also internet coverage, YouTube and media interest.

Here are the Australian and international television broadcast details for the 2nd IR test which will be held between Australia vs Ireland in Melbourne on Friday 31st October at MCG 7:45pm AEDT.

The Herald Sun published an interesting article about David Banda, the Malawian boy adopted by American singer Madonna and his favourite piece of clothing - a Hawthorn Hawks AFL jumper. A most unlikely combination.

The article Madonna's boy David Banda is Hawthorn's latest fan appears here.

International Rules continues to be the focus of the Australian foobtall off-season.

Masters (over 35) level International Rules has been played between Ireland and Australia for 6 years, more recently named the Paddy Gaffney Cup in memory of an Irish footballer who died during a junior club match.

Australia has never won the series, but this year have pulled out the big guns. Former AFL players Gavin Wanganeen, Richard Champion, Adrian Fletcher, Paul Dimattina, Shaun Smith, Brad Sholl and Paul Hudson took on Ireland's over 35s in the first of a two game series.

Following the domestic NSW Thrilling match in Sydney and the international senior match also being decided by a point, the contest should no doubt be close.

This year the series came to the Gold Coast for the first time with a match played at Len Peak Oval, Kirra on the 26th October. The decider will be played on November 1 in Melbourne.

There has been a flurry of activity in seeking to draft Irish Gaelic footballers into the AFL in recent years, and with the Ricky Nixon trials held in Ireland, it seems like the numbers will continue to rise.

However it should be acknowledged that there have been many Irish players drafted with late picks in the past, with few of them establishing AFL careers. These days the process is handled better via club rookie lists, but despite that recently there have been a lot of Irishmen leave their clubs - voluntarily or otherwise. In the last few months Carlton has ended Aisake O'hAilpin's time, team-mate Michael Shields decided Australian football was not for him, and now there is speculation that Brisbane's Colm Begley is not in favour with the new Michael Voss-led regime.

Begley appeared to make the transition to Aussie Rules in record time, with 2007 his best year, but was hampered by injury this past season and reports are that he has not been offered a contract for 2009. It seems his time at the Lions is not definitely up, but his management is looking elsewhere on the assumption that the odds are now against him. Meanwhile Begley is giving his full attention to representing Ireland in the International Rules series.

More information at Former Lion takes the field in International Rules and Begley focused on next fortnight.