World Footy News

Further to our report Football's home ground in Tianjin, more details have been reported in Melbourne's Age newspaper regarding plans to build an Australian Football stadium in Tianjin, China. The article says that Thomson Perrett, a golf course design firm, now has design plans for the ground which will be the first purpose-built Aussie Rules ground in the giant Asian nation.

The story did point out that there is grass-roots support for the game, with matches already played on smaller venues. Tianjin, 137 kilometres south-east of Beijing, has a population of over 10 million. It was interesting to note that the report cites AFL community facilities manager Ken Gannon as saying the ground would host Chinese and Asian championships.

"This provides a home for some of the activities that have been taking place," Gannon said. And for those worried that the AFL might be spending Aussie footy money overseas, this is another example of leveraging other sources of funding, with the article saying, "The AFL was not contributing any capital to the development".

China, India and Japan, were the three Asian teams to compete in the 16-nation Australian Football AFL International Cup last month. China was the only Asian nation to participate in both the Asian Championships in Singapore (through a mostly expat-Australian side) and the International Cup, events which unfortunately this year were held concurrently.

Canadian coach Mark Block was an interested attendee at the recent US Nationals in Colorado, in which Vancouver took out division one. The Northwind's main man was impressed with talent coming through from the programs in B.C. and Alberta, and can see plenty of future Northwind potential. Here's what he had to say about the Canadian teams in the US Nationals, and a hint at a possible "Canadian Nationals" in 2009.

On October 13th 2008, the Vancouver Cougars won the Division 1 Championship in spectacular fashion at the US Nationals in Colorado Springs. I was particularly impressed by Stewart Grills who has bled blue and red for the Vancouver Cougars as one of the legends of B.C. footy. His hard work is also been benefiting the Northwind national program. There were strong performances from players like James Maitland who cleaned up in the half back line with great marks and booming clearances. Clayton Holmes applied effective pressure in the half forward line with Gareth Bowley. They also had strong performances. Congratulations goes out to Scott Sheen, (B.C.'s Assistant Coach of the Northwind) as well, for his great success as the coach of the Vancouver Cougars.

11 years after their first and only venture to Cape Town in South Africa (Brisbane versus Fremantle in 1998), the AFL looks set to return in February 2009. A NAB Cup match between Collingwood and West Coast has been discussed for some time now and looks set to be officially launched next week, according to Melbourne paper the Herald Sun.

It will be staged during African Mining Indaba, "the world's largest gathering of mining stakeholders", with an eye on increasing sponsorship opportunities. Carlton and Fremantle played an exhibition match in Pretoria in the 2008 pre-season (see Dockers down Blues in Pretoria). Hopefully it will again be held in conjunction with matches involving local South African players.

Australian football and Zimbabwe have recently been back in the news after a few years’ hibernation. The recently reformed and renamed Australian Football Zimbabwe has plans in place to see junior footy clinics begin in the first half of next year, with the creation of school teams and a men’s national team in the pipeline.

We spoke to AFZ’s Larry Ferrier about the program’s development so far.

From our vault of "better late than never" stories, here's a report on the 2008 Australian Rules Football League Ireland (ARFLI) season, the Grand Final for which was held in August (in the flurry just prior to the IC08).

ARFLI seasons are always keenly contested, but never more so than in International Cup years, as players vie for national selection. This season saw five clubs compete, with the Dublin Saints the strugglers and the South Dublin Swans as the frontrunners, but they were rolled by reigning premiers the Leeside Lions in their semi-final on August 9th. A small field at Terenure and a strong breeze saw the Lions bombing long range goals, scoring six majors to none in the first quarter, killing the contest and going on to win by 28 points - a bitter pill to swallow for South Dublin, having lost just one minor round match. In the other semi the Dublin Demons were far too strong for an under-strength Midland Tigers, winning by 87 points, and would enter the big final desperate to win it for the first time in many years.

The following story is courtesy of Dan Eddy from the Ontario AFL.

Toronto, Ontario, October 4th – In one of the greatest Grand Final’s in the 20-year history of the Ontario Australian Football League, the Etobicoke Kangaroos have taken out their first Premiership in stunning fashion by defeating the Toronto Eagles by just one point. The victory stopped a run of two consecutive Conacher Cups for the mighty Eagles team.

The day began with an exhibition match between a metro team and a team from outside of Toronto, with the metro squad too strong in the end to the tune of 97 points. That was then followed by a junior match with students from Red Willow public school in Brampton. This was a success as the kids soaked up the chance to learn the skills of the game on a League oval in front of a big crowd.

With a junior program in the works for next season, we may see these kids playing in the OAFL before too long. It was then time for the big match, and after opening speeches from representatives from League sponsors Crown Point (Martin Walter) and the Trillium Foundation (Vincent Conville), as well as the Canadian National Anthem, the game got under way.

Luke Matias played for the British Bulldogs in both the 2005 and 2008 International Cups. After the 2005 IC he stayed on to play top level Amateur football in Melbourne and was featured in this WFN story.

Luke had an excellent tournament this year, being named Great Britain’s Best & Fairest for the Cup and was selected in the Australian Football International Cup World Team.

WFN caught up with Luke to assess his thoughts on the progress of international footy from the second to the third IC.

The Carlton Football Club has issued a press release confirming the de-listing of four players. As we suggested in O'hAilpin split looming? and speculated on during the past year, the Blues' cull includes one of their Irish players, Aisake O'hAilpin. The other players departing are Cain Ackland, Clinton Benjamin, Luke Blackwell, Ryan Jackson (de-listed) and Jason Saddington has retired.

The releases stated that: "Aisake O’hAilpin was recruited from Cork, Ireland as an International Rookie in the 2005 NAB AFL Rookie Draft (4th round selection). He was elevated to the Carlton senior list in 2007 but did not play a senior game".

And regarding all players, Carlton’s General Manager Football Operations, Steven Icke, said "We sincerely thank the players for the commitment they have given to the Carlton Football Club during their careers and we wish them well going forward".

Another player with European links, though possibly fairly thin, is Adelaide's 28 year old Kris Massie, born in Sweden and de-listed after many years at AFL level. Referring to Massie and other players, General Manager of Football Operations John Reid said: "We thank them all for their commitment to the club and wish them well in their future endeavours. Kris in particular has given the club great service playing 88 games for Adelaide and six pre-season games". Massie also played with Carlton prior to being traded to the Crows.

The question now is whether O'hAilpin and Massie will enter the upcoming drafts in an attempt to stay on an AFL list.

Update 6pm 14/10/2008: Carlton's Steven Icke has been further quoted as saying that they were disappointed to de-list Aisake, and that "There was never any issue with his athleticism. It was more just his game understanding where we needed to see a bit more development". The club hope Setanta can continue as a key position defender, and are considering offering contracts to Cork’s Ciaran Sheehan and Zach Tuohy from Laois. More details in Blues persist with Irish experiment.

A small mention of Australian football being taught in refugee camps in Western Sahara, in the article Unionists to visit Saharawi Camps. Australian unionists will be attending the 6th congress of the Western Saharan trade union UGTSARIO, held in refugee camps of southern Algeria, which neighbours Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Garry Holliday will teach kids how to play Aussie Rules football after the Australian Football League donated a football teaching kit.

Of course this is unlikely to spur great footy growth anywhere, but you never know, just think of the story of South Africa's Mtutu Hlomela and his accidental start in the game. At worst, nice to see some fun being brought to people in tough circumstances.

The Vancouver Cougars kicked three goals with the strong breeze and one goal against to take a solid victory over the Baltimore Washington Eagles who were only able to kick two goals with the wind. The talls of Vancouver dominated the game, particularly in defense. The Eagles stuck to their game plan of precise passes, but they weren't precise enough and turn overs led to goals in the first half.

It was a pretty big day for Canadian football, with the Calgary Kookaburras beating the Atlanta Kookaburras in the Women's National Championship.

It wasn't all one way for Canada, with the Seattle Grizzlies defeating the Calgary Kangaroos to take the Division II National Championship.

The Division III Championship was won by the Kansas City Power and Division IV winners were the Ohio Valley combine team.

Story by Chris Adams for USFootyNews.com.

The following article Australian Rules Football reaching many new heights by Justin Pederson appeared in local Colorado Springs newspaperThe Gazette and the original article can be viewed online here.

An Australian Rules Football game at an elevation of 7,000 feet against a backdrop of mountains is an unusual sight considering the sport's origin on a continent known for coral reefs and sandy beaches.

Nonetheless, the 2008 U.S. Australian Rules Football League National Championships kicked off Saturday at the Air Force Academy athletic fields. The league's first tournament - in 1998 - consisted of eight teams. This year's event has 30 men's teams in four divisions and six women's teams.

Colorado, hosting the event for the first time, is represented by three teams from the Denver Bulldogs Australian Rules Football club. Denver's Division I team is the defending champion and has won five of the past six national titles, including four in a row from 2002 to 2005. The Bulldogs also feature a Division III team and a women's team.