World Footy News

The Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper today reported that AFL club the Western Bulldogs have rookie-listed (not strictly true) young Fijians Inoke Ratu and Solomoni Loki, after conducting trials in Labasa and Suva during the weekend. Ratu is described as a 19-year-old 197cm tall with good pace and an excellent leap, while Loki is a 16-year-old seen as a potential midfielder.

Both will remain in Fiji under a $1000-a-year commitment from the Bulldogs, but will follow a strict development program and visit the Bulldogs' home base Whitten Oval in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray several times. The article also mentions the pair will play in a new Oceania zone of the International Cup - a piece of information we'll be sure to investigate in the very near future.

The full article can be read at Dogs' Island Delight.

Note: It appears this is the first use of the International Scholarship List. Canadian Rugby International Mike Pyke, recruited by the Sydney Swans, appears to have been obtained via Sydney's normal rookie list.

A genuine European Championships, under IC eligibility rules and played either 16 or 18-a-side on full-sized fields, is a hot topic of discussion at the moment. In addition to the "original three" of Ireland, Great Britain and Denmark, the "next generation" of Spain, Germany, Finland and Sweden have also played test matches on full-sized pitches under all-local content rules, all except Germany having now appeared at the International Cup down under.

The Spain Bulls, drawn from the Madrid Bears, have since disappeared from the spotlight somewhat, but the Catalan league has continued to show healthy growth and has a large pool of local players for a potential full-scale national squad.

A number of others are within range of mounting a competitive 22-man all local squad. France definitely have the numbers, particularly if they can get one or two more clubs off the ground in the near future. Croatia performed very strongly at this year's EU Cup with an all-local squad of almost 20.

Some have also suggested inviting the Israel-Palestine Peace Team to any future European Championships to help try and cement footy in the region.

All of this adds up to an 8 or possibly even 10-team European Championships being feasible within the next few years. The details of ARFLI president Ciarán O' Hara's suggested model and the completion of his main AFL Europe proposal follow.

In the second half of O' Hara's AFL Europe proposal, he suggests a structure for a triennial European Championship, for the first time bringing together the teams of the older established leagues in Europe with the newer countries that have competed separately in tournaments like the CEAFL Championships, the Eastern European Tri-Nations and the rapidly growing EU Cup.

We will also be bringing you some information in the next few days about another concept for the European Champs that was discussed at the EU Cup conference in Prague last weekend.

On October 11 and 12 2008, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs hosted the 12th annual USFooty National Championships. Unfortunately, while Colorado Springs promised beautiful surrounds it delivered a very very cold, foggy, windy and somewhat wet Nationals. A low cloud cover hang over the weekend threatening rain and actually delivering rain during the afternoon games on Saturday. The big winners on the weekend were the Vancouver Cougars who went home to Canada with the first John Harrell Memorial Trophy to cross the US’s northern border.

In second division, the Seattle Grizzlies were able to quiet the other Canadian team in the mens, the Calgary Kangaroos. The third division championship was taken by a resurgent Kansas City Power. In Division Four, the Ohio Valley combination of Louisville and Cincinnati takes home a National Championship and the big responsibility of hosting the 2009 USFooty Nationals in Mason, Ohio. In the Women’s, the Atlanta Kookaburras lost their first National Championship to yet another Canadian team, the Calgary Kookaburras.

Soon after the launch of AFL Oceania as an AFL administrative zone, and AFL Middle East as an AFL-affiliated league, now comes a proposal for AFL Europe. Its author, Ciarán O' Hara, explained to WorldFootyNews.com that it was formalised recently with the IC08 after around 12 months in the planning and in some ways is a continuation of ideas stretching back even further.

Aussie Rules has grown past its expat foundations in Europe, and the European leagues (with the exception of the Australian-heavy London footy scene) are now composed of a majority of local players, with a healthy population of Irish, New Zealanders and North Americans adding to the mix.

Those administering the leagues are also increasingly often locals, such as Irishman Ciarán O' Hara, who is a founding member and former President of the Dublin Demons and for the last two years has been President of the Australian Rules Football League Ireland (ARFLI), having held a league office of some sort since its foundation.

He was the European Representative on the AFL’s International Advisory Committee from 2000 to 2002, and was involved with the Atlantic Alliance and attempts to establish a European Australian Football Council in 2001 (that was perhaps before the need was widely realised, prior to so many new nations taking up the game). O' Hara was involved in Ireland's triumphant 2002 International Cup squad as Media Relations manager, and took over as Ireland National Team Manager last year, having held the post for a brief time in 2005 before work commitments meant he had to withdraw. He looked after all of the team's logistics and coordinated fundraising for the Warriors' IC08 tilt, whilst continuing as head of the Irish league and developing the AFL Europe plan.

Apologies for the delay in publishing, as we were focused on the EU Cup. Below is the first part of his proposal, and soon we'll publish part two which includes a suggestion for a full-scale European championship - not the only one currently being discussed. We hope to gather feedback from the European leagues on their thoughts on all these ideas.

On Tuesday 26th August the AFL held an International Forum for international footy stakeholders. Convened in the Legends Room at the MCG, the day ran for about four hours and included at least two representatives from each participant country at the International Cup, as well as other people involved in football and multicultural issues. worldfootynews.com was fortunate to have two representatives involved (Troy Thompson and myself) - we ensured we were primarily observers but our thoughts were also welcomed when the representatives broke into smaller groups. The day was facilitated by the AFL's Travis Jackson, who in 2007 spent time working with AFL South Africa in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. In this article we'll briefly discuss some of the issues raised.

This month AFL Middle East will begin its inaugural season. Below we reveal the fixture and preview the tournament and its six competing clubs.

Presentation of USFootyNews.com Goal Kicker of the Year and MVP to Chris Moerman (Nashville) and Kelly Nelson (OC) respectively. Interviews with Shane Atherton (WA Football), Jenny Sarbacker and Tina Arend (US Freedom), Ryan Richardson and Mark Lambert (KC), Andrew Donlen and Jeff Purcells (Seattle) and Rod Grljusich.

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Last weekend saw the England Dragonslayers win their first EU Cup, defeating very strong debutants Croatia in a dominant display of 9-a-side footy. The tournament was viewed by a crowd of around 500 and was streamed live via the internet, receiving around 21,000 views over the course of the day.

The Sunday following the tournament saw a conference held where team managers were able to put forward their views and plans for the future of footy in Europe, including some discussion of a future European Championship, played 18-a-side with no expats - a topic we'll be covering in more detail in the near future.

A collection of photos from the event can be viewed here.

Following report courtesy of Kirsten Puls.

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.