World Footy News

India was one of five nations that attended their first International Cup this year. Two thirds of the team flew in from Kolkata, India with the rest of the squad Indian students already in Australia.

WFN spoke to team captain Mario Shelton about his journey to Melbourne and his plans for the game back home.

Melbourne's Herald Sun reports that Carlton's O'hAilpin brothers may not be at the club in 2009. Setanta (pictured left) is having a break back in Ireland after struggling through the end of the season with the Blues, missing nearly half the year with a calf injury and/or demotion to the VFL. Aisake (pictured right), at 23 and 201 cm, has yet to make his AFL debut and has gained a reputation as a fiery player, with run-ins on the field and disputes with staff. Both players have switched their management to Michael Quinlan, who also looks after Sydney's Irishman Tadhg Kennelly. With 46 matches under his belt, the elder O'hAilpin has already exceeded the average length of an AFL career, with so many young players not making it past two or three years.

Encouragingly several clubs (Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide) are reported to be interested in Setanta, and Aisake has supposedly caught the eye of Collingwood. Trade week is always full of speculation and rumour, but hopefully the Fijian-Irishmen will still find themselves on AFL lists next season. Certainly with draft picks in the 20s and 30s being talked about as potential swaps for Setanta, he should be reasonably safe to make one of the 16 AFL lists. The Herald Sun article is: Carlton appear to be put O'hAilpin brothers on the market, by Mark Robinson.

As football continues to expand its presence outside of Australia, greater news coverage is also required. Being a volunteer organisation our writers are limited by how much time they can commit to the site and occassionally we need to put out a request for assistance.

Our current areas of need are Oceania and the UK & Ireland. If you are keen to help out but lack the time to cover an area by yourself, we also require further assistance covering the USA and Europe. You don't need to be based in that particular area (most of our writers are in fact in Australia) nor do you need to have been involved with international football before. All you need is a spare hour or so a week and adequate writing skills.

We will give you support, provide plenty of contacts, and no particular computer skills are required - we'll show you how to upload your stories through a relatively simple web page. So if you have an interest in supporting international footy and getting a behind-the-scenes view on the game's growth, then consider volunteering to write for WFN. Contact Ash Nugent for more information through our About Us - Contact Us page (click on his name).

In part two of our preview of teams for the 2008 EU Cup, we take a look at Eastern Europe's first footballing nations, Croatia and the Czech Republic, as well as the growing leagues further west in Catalonia and France.

The French, Catalan and Croatian squads will be all-local, with the Czech Lions also fielding a larger local contingent than previous years, together with a diverse range of other internationals.

All four sides have seen some great growth in the last twelve months. The French have gone from two clubs to four around the country, with a few more in the works. The Catalans have returned to a four-team domestic league, with an expansion group in the tiny Catalan-speaking mountain nation of Andorra possibly joining the LFAC next season.

Making their EU Cup debut, the Croatian Knights are bringing a full squad plus spares to Prague, with the Zagreb Hawks forming a second "Saints" squad for scratch matches over the season. The Czech AFL has seen the start of domestic footy, with the Prague Tigers and Prague Lions playing three matches against each other over the past month.

With the maximum number of Australians this year reduced to 6 per squad of 15, these four sides may find themselves a little higher up the table than last year.

The annual Bali9s tournament hosted by the Bali Geckoes at the Canggu Club will be played on November 1st. This year’s tournament will see four teams from the Indonesian region competing, Bali Geckos, their fierce rivals the Jakarta Bintangs and newly formed clubs the Borneo Bears and Timor-Leste Crocs.

Played in a 9-a-side, lightning premiership type format, each team will play the others with the two top teams playing off in a grand final.

Whilst the far more experienced Bali and Jakarta sides would be favoured to win through to the final, both Borneo and Timor Leste could take heart from the efforts of debutants Laos in the recently concluded Asian Championships, who proved that novice teams could cause upsets.

The Bali9s has been a prestigious trophy since its inception in 2002, the inaugural winners being the Bintangs. That year’s tournament took place just a week before the tragic Bali bombings in which 202 people lost their lives, 88 of them Australian. The 2003 edition which marked the one year anniversary of that event was particularly poignant, being attended by luminaries such as the then Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, and for the football fanatics, Ron Barassi, Mick Martin and Dermott Brereton. Jason McCartney played for the Geckoes on that day, but even he could not stop Bateman’s Bay from annexing the trophy.

The tournament has a lost some of its lustre in recent years, being usurped by its sister contest, the Bali9s Masters, a similar event for teams comprising the over 35’s. However, this year's competition, involving teams from the same geographic area, should be hotly contested and may become a fore-runner of an annual competition involving the same four teams.

USFootyNews.com is running an All-Star Ballot during the month of October. To vote just click on the link below and enter your top 6 USFooty players. Your votes will count to creating a USFootyNews.com All-Star Team that will be announced in November.

Choose a Key Forward such as a Full Forward or Center Half Forward, a Key Defender such as a Full Back or Center Half Back, two Midfielders such as a Center, Ruck Rover, Wing, or Flanker, a Ruck or tall player, and a Rover or small player.

You may choose from the list provided or enter a name on your own. Note that if you enter a name, please provide the full name and club for the player in the space provided.

Also enter your name, your favorite USFooty club and your email address.

Good luck and good voting!

Click HERE to VOTE.

The 2008 MAAFL Premiership race, as is normally the case, came down to the last game and Chicago United have successfully defended their 2007 title by again being crowned the premier club in the Mid American Australian Football League.

Interestingly the United team did not have to take the park on the last weekend of competition but just had to sit back and see if Nashville could snatch the cup from their grasp at the death knock. It wasn't to be for the Kangaroos though as they went down to Minnesota Freeze leaving Chicago on top of the ladder on percentage over the Milwaukee Bombers.

Story by Wayne Kraska for USFootyNews.com.

WorldFootyNews.com and USFootyNews.com have teamed up to present the USFooty Top Ten Poll for 2008. This is the 6th edition of the poll and the last before the USFooty National Championship Tourney.

1. Balt/Wash Eagles (8-0)  (7 # 1 Votes)
2. Denver Bulldogs (3-3)  (3)
3. NY Magpies (6-3)
4. San Diego Lions (3-2)
5. OC Bombers (5-2)
6. Golden Gate Roos (1-1)
7. Chicago United (6-1)   (UP from 8)
8. Nashville Kangaroos (6-3) (DOWN from 7)
9. Dallas Magpies (4-0)
10. Milwaukee Bombers (4-6)  (IN)

The Western Bulldogs are broadening their recruitment base, announcing plans to take a group to Fiji to trial as many as 5000 young Fijian athletes at the end of this month.

Bulldogs recruiting manager Scott Clayton last night confirmed that at least one player, but possibly as many as four, will be signed under AFL international rookie rules.

3000 copies of the poster at left have appeared at Coca-Cola outlets around Fiji, with open trials to take place in Labasa and the Fijian capital Suva.

The name "Oslo Trolls" was first heard in the international footy scene a few years back, but the team remained an enigma until August this year, when they hosted Sweden's Karlstad Dragons in the first match of footy in Norway in the modern era.

The team is now preparing to play their second match and first-ever road trip on October 4, making the drive east to Karlstad. The Trolls will kick off a three-team tournament against the Dragons and Falun Diggers, teams who will become regular adversaries if plans to join the AFL Sweden West next year come through.

Dave Foletta from the Trolls is looking forward to 2009 being Norwegian footy's "Break-Out Year". WFN spoke to him recently about their plans.

As previously reported, Ireland's key defender Mike Finn (pictured left) was named the top player of the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. He squeezed past Sweden's Andreas Svensson and joint 2005 winner, Samoa's Fia Too-too, both on 7 votes. Below are all the players who received 4 or more votes, which were awarded on the 3-2-1 system by umpires after each match in the 5 round competition.

Remarkably, Finn scored votes in 4 of the 5 rounds, only missing out in Ireland's 98 to nil defeat of Finland in Round 2, a match in which he was rested given his heavy workload, playing in a final the next day for local club Heidelberg. A quick check of their website reveals Finn came 6th in their seniors best and fairest, a great effort at a quality club in a premiership year. Heidelberg play in the Northern Football League (formerly known as the Diamond Valley Football League) in Melbourne. He was also recently married, so it was a huge month for the Irishman.

Europe's 9-a-side EU Cup is just around the corner, with the tournament taking off at the Slavia Sports Centre in Prague on the weekend of the 11th and 12th of October.

12 teams will compete, with England, Catalonia, Sweden, Finland, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Germany returning from last year's tournament in Hamburg. Scotland will also return, having competed at the first EU Cup in London in 2005.

Croatia will make their EU Cup debut, after impressive showings at the CEAFL and the Central European Tri-Series over the past few years.

The EU Crusaders will again be the banner of the cup's 12th side, featuring reserve players from other teams and players from other locations in Europe. This year, the mix might even include some new blood from Poland and Latvia, hoping to kick start clubs in their respective countries.

In the first of three articles previewing the EU Cup teams, we spoke to the teams from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and defending champions Sweden.