World Footy News

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.

The Geelong Cats went into the 2008 AFL Grand Final as hot favourites to go back to back. But it was the underdogs in Hawthorn who ultimately hoisted the cup. The game was a very tight tussle in the first half in front of a packed MCG crowd of just over 100,000. Kiwi born Trent Croad went into the game with a foot injury but was forced off the ground for the game after doing further serious damage, which looked like it might give Geelong the advantage, but Geelong captain Tom Harley also left the ground after a head clash with Mark Williams just before half time to even up that ledger. Luke Hodge across halfback dominated for most of the day after it initially looked like Max Rooke might have his measure.

Footy in the South Pacific is spreading, with eight countries to date now having either an organised league or informal games played. This year saw footy surface in Vanuatu for the first time, as well as renewed interest in rebooting footy in Fiji. Footy in the Solomons saw a revival led by Australian peacekeepers late last year.

Together with the four Pacific nations at the IC, plus Tonga who couldn't make the full draw, this gives eight nations with some footy presence in the region. All of them are now being investigated as part of the creation of AFL Oceania. The ninth link in Pacific footy could now come from a country traditionally somewhat separate from the Australian sphere of influence, the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.

Laurent Caravel, a Parisian who was previously involved with Australian football in France, is in the New Caledonian capital Noumea and wants to see footy formalised in the island nation.

There is an interesting article on the AFL website about New Zealand stand-up comedian Cal Wilson's journey to becoming an Aussie Rules and the St Kilda Football Club supporter.

Wilson, originally from Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand is co-host of the radio show "The Wrong Way Home with Akmal, Cal and Ed". She has also appeared on "SkitHouse", "Rove Live", "Thank God You're Here", "Spicks and Specks", "The Wedge" and "Dancing with the Stars".

In 2006, she did a sell out show about her distaste for New Zealand's national sport of rugby union and newfound love of footy. Her show was called "Up There, Cal Wilson".

Although her Saints didn't make the Grand Final and her favourite player Robert Harvey has since retired, and the Falcons unsuccessfully defended their International Cup title, fellow Kiwi Trent Croad, a veteran at Hawthorn finally got to show his silver fern on the premiership dias.

The article on Wilson recently appeared on the AFL website and titled "How a Kiwi comedian learned to love St Kilda".

worldfootynews.com asked China's Team Manager and Australian Football Development Officer, Andrew Sawitsch, his thoughts on the 2008 International Cup from the perspective of the Chinese Red Demons. Overall he felt it was a great experience for both the players and staff, though he left no doubt that a development division was and remains their preference for the lower ranked sides. Sawitsch also has some interesting comments on China's opponents. "Sanga" as he is known, also revealed the surprising country that China formed the closest bond with. His thoughts are given below.

It's also interesting to note that the AFL are currently surveying the countries, asking for feedback on issues such as the pool structure, facilities, host locations (Melbourne and Warrnambool), frequency of the event (3 or 4 years), costs, umpiring and medical assistance, functions and how a junior carnival could be staged.

While the AFL grand final fast approaching, many leagues around the world have already completed their premiership seasons.

Last month saw the Northern and Southern regional premierships going to Newcastle and Southampton respectively, the Cardiff Double Blues too strong in Wales, and the rampaging West London football club taking out the flag in all three London divisions.

While it was first time the West London club had taken out the Social division, it was their fifth consecutive crown in the Premiership and eight straight in the Conference.

Reports courtesy of AFL Britain and the West London Wildcats FC.

The New Zealand local leagues have recently commenced their seasons. Like many other countries around the world, those playing Aussie Rules in NZ are not required to make the choice between their traditional weekend winter codes and playing footy.

Generally footy is confined to the September - December window with some local variance across the four leagues in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Canterbury.

Though there has been talk and some action in seeking to establish the game in other centres including Hawkes Bay, Dunedin, Blenheim and Queenstown, thus far these endeavours have not materialized into any on-going footy.

Recently there have also been a couple of articles on NZ footy in the mainstream NZ media that make interesting reading:- "Playing by the Rules" from The Aucklander and Marsden plays at MCG, lands Black Caps job on stuff.co.nz, telling how one of the 2008 Falcons has recently been named team physio for the New Zealand national cricket team.

In this article I will look at descriptions provided by the Auckland clubs and a brief rundown on what is happening in the Waikato.

The boldest innovation of the 9th Asian Championships in Singapore on September 6th was the first Under 16s Championship involving teams from the Jakarta Bulldogs, Singapore Wombats, Singapore Gaelic Cubs and Hong Kong Dragons. Anyone who was present could not have been anything but uplifted to watch these young lads, the vast majority of whom were non-Australians, show the levels of passion, excitement and commitment that we have come to expect with our game.

The International Cup was a great success because of the many people who made it happen, from the AFL Development staff and a range of other people, mostly volunteers including the umpires, trainers and physios, the ground announcer and the alternative as well as official AFL IC 08 media. It also had its scenes, its images, its moments off the field as well as on – that’s footy.

The New York Magpies AFC footy jumper has taken out the Special International Award in the ‘Australia’s Favourite Football Jumper’ competition which ran as part of the 150 Years of Australian Football celebrations.

In the club's blurb about their kit they said "We are very proud of it our jumper, as it’s remained true to the black and white of our sister clubs, Collingwood and Port Adelaide Magpies, but also adds some New York highlights with the outlines of the famous buildings on the back. We sell a good deal of them to people in Australia through www.nyfooty.com."

Other finalists in the International section were jumpers of Timor Crocs, Vietnam Swans, Bromma FC and Borneo FC. The overall competition for Australia's Favourite went to the Old Hobartians Association (OHA) Football Club guernsey. In total, more than 34,000 website visitors voted in the poll.

Paul Duncan was one of the standouts for the US Revolution team at this year's International Cup. The mobile forward played in five matches for his country in the competition kicking goals against South Africa and China and featured as best player for the US in the match against China.

Duncan was this week featured in the Winston Salem Journal - the full article is reproduced below.