World Footy News

The AFL's General Manager of National and International Development, David Matthews, has written a piece for the Melbourne newspaper the Sunday Age, urging (and thus effectively justifying) support for international Australian football. He notes that "People tend not to remember opportunities missed as much as opportunities that failed", which is an acceptance that by promoting international footy there is a risk of criticism if it fails - but that the football community should try anyway.

It's a continuing theme from Matthews, who has put forward a strong case on several occasions, and has over-seen the AFL's practical efforts. Although the support so far rolled out by the AFL remains somewhat uneven, there's no doubt the last three or four years have seen a tremendous increase in their commitment to international football. Although the article has nothing new to our regular readers, it's great to see the message in such a major Australian paper.

The article is AFL needs to seize opportunities to make inroads at home and abroad and is also re-produced below.

For another view on International footy and the International Cup, have a look at the work of Richmond Football Club writer John Green here.

Green viewed the final between PNG and New Zealand, and gives some background on various Falcons players, as well as his report on the match.

Ben Graham has been dumped by the New York Jets. The former Geelong captain who made the code switch to play in the NFL as a punter, was cut from the Jets after a poor punting performance last weekend.

Graham, a former Geelong and NY Jets captain who has played 49 games for the Jets, said he would embrace the challenge of other opportunities within the NFL. In a press release Graham reaffirmed his commitment to continue his punting career elsewhere. “I would like to thank the Jets for the opportunity they have given me and my family, and the privilege of playing for the organisation,” Graham said.

“Today’s events are disappointing but I'm confident I will continue my career elsewhere and I will fully explore the initial enquires that have already presented themselves. The NFL is a tough business and all players move freely and far more often than back at home in Australia. There have already been several punters change teams during this season.

Papua New Guinea recently won the Intenational Cup 2008, defeating the gallant New Zealand Falcons. However there is a whole lot more to PNG footy than the Mosquitoes' performance. We have touched on the many aspects of AFLPNG’s operations in a variety of articles but I thought it would be great to get an overview from National Operations Manager Peter Cates about the story so far, and where to in the future.

France, Catalonia, Spain, Argentina, Senegal and Andorra met in the Catalan city of Valls last week to compete for the inaugural "9-a-side World Cup". France and Catalonia went through the pool stages undefeated, had big wins in their semi-finals, then finished with a tight contest in the final, with the French ultimately succeeding 9.6 (60) to 6.4 (40).

In recognition of the great strides made in the development of Aussie Rules in Beijing over the last few years, the Beijing Bombers have warmly welcomed an approach by its namesake, the AFL's Essendon Football Club, to make BARFC an affiliate club.

While in Melbourne in early September to see the China Red Demons compete in the International Cup, BARFC President Mic Mittasch met with Essendon's new Multicultural Development Officer to establish the relationship between the two Bomber clubs.

The Essendon Football Club multicultural program was established to develop opportunities to engage people from diverse cultural backgrounds in the game of Australian football with the view to broaden both the participation and supporter base in the game. Jieh-Yung, an Australian born Chinese recently took over as Essendon's Multicultural Development officer and was keen to see the two Bomber clubs work together to continue the development of the game in Beijing.

President Mittasch was excited about the potential for the relationship following his meeting with Jieh-Yung. "This will be a great opportunity for the Beijing Bombers to establish some important relationships and enable us to continue to develop as a club in Beijing" Mic said.

"Essendon has already provided the club with several signed items of merchandise which we will be auctioning off at the Grand Final Day. They have also committed to provide us with training and playing kits once their new sponsor is finalised and they are open to further suggestions on how the two clubs can work together. We look forward to developing the relationship with this great club over the coming years."

Story courtesy of Grant Keys from the Beijing Bombers.

An issue that began to become obvious over the course of the 2008 International Cup was a growing frustration amongst some nations over the umpiring. Firstly we should note that the umpires were generally Australian umpires from Victoria who had volunteered their time for the tournament, doing their part for international footy, and it was greatly appreciated by those involved. What we're going to discuss here was a relatively minor issue and was primarily an issue of different interpretations.

To generalise, the main rules that were causing most cries of discontent from the benches were high contact and in the back when tackling, and holding the ball / incorrect disposal.

The AFL Grand Final is fast approaching, with the event celebrated by footy clubs, expat Australians and other assorted sports fans across the globe. This year's GF will kick off on Saturday September 27th at the MCG in Melbourne, with TV coverage starting around 12pm AEST.

For many international footy clubs, the Grand Final party is the year's major fundraiser, for others it's been the key meeting where footy fans in a far-off city have realised they weren't alone and started a new team.

At WFN we also get a steady flow of requests from people who want to know where to see the game overseas. We've put on a very short list of ones we've heard about so far, if you aren't on the list yet, leave a comment on this story and we'll add you in!

Also, a reader in Germany sent us a message saying: "We have found one option that will work. We are likely to subscribe to EuroSport2 via the internet (around €5 per month, and hopefully cancel later). We are lucky that we can plug a laptop into the TV and watch it semi-normally from home at stupid AM German time."

http://player.eurosport.de/home
Click on Eurosport 2

Some other coverage details are also given on the AFL website in Global game: watching the GF overseas

Additional reporting by Stephen Alomes.

After Papua New Guinea's narrow win over New Zealand in the International Cup Grand Final worldfootynews.com headed down to the rooms to get the thoughts of winning coach Andrew Cadzow, runners-up coach Robert Vanstam, and we also had a quick word to retired AFL champion, PNG's Mal Michael.

The biggest single event during the 2008 Australian Football International Cup was arguably the "Dinner with the World" function at the Palladium at Crown in Melbourne on Thursday 5th September. Around 1300 guests attended this glittering evening, with the 16 competing nations and the Multicultural Challenge teams, as well as AFL guests and sponsors.

There were a few speeches, the announcement of the World Team, and several cultural performances along the lines of those given by the teams in Warrnambool, as well as one by an Aboriginal group.

Looking out across the sea of people gave a sense of just how far international footy has come in the last few years. The event itself would have cost at least AUD$100,000. Perhaps the most significant speech was that of Australian Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean. Late in 2007 there was a change of government and the new one appears to be quite interested in working with the AFL in using Australian Football as a tool for increasing trade with other nations. This can only be a good thing for the development of our sport, and something we should hear more about in future.

Although light on detail, you can hear more of Crean's speech in our Youtube video of the night.

Full results of the recent Asian Championships are here, with points tables and scores.

Group A went much as expected. The China Reds' win over Jakarta Bintangs was somewhat of a surprise and Malaysia were desperately unlucky not to beat Bali, having the lead until the last few seconds.

As expected, Hong Kong and UAE dominated Group B, though it was evident from the first game they played that UAE had a very formidable and very fit team. In their initial outing in an Asian Games, Laos were very impressive. Thailand were disappointing given their strong lead-up form. Like Malaysia in Group A, Vietnam were competitive but could not convert chances in front of goal.

The semi finals went according to form in the preliminary matches and the two best teams met in the final. UAE were superb, their standard of play was excellent and ability to convert second to none, to kick 10 goals straight in any form of football is no mean effort, and they ran out deserved winners on the day. Singapore fought hard, but were outclassed in the final.

In this author's opinion the IC08 worked so well as a tournament because of the serious commitment of resources to it by AFL Development and because of the efficiency and dedication of a number of people, including volunteer umpires and trainers.

We contacted Garry Bilson, AFL Medical Coordinator, as a prelude to writing an article on this aspect of the International Cup.

Gary is a Melbourne remedial masseur and trainer with the Brisbane Lions, head trainer at Gisborne FC, a former president of the AFL Trainers Association with VFL/AFL involvements going back to 1978. His international football experience includes touring Ireland as Head Trainer for Australia in the International Rules Series 2000, while he has been the co-ordinator of medical services for all three of the International Cups.

Garry provided us with this account via an email which we think it is worth publishing "as is". It confirms the general experience of high quality support services at the IC and Garry’s assessment of the "outstanding support provided by the AFL in overseeing this very important area of medical assistance".