World Footy News

As is traditional, at the conclusion of the Asian Championships an Asian All Star team, now known as the Asian Lions is chosen. This year, in addition to the honour of selection, thanks to a donation from Big Rooster Footy, each player was presented with an all-star team jumper.

Geoff Blethyn played 84 games for Essendon between 1968-72 and 1976 kicking 216 goals, topping the 100 goals in 1972, was leading goal kicker twice with Claremont and played in the Port Adelaide premiership side in 1977. He played his last game for Malaysia in 1992. He has always maintained contact with the Warriors but had not seen a game in Asia since that date.

At the invitation of the Malaysian Warriors, Geoff attended the 9th Asian Championships held in Singapore on 6th September. His comments on the Championships make interesting reading and are reported verbatim below.

The first major International Rules event ever to be scheduled in Sydney will be played on Saturday 18 October, followed by the first major Gaelic Football event on Sunday November 2.

The matches will be played at Henson Park, a stadium located in Marrickville, a suburb of inner-western Sydney. Henson Park is the home of the Newtown Jets rugby league club and Canterbury-Marrickville Olympic soccer club. It is also a finals venue for the Sydney AFL has grandstand and seating capacity of 1,000 with a total capacity of about 30,000.

The AFL have put together some of the highlights from the games they had filmed during the International Cup. For those that can access the Bigpond website you'll find the package here:

http://bigpondvideo.com/AFLTV/77012

Some international viewers seem to have problems accessing that site. Certainly I find Internet Explorer works better than say Firefox (which is otherwise my preferred browser).

The 2008 NFL season kicked off last weekend with the three former Australian Rules football players that competed in the previous season again starting. All three played in winning teams and got off to good starts. No additional AFL players made the transition this year, although rumors that current players Anthony Rocca, Dustin Fletcher and Brendan Fevola among others, hope to have the option at the end of their careers.

Former player with Old Brighton in the VAFA, Matt McBriar playing for the Dallas Cowboys had two punts with a 48.5 yard average, a 37 yard net average and a longest punt of 52 yards in their 28-10 win.

The AFL has released an official review of the umpiring decision that saw South Africa defeat Ireland by a point in the most controversial moment of International Cup history to date.

The review included consideration of the statements made by the umpires in interviews with the AFL Competition Managers immediately after the game and also consideration of available match footage.

Josh Vanderloo from the AFL today notified team managers from all IC sides their findings that;

"1. Near the end of the match a free kick was correctly awarded to player number 3 of South Africa for a holding the man infringement. The infringement occurred more than a metre towards the South African goal from the centre square. This is absolutely clear on the video.

2. Having set the mark, the umpire observed the Irish player step over the mark as the South African player came in to take his kick and therefore blew his whistle in response to this action. The umpire immediately decided a 25metre penalty was to be awarded which is correct. This is supported by the video which clearly shows the Irish player clearly in front of the centre square line when the umpire blows his whistle.

3. Conjecture about player number 3 from South Africa playing on is irrelevant as the umpires decision was based on the first action he observed - the Irish player coming over the mark.

Whilst it was a dramatic and emotional conclusion to an important match, the AFL is satisfied that the decisions taken by the umpire were correct."

Regardless of the official decision, the moment will be talked about for many years to come. We will hopefully have the video footage of the incident online in the near future.

Update: We've now uploaded the footage to our worldfooty Youtube player, or visit directly here.

After Papua New Guinea's stirring victory over New Zealand in the 2008 International Cup Grand Final at the MCG last Friday, AFL Ambassador and legend of the game, Kevin Sheedy, headed down to the change-rooms to commiserate with the Kiwis and award the PNG players their medals.

His talk included a very exciting prospect for international footy - the possibility of the two teams clashing on ANZAC Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as a curtain-raiser to the annual blockbuster between Essendon and Collingwood. ANZAC Day commemorates the sacrifices of Australian and New Zealand soldiers and the annual football fixture has become the biggest match on the AFL calendar outside of finals, with 90,000 fans regularly attending.

Many Australians are also conscious of the efforts made by Papuans in World War Two, particularly in assisting Australia defend its northern approaches through caring for injured soldiers. Thus a football clash between New Zealand and PNG is a natural fit for the big day, especially since they are currently the two strongest international Aussie Rules nations. On a personal note, it has always been noticeable that there is not enough emphasis in Australia on the NZ in ANZAC, so this would be a nice remedy for that too.

Sheedy appeared to have the support of AFL National and International Development General Manage David Matthews, but did stress there was a lot of work to be done before such a fixture would be a reality, and only put a target date of the next couple of years on the game, so there are no guarantees.

Nevertheless, what an exciting step this could be. As pointed out by a colleague, unlike matches such as the AFL final that followed the IC08 Grand Final, a large part of the crowd turns up early on ANZAC Day, often coming from marches and other events, so what a wonderful opportunity to showcase international Australian football - let's hope this match happens.

Listen to Kevin Sheedy's announcement

The match to decide third and fourth place was always going to be interesting. Ireland were the inaugural International Cup winners. In their heyday they looked unbeatable with a steady league, players with experience in a similar sport (Gaelic football) and arguably more familiarity with Australian football than their rivals. Their opponents, South Africa had finished last in 2002, fielding a team very new to football, and consequently suffered losses of 162, 27, 77 and 128 points.

Six years later things were a little different. The Irish were expected to take a slide down the ladder. Their league at best has been treading water and was only starting to again find its feet. The Warriors had only managed fourth place at the 2005 tournament, and in the years between had lost their first ever match to long-time rivals Great Britain. On the other hand AFL South Africa now boasted 14,000 registered players, they had won two games at the 2005 tournament (including their first-ever victory) and for the past few years had played several matches against Australian youth sides, providing invaluable experience.

Both countries had been impressive so far at the 2008 tournament. Ireland comprehensively beat Sweden and Finland, and overcame a much-improved Canada. Whilst they went down to New Zealand and missed another shot at the Grand Final, they were by no means disgraced. South Africa too won all their pool matches, and beat the USA for the first time, but were outclassed by PNG in their Semi Final.

In the end it took a 25 metre penalty and a kick after the siren, but South Africa won the match by the slimmest of margins, a solitary point.

Additional reporting by Brett Northey.

The faster and more skilful Nauru overran a Canada which did not give up at Ransford Oval on Friday in their classification match to decide the admirable finishing positions of 5th and 6th.

Play on football, faster movement of the ball and faster leg speed, particularly more run off half-back, kept the Nauru team in front. The Canadians moved the ball forward more slowly, while Nauru was able to switch play effectively against their bigger opponents.

UAE Heat have won the 2009 Asian Championships held in Singapore on September 6th, comfortably defeating pre-tournament favourites Singapore in the final 10.0.60 to 3.6.24.

Played in good conditions before a very healthy crowd, the Heat were simply too good. Kicking with the aid of the breeze in the first half and with their midfielders well on top, the Heat were able to rattle on five goals before Singapore were able to reply. At half time, the Heat led 6.0 to 1.2, and the Wombats faced a mighty task.

Further salt was rubbed into the wounds when the Heat goaled early in the second half to put the game beyond doubt. To their credit the Wombats fought back, but it was clear the Heat had too much run, were too fit and too good around the ground. The Wombats goaled twice, but the boys from Dubai iced the game with the equivalent reply late in the half.

Pictures courtesy of Mark Stennett of the Malaysia Warriors.

Additional reporting by Brett Northey.

When the USA team came out of the blocks with early goals and Japan had no reply, it seemed that the writing was on the wall for the Samurai.

That was how the game turned out. Lacking four top players from the team which convincingly defeated Samoa, players who had only a week’s leave, undermanned Japan was no match for the stronger and fitter Americans.

Perhaps the Japanese had run out of run. Or perhaps McAlister Oval is narrower than Ransford on which they had used speed to defeat the larger Samoans. Certainly the Americans, one of the pre-tournament favourites, delivered one of their best showings of the series.

Last Friday saw Denmark and Sweden, traditional rivals in just about every sport ever invented, clash for what would effectively be the right to call themselves reigning champion of Scandinavian footy. After finishing third in their respective pools, Sweden and Denmark had both been defeated in their first-round finals matches, leaving them to play off for 11th spot overall and a lot of pride was on the line for both sides.

The Danes have had the edge over the Elks in most tests between the two nations, and went into this match as favourites. Even so, the difference on the day was far greater than the onlookers had anticipated, with the Vikings cruising to a 101-point victory.