World Footy News

Although there have been some tournaments between the North West and Gauteng provinces in the past, this week sees the first official AFL South Africa National Championships. The main tournament sponsor is Grandslots, and the games are being played at Senwes Park, Potchefstroom, from Saturday 5th – Tuesday 8th July 2008. All four of the current target provinces are in attendance, fielding teams in high school and open age groups.

After the tournament the 25 man South African squad to tour Australia for the International Cup will be announced, and in a surprise move it appears the Buffaloes will be no more, replaced by the Lions. In further exciting news, the Africans will be coached by former AFL star Jason McCartney.

We hope to bring you the results of this historic event shortly, but for now, here's some more information on what have been dubbed the footyWILD Nationals. Photos are from the Australian Indigenous tour and thanks to Sean Garnsworthy. Again, Nationals images should also be forthcoming shortly.

The Swedish Elks took on the Finland Icebreakers in front of a crowd of around 200 people at the Årsta field in Stockholm on the weekend, with the Elks running home comfortable winners by 86 pts, Sweden 14.12 (96) to Finland's 1.4 (10).

The game was the first 18-a-side hit-out for the Finns, who are currently running their first domestic season and preparing for their IC campaign. The Swedes on the other hand had a point to prove, after going down to the Danes a few weeks ago and anxious to show the AFL and the international footy world that they are the real deal.

This report courtesy of Swedish Elks' coach Cameron Crooks.

USFootyNews.com's Jeff Blankman has interviewed San Diego Lions and US Revolution backman Brett Ullman, ahead of next month's International Cup.

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Peter Bell, one of only a few players in the history of the professional Australian Football League with a direct Asian background, has retired at age 32 having played 286 AFL games.

Born in South Korea to a Korean mother, Bell moved to Western Australia at a young age. Bell was educated in Perth, where he achieved a Bachelor of Law. Bell was recruited from the South Fremantle Football Club in the WAFL. He was often regarded as short for an elite footballer at 175cm, although he played as a rover developing a reputation as a nuggety and creative ball-winner with accurate disposal skills and good goal sense, Bell played much of his career in Melbourne with the North Melbourne Kangaroos where he played in two premierships. He returned to Perth to captain the Fremantle AFL club. During his career he was named All-Australian twice, represented Australia in International Rules and best and fairest at both North Melbourne and Fremantle. His coaches at Fremantle managed to squeeze more out of Bell's AFL career, as he has considered retirement on more than one occasion.

While Bell was the oldest of the AFL's current crop of "internationals", Papua New Guinean born Mal Michael is another veteran, whose career at 31 years of age appears to be drawing to a close, having recently spent much of his time outside of the Essendon senior list.

Aussie Rules fictional films are fairly rarely, with only occasional movies such as the 1978 classic The Club, loosely based around Collingwood. A recent telemovie heavily related to football is Valentines' Day, which screened last night on Australia's ABC. Set in the Victorian country town of Rushworth, it follows the arrival of a former big-time player and his misguided efforts to save the local side from merger.

Although perhaps not the most riveting of shows (and fair to say the skills on display are less than exemplary), it's a nice little yarn about what footy means to local communities and for those keen to soak up anything footy related it's pleasing to note that the 90 minute movie can be downloaded from the ABC (around 330 MB), and there's also a preview available.

Sadly we've been informed that the video cannot be downloaded outside of Australia, presumably based on an IP address check, so unless you have a friend in Oz who will do it for you...

Preview Valentine's Day
Download full movie Valentine's Day

On most weekends, the parks and stadiums of Buenos Aires are crowded with some of the most passionate round ball enthusiasts in the world.

On Saturday afternoon however, puzzled locals at club DAOM, which is only a couple of drop punts from Maradona’s famous Boca neighborhood, witnessed the sight of a new Sherrin being bounced as play kicked off in South America’s historic first international fixture.

Los Santos (Saints) from Chile and Las Aguilas (Eagles) from Argentina were playing for the inaugural 9-a-side Andes AFL Cup, although both clubs agreed beforehand that the promotion of “Futbol Australiano” in South America was more important than the result.

After a tight and physical first quarter, Chile eventually got on top of their hosts and ran out comfortable winners 19.10 (124) to Argentina's 1.5 (11), largely due to the influence of their expatriate Australian forward line consisting of Pedr Chapman (9 goals) and Tristan Bradbrook (4 goals).

Sunday 28 June 2008 on the playing fields in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris will go down in history as the beginning of a new phase in the establishment of Australian Football in France, the commencement of a new era.

Four teams came from around France to compete in a round robin series concluding in the final. The Montpellier Fire Sharks in the south west is the newest team, having only formed this year. Coming from the Atlantic coast, just above the surfing beaches of south west France, the Bordeaux Bombers are also relatively new, having formed only in 2007.

The Strasbourg team, the oldest team playing ‘le Football Australien’ in France, a team which played for a season in the German league, were the third team, and the losing team in the final. One of the Strasbourg players was Marc Jund, the first pioneer of Australian Football in France.

Home ground advantage matters in Australian Football around the world as the travelling teams are often missing players who are either busy or find the journey financially pressing. The Paris Cockerels, with the home ground advantage and a few more experienced (that is Aussie) players, ran out winners in the final.

It appears that Tasmania is going full steam ahead with its bid to have a team in the Australian Football League. We've previously reported (Tasmania bid adds AFL expansion twist) that the island state has upped the ante to have their own team in the sport's elite competition, a dream the Apple Islanders have harboured since the VFL morphed into the AFL.

A Richmond Football Club delegate, Craig Cameron was in Samoa last week searching for potential Samoan 'international rookies' and it made news headlines in the small Pacific nation. Cameron also made an appearance on a high-rating sports television program, Sports Centre and was interviewed for an article which received colour, back page coverage in Sunday's Newsline newspaper.

Cameron revealed he was on the lookout for "people who are enthusiastic about AFL" and to "find some guys that have the athleticism who could go and play Australian Rules" and see "if there is a possibility of developing the game (in Samoa)." The Tigers' Strategy and List Manager also watched an AFL Samoa practice session at Leulumoega.

According to Michael Roberts, AFL Samoa's National Game Development Manager, "Samoan media is finally warming to Australian football which is great. The support of local radio presenter Ben Talogota from Polynesian Radio is great, along with his weekly review with Rohan Connelly."

One reader of the Samoan newspaper confirmed the positive effect that a non-Australian playing in the AFL can have for that particular country, admitting that they were "raised in Australia" but "still do not understand the concept of AFL" yet would "try to understand it and back our boys if they ever get into the game of AFL. I think Samoans should get into playing this game, it could only take us further."

Roberts was very pleased to have a "visit from such a professional club who was interested not only in the talent and programs but in the future welfare and adaptation to western life for these young players." Cameron had expressed interest in understanding the 'Faa Samoa', a set of Samoan cultural rules to live and treat others by, in order to benefit potential recruits.

WFN can reveal that other AFL clubs have since expressed interest in talent identification in Samoa.

The AFL has some video highlights from the Under 18s Australian Football carnival (Sneek Peek at Future Stars).

Of particular interest is the diversity of names among the talent. Among the standouts are video highlights of multicultural players previously mentioned on WFN including Fijian-Australian Nicholas Naitanui (WA), Ranga Ediriwickrama (NSW/ACT), but also other interesting multicultural names like Zaharakis (Vic Metro), Martiniello (Vic Country) and De Boer (WA).

Unfortunately for international footy fans, true PNG international, John James (QLD) is not included as his state was knocked out early in the carnival. Nevertheless, the AFL has published an article on him called "A buzz in the air", discussing his conversion from rugby league, his enthusiasm for Australian rules football, his upcoming International Cup campaign and his AFL prospects.

Papua New Guinea's junior pathway program continues to rush ahead, with the Under 14 Binatangs having wins in warm-up matches against a New South Wales region and Queensland development side, followed by a comfortable win in the Queensland Under 14 State Championships, and pushing one of the top regions in their other game so far.

Further down the pathway are another group now playing for Coolangatta, and some Papuans have even lined up for the Brisbane Lions Reserves side in the southeast Queensland league. These young men are the real deal and we review their progress below.

The AFL has confirmed their intention to finalise and next week release the official draw for the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. The tentative plan is to go public on Monday 7th July, however that is not guaranteed as the final adjustments are made.

We can reveal that one of the listed likely competing nations unfortunately looks like pulling out this week, due as much to difficulties securing the availability of enough of their players as the financial burden.

This would leave the AFL with a difficult task to satisfy all desired outcomes for the draw, and we think readers will find the final schedule very interesting if it plays out the way we expect. But that is yet to be finalised. Sit tight until next week.