World Footy News

Media reports have confirmed that former player and player manager, Ricky Nixon, is on his way to Ireland to set up a dedicated recruiting system. His initial plans were reported earlier in the year and he is ready to put them into action, with Geelong, St Kilda, Richmond, North Melbourne and Brisbane Lions apparently prepared to pay $30,000 each to have access to his network.

Peter Hanlon reports in The Age that Nixon will arrive in Ireland in the next two weeks to head up the project with staff including Joe Begley, the brother of the Brisbane Lions' Irish recruit Colm, plus an elite junior coach, a sports psychologist, a university professor, an Australian expat who played in the VFL, and an ex-AFL teammate of Nixon's. Gaelic football coaches are also said to be involved, though overall the talk that the GAA may prefer this model over random searches by AFL clubs sounds more like an attempt to put a positive spin on pillaging of Irish stocks.

Scanlon wrote, "A group of 20 to 30 Gaelic footballers aged 17 to 22, but mostly in the 17 to 19 bracket, will be invited to attend a camp in either Dublin or Belfast in August. Their parents will also be invited, with presentations made on all things AFL as well as life in Australia" and "The groundwork for drawing up a list of 100 prospective draftees has been made easier by using software from Swedish company Dartfish, which AFL clubs have already used as a teaching tool, but which in this instance has been applied to footage from GAA games to form a database of players". The software allows players and events like kicks and tackles to be tagged for quick recall.

Nixon is also reported as saying that if successful, the program could be rolled out in other areas such as Africa and North America. That will be far more difficult because so much of what the AFL clubs will be looking for is demonstrated in the skills of Gaelic football. Although there are Australian footy programs in many countries, other than South Africa and perhaps New Zealand and PNG, the numbers of players regularly involved aren't there yet (1000s playing every week rather than 100s), and it would be far more difficult to attract and evaluate kids from other sports. Nevertheless, it could be an intriguing next step for international footy.

Note that the comment in the quoted article that "AFL clubs are allowed no more than two international players on their lists" is probably not correct - there was once a two-player Irish limit, but we think that was merged with the normal six player rookie list. Certainly other international players can be signed under the separate international scholarship lists (up to 8 per year, 24 total, for each club).

As preparations continue for the third Australian Football International Cup (also often referred to as the AFL International Cup) it is pleasing to note that V-Line and the Victorian Country Football League have joined forces to provide transport for the competing nations as they head down to Warrnambool for two rounds of the tournament. The deal had been known about for some months but details have now been confirmed.

The VCFL's marketing and communications manager Graeme Allen told worldfootynews.com that the package is worth around AUD$25,000 which will certainly ease the load on teams. "V/Line will provide one train which will have most of the teams on it and the remainder will be on a normal scheduled service to Warrnambool". A working group has been in place since October making sure the town will turn it on for the visitors. It includes representatives of council, football leagues, umpires and schools.

A few more details are now also available about the events for players attending the Cup, including local attractions, filming of games and possible night matches. It also looks certain that Spain will not attend, leaving 17 teams as the likely number, dramatically up from 11 in 2002 and 10 in 2005.

Minnesota Freeze's Ryan Marx featured this week in a story on the Bellevue Leader's site. Marx along with three of his Freeze teammates were named in the USAFL's Revolution squad to compete at this years International Cup in Melbourne. Marx descibes himself in the article as "I'm tall, but I'm also pretty skinny, so I can move fairly quick," and at 6 feet 5 inches will be hard to match up on for his international opponents.

The San Diego Lions, one of USFooty's power clubs, have recently embraced (a version of) Recreational Football, a non-contact version of Aussie Rules that can be used to introduce new players to the game, get people involved that don't want the full contact and also allows mixed sex matches ("co-ed"). Often used for intra-club, San Diego recently took their rec footy team on the road to play the Las Vegas Gamblers' side.

You can check out their rec footy and full contact matches on Youtube here.

Almost 30 players attended the Japan National Team Training Camp last month at Narita Radisson Hotel Ground. Players were invited were from all the domestic teams such as Eastern Hawks, Senshu Powers, Komazawa Magpies, Tokyo Leopards and Osaka Dingoes. The camp ran over two days in order to assess potential candidates to be selected in the travelling squad for the 2008 International Cup. Our thanks to Hideki Miyasaka for the following report.

Footy is back on in earnest around Britain, with perennial power club the West London Wildcats again topping the ladder in the London Premiership. The Cats however had a shock loss last weekend, going down to the Putney Magpies 48-44 in the biggest upset of the season so far.

Also in London, the Dulwich Dragons have become the first club to be created in the city's south-east suburbs and took the field for the first time recently. The Dragons planned to launch for the 2009 season, but fast-tracked plans to get together players for the London Social league this year.

Fellow new club, the Chippenham Redbacks, had their maiden victory a few weeks ago against the Brighton Black Swans in the ARUK Southern division. The Redbacks were formed by Dragonslayers captain Rob Fielder this season, with a number of players from the now-defunct Swindon Devils club.

Portland Power have their first home tournament this weekend and will play as a stand-alone 18 a side team for the first time. It is a great step forward for a club that has taken it’s time to develop since it first took shape in 1998. As previously covered the club has played little brother to the Seattle club for a number of years but now is getting ready to show what they have to offer standing on their own. Attending the tournament will be Seattle Grizzlies, Denver Bulldogs and Vancouver Cougars.

Canada's premier league, the Ontario AFL, is leading the way in promoting the local clubs via a web-based footy show, featuring regular host Lockie McDonald and "panel" members Salvatore Capoferri and Emile Studham. Each episode features footage from the previous week's games, general footy gossip and plugs for the league's sponsors.

Recently, in episode four, the guys interviewed Canada's national coach, the Northwind's Mark Block. Currently also the Toronto Eagles coach and formerly the Northwind's captain at the 2002 International Cup, Block was very clear that he leads his side Down Under with the intention of winning the third Cup. Not surprisingly Papua New Guinea were seen as the biggest obstacle, and another bout with the United States was keenly anticipated.

It was also great to see the respect that Block had for a few "heritage" items from past Cups - something that will only be truly appreciated in the future. And speaking of the future, the clip also features first word of a new club forming, either the Quebec or Montreal Saints.

The episode can be viewed here, with the chat to Block starting around 18:35.

USFootyNews.com and WorldFootyNews.com have joined forces to put together the 3rd unofficial USFooty Top 10 Poll of 2008. Despite a few games across the country, according to our voters there hasn't been a lot of movement at the top of the ladder. Curiously one team has sneaked in without taking the field yet. Look for more movement when the season gets into full swing.

Further to our story that the former Gaelic footballer Jim Stynes might be the Melbourne Football Club's saviour (see Irishman to save AFL's oldest club?), the comedy duo at the Footywrap recorded an "exclusive" interview with big Jim. The boys manage to pack in a tremendous array of stereotypes (and not one Irish county) in their two minute skit.

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More from the Footywrap: Former Brownlow medallist Jim Stynes is set to become the new president of the Melbourne Demons on Thursday night. Stynes played 264 games from 1987-98 for Melbourne and won the 1991 Brownlow Medal. The Footywrap caught up with him in an exclusive interview before the Queens Birthday clash. The beloved Irishman has a huge task ahead of him. Despite a spirited performance against Collingwood on Monday, the Dees have already notched up 10 losses for season 2008 and have debts totalling $4 million.

The Melbourne Football club celebrated it's 150th birthday on the weekend, giving it some claim to being the oldest sporting club in the world. It's 20 years older than Manchester United and 44 years older than the New York Yankees. The legends of the club like Stynes, Robbie Flower and Ron Barassi who gathered for the event said it was a great night. Garry Lyon, who spoke at the function implored them all to throw more support behind their embattled club. Stynes, at least, has answered the call: 'All I can say is we're going to be in for an exciting time because we've got some great people that want to really help... On Thursday night, if all goes well, we'll start to roll out our plan and let the members know what we're about.' The planting of 150 potatoes in honour of the Demons heroes of the past is yet to be confirmed.

The 2008 Manila Cup has been run and won, with the Philippine Eagles, Hong Kong Dragons, Malaysian Warriors, China Reds (Beijing/Shanghai) and the Hongila Dogs (extra players from Hong Kong and the Philippines) fighting it out in sweltering conditions.

The 12-a-side competition saw the five teams play each other once, with the Hong Kong team (pictured) undefeated to finish top, on the way knocking over the Malaysian club, giving them their only loss. That left the scene set for the Grand Final, with the Dragons going in favourites, and they duly delivered, winning by 7.4 (46) to 2.1 (13).

The organisers are looking to go again in 2009 whilst avoiding clashing with any other tournaments, and will most likely stage it in the last weekend in May. Clubs from across Asia or anywhere else are welcome.

Full tournament report on the Philippines Australian Football League website.

The first US women's footy games of the year were held on Saturday (2nd June) with the inaugural 'Duel in the Desert' tournament hosted by the Arizona Lady Hawks. With temperatures expected to rise into the triple digits it was an early start with games starting not long after 8.00am. At the event were the newly formed Denver Lady Bulldogs and the Atlanta Lady Kookaburras as well as the hosts of course the Lady Hawks, runners-up at last years Nationals in Louisville.