World Footy News

The following is courtesy of USFooty.com

Idol shocker! Michael Johns is voted off!

American Idol finalist and Ex-Atlanta Kookaburra Michael Johns finished in the bottom three for the first time Thursday, and in a surprising result ended up being eliminated from the TV talent competition.

Johns had arguably more professional music experience than the other finalist, but Johns received the fewest viewer votes for his straight-forward rendition Tuesday with Aerosmith’s “Dream On”.

From everyone at USFooty, we wish you all the best! You have a wonderful future ahead of you and will go far in your career.

Michael Good Luck in all your future adventures!

As we move to just over four months until Australian Football's de facto World Cup, the picture of exactly which nations will attend is becoming less clear. In our last update we suggested that the likely number had dropped to as low as 14, not including teams based on ethnic groups within Victoria.

Since then India firmed, finally getting some representatives to visit the AFL in Melbourne, we heard of a slight chance by the French (but subsequently discounted by another official there), and the AFL have decided to not rule out the Catalan region sending a representative side. Whether the latter will eventuate is yet to be seen as it's very early days in discussions.

We recently saw a report mentioning Fiji as a candidate, but that is understood to be a mistake. Also coming back into the picture is Tonga, as discussed in New AYAD arrives but Tonga looking for sponsor to fulfill IC dream. The AFL are also believed to be working to secure Spain and Nauru. Below we do our best to summarise what is a very fluid situation - at the end of the day, nothing is finalised.

This weekend sees the third of the Revolution’s three weekends of training and selection. The final weekend for the Revo’s selection involves a number of games against some of the best players in USFooty. The Revos will be at the Faststream Florida Tournament and has matches lined up against a team made up of players from the BW Eagles, Florida, the New York Magpies and the Denver Bulldogs. They have two games, the first on Saturday and the second on Sunday.

Assistant Coach, Jason Becker, says that the squad for Australia will be named in some form at the end of the weekend. “Many candidates are well known and the selection committee has a good understanding of their games. Other guys are newer on the scene,” says Becker. “While we'll be taking a look at everyone, and everyone will have a chance to shine by doing good things on the field, we'll need to focus a little extra on the guys who haven't made it to all the selectors' radar yet. But, in general, it's the one last chance for each guy to show what he can do. It's all about finding out who can play footy.”

The Southampton Titans held the first "Titanic Cup" a few weeks ago, with the Reading Roos defeating the Titans, Sussex Swans, Bournemouth Demons and Chippenham Redbacks for the trophy. Leading goalkicker for the tournament was Reading and Great Britain Full Forward Andy Whitaker.

Despite cold, wet and windy weather seeing the games struggle on in the mud, the day was a great success and the Titans hope for the event to become a regular pre-season fixture.

This report courtesy of Southampton Titans' President Michael Krischunas.

There is no longer any doubt that 18 year old Fijian sensation Nicholas Naitanui, unlucky to miss last years AFL draft by just two days, will make the grade to be selected into the AFL. The only question remaining is just how high will he be taken.

The talented and agile 198cm dreadlocked junior is blazing a trail for Swan Districts in the semi-professional WAFL competition against seasoned players.

Nick had a standout performance in last year's Under 18 national championships for Western Australia and was one of just 30 juniors in Australia to win an AIS scholarship. Almost half of those scholarship players are now listed with AFL clubs. Since then he has grown taller and stronger and not stopped impressing. He has drawn consistent attention for his athleticism, vertical leap, ability to win the hard ball and multiple efforts in a contest.

Journalist Jake Niall has an interesting piece on the Real Footy website regarding Carlton's Irish O'hAilpin brothers. Niall discusses the players' futures with Carlton football operations manager, Stephen Icke. Whilst Icke plays down the angle that the Blues' patience is running out, Niall makes a persuasive argument that this author tends to reluctantly agree with.

Whilst we've long noted the achievements of Setanta (pictured leftmost) and Aisake, we've also questioned whether their conversion to first choice AFL footballers will be a success. General opinion amongst the football public has ranged from those Carlton faithful sure they will be champions, to sceptics who say they won't be around in 12 months. So how are their careers progressing?

Ian "Dicko" Dickson is known to most Australians as a judge from "Australian Idol", with his background in recording industry. He has also made several appearances on reality television shows including "My Restaurant Rules" and "Celebrity Survivor" as the host.

Dickson, from Birmingham in England, spent much of his 45 years watching soccer and playing it socially. Now, believe or not, he's set to play Australian Football in Victoria.

An interesting story appeared recently in the Herald Sun about Bobby Cunningham, a 193cm, 108kg native of Brooklyn, New York talking about his love of the Australian game and his plans to play for the Russell's Creek Football Club in the Warrnambool and District Football League. Cunningham came to Australia to play basketball but was soon hooked on North Melbourne and when many would be retiring from sport, he's starting afresh.

The full article is here.

Colorado Springs has been the confirmed venue for the 2008 USAFL National Championships for some time now. In fact never before has the league given so much advance warning of the venue. The date however has been up in the air until now. Ironically up in the air due to the US Air Force Academy Falcons who use the facility for their home games. The draw for their 2008 season has just been released which has allowed USFooty to confirm October 11th and 12th as the dates for this year’s championships (when the Falcons are playing away).

The announcement on the USFooty website includes “The event is the biggest Australian Football tournament in the world, and will attract 1,000 American/Australian players, officials and coaching staff, with a total of 32 men’s teams spread across four divisions, as well as up to 6 women’s teams. The tourney in Colorado Springs will also feature a national netball event in conjunction with the football championships.”

For the second successive year a Dubai Heat team has won the Dubai 9s tournament. Dubai's two football clubs, the Dingoes and the Heat supplied two teams each for this year’s event, with Dubai Heat Black the overall winners. Eight teams participated in what the Dingoes’ Philip Temple described as “a bigger and better tournament than last year.”

WorldFootyNews.com and USFootyNews.com are teaming up to present the 2008 USFooty Top 10 Poll. To kick things off we are having a Top 10 Countdown for the Preseason Top 10. Who are the best teams in USFooty?

The San Diego Lions are Number 2 in the WFN/USFN Top 10 Poll. The Lions finished the year 9-1 and Number 2 in the World Footy News Top 10 Poll.

While holding down the number 1 position through out the year, the Lions only lost one game – the National Championship match against the Denver Bulldogs. Just one goal separated the two top teams in the USFooty Championship game.

In the past year or so the Tongan Australian Football Association's Michael Russell has been steadily taking over the reigns for footy in Tonga from TAFA's founder, Mark Korsten. TAFA had Russell in Tonga as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD), and although a new AYAD, Dylan Harper, has recently arrived to continue the work, Russell has remained involved and is overseeing the small nation's push to attend their first Australian Football International Cup. But the Pacific country still needs some extra support to get them over the line.