World Footy News

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.

The newly rechristened Welsh Australian Rules Football League hosted a pre-season friendly tournament on the weekend, with the Manchester Mosquitoes, Bristol Dockers and new team Chippenham Redbacks converging on Cardiff for a four-team round robin with the WARFL Red Devils.

The Bristol Dockers went through the day undefeated, with Manchester taking second spot with a 2-1 record. Newbies Chippenham had a tough day at the office, finishing without a win - although only went down to the Welsh 4.4.28 to 4.0.24.

The Welsh ARFL Red Devils will next tour to Scotland this weekend for the Haggis Cup, hoping to show their development since footy began in Wales last year. This year they are going it alone without any English sides in the comp, with the season kicking off next month.

It was March Madness in the US and we were following the performances of the best of the best in College footy, that’s right, footy! While most Americans were watching the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight (the US National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball finals), Vanderbilt University was hosting the USFooty National Collegiate Championship. The tourney brought together some of the best college footy programs in the country including Vandy, North Carolina, and St John's (MN).

UNC – Chapel Hill, not only has one of the best basketball programs in the country it also has one of the best footy programs. The Tar Heels have been competing for a number of years against the arch-rival NC State and the “old-boys” of the North Carolina Tigers. Vandy is a relative young club with a lot of ambition. Many ‘Dores represent the Kangaroos in the MAAFL. The St John's “Johnnies” are the new kids on the block but they have talent to spare making a large portion of the 2007 Division II National Championship winning Minnesota Freeze. The Johnnies include many former Yankaroos - St John's students studying at Notre Dame in Western Australia and going through a footy program supported by the WAFL's South Fremantle.

Gaelic footballer Declan Lally is reportedly on his way to Australia to switch codes. Lally looks to have left his St Brigid's team and Dublin County to take up Aussie Rules. Lally was on the 2006 Dublin side that won the 2006 Leinster senior football championship against Offaly and on Dublin’s winning team for the 2008 O'Byrne Cup winning team which defeated Longford in the final. In recent times Lally was dropped from the Dublin senior football squad and that has prompted his move.

The report on The Press Association site suggests he will be meeting with a “team manager and club chairman of an unnamed Australian rules club” in Sydney (but not with the Sydney Swans). It looks like he will try to be placed with a feeder club for 2008 with hopes of making it to an AFL list for 2009. Given that Eddie McGuire has recently been in talks with the Dublin Blues in relation to his Collingwood AFL club playing them in a future International Rules clash, we might speculate that Lally could become a Magpie. If Collingwood were the club involved we may see Lally line up at in the black and white stripes in the VFL near future. Carlton and Brisbane’s taste for Irish recruits would also put them high on the list of possible clubs vying for the Dubliner’s services, but we can’t rule out other clubs getting on the Irish bandwagon. Against him is that players often take time to adapt and AFL clubs have therefore targeted younger players, so at 26, his age may be a deterent

And Lally may get a chance to see his countrymen up close later in the year, with the AFL expected to shortly announce whether they can squeeze in the International Rules series against the Irish this October. The GAA appears to have given the go ahead for the series to continue and the ball is in the AFL’s court as to whether 2008 will see its return under the conditions agreed upon when the two bodies met in Dubai earlier this year.

The Middle East football scene continues to flourish with an Abu Dhabi side joining the Dubai Heat, Dubai Dingoes, Doha Kangaroos and a recently-formed Muscat club in that region. After previous attempts in Lebanon, Israel and Turkey, football got the boost it needed when the Dingoes stepped onto the scene in late 2006. In early 2007, the Dingoes hosted a 9-a-side football competition in Dubai which contributed to Doha and the Heat forming. Muscat joined them in late 2007, and Dubai (the city) even managed to secure an AFL preseason match in 2008, with Adelaide defeating Collingwood at the Ghantoot Polo Fields. Adding to all this, a Peres Peace Team will compete at this year’s International Cup, their squad comprised of Israelis and Palestinians. In this article WFN previews the Abu Dhabi and Muscat clubs, giving some background about their formation and some insight into what 2008 may hold for them.