World Footy News

The West Coast Eagles have had plenty of media coverage this year - although its mostly for all the wrong reasons. The Australian media picked up over the weekend on a few more positive Eagles stories, with the club now on a pre-season training and development trip to South Africa.

The Eagles are based in the township of Umlazi in the Durban area, where footy only started being played this year. Former Eagles star and current coach John Worsfold was impressed by the progress of the local talent, stating he believes they'll be at WAFL (the West Australian state league) standard within 6-10 years, and infiltrating AFL club lists soon after.

At the past two International Cups, the Irish national side wore a green jumper, recognising both the players' Irish nationality (harp) and football's Australian origin (Southern Cross). The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland (ARFLI) has decided that the team will wear a different design at next year’s Cup however, and has called for public input on this design. Everyone is welcome to submit their proposed jumper, with the best submissions to appear on the ARFLI website. The public will then be asked to vote for their favourite home and away versions, with the most popular to be adopted by the Warriors. Submissions close on January 18 2008 and should be sent to jenright at interactiveservices.com

Winning designers will be presented with the jumper they designed, signed by the team and framed for posterity.

More information is available from the ARFLI website.

The Chippenham Redbacks are the newest team up and running in British footy, with England Dragonslayers captain Rob Fielder helping to found the club over the past few months. Chippenham is a town of around 30,000 inhabitants located within about 30km of both Swindon and Bristol, with many of the Swindon Devils originally recruited by Fielder from this area - including six Dragonslayers representatives and the vice-captain of the Welsh Red Dragons.

After meetings held recently in London, the British Australian Rules Football League looks set to re-structure and re-badge. Current plans would see a shift towards a national umbrella organisation, probably to be called AFL Britain. To provide a more defined structure, the London leagues will play under an organising body called AFL London, directly responsible for the Premiership, Conference and Social Leagues.

It should also consolidate recent improvements to their working relationship with Aussie Rules UK, which has seen collaboration between the GB Bulldogs and England Dragonslayers as well as Aussie Rules UK providing opportunities for London clubs to play their juniors in a new under 16s league.

The best one hundred and ten young AFL players in PNG have recently attended the National Institute of Sport in Goroka (30th Nov – 2nd Dec). There they were tested and assessed through a range of activities including games, skill and physical testing, mental challenges and lectures on the requirements to play AFL at the highest level.

Selection from the National Championships, held in Lae in September, has now seen the best 35 boys in Under 14, 16 and 18 vying for spots at the NIS to go to Australia in 2008 as part of AFLPNG’s National Talent Player Pathway.

The Sydney Swans' first GAA recruit, Tadhg Kennelly, has spoken of his mixed feelings regarding the recruitment of other Irish players to the AFL. Although he is keen to encourage players that have undertaken the journey, he also says the idea that Gaelic football back home may be adversely affected "doesn't sit too pretty with me. The last thing I want to do is to see the GAA, or the game itself, suffer". He also spoke glowingly of the Swans' latest recruit, and didn't rule out there being 20 to 30 Irish players in the AFL within just two or three years. In fact Sydney may have their eyes set on another player already.