World Footy News

Two PNG juniors recently attended Australia’s Elite AIS/AFL academy camp. The players Stanis Susuve and John James have played the past year in the Queensland local competitions and were the only international players selected for attendance. As many of our readers would know, AFLPNG has a programme that sees their elite athletes competing at state level in Queensland providing a talented player pathway which is clear and logical.

While most of the attention on this year's AFL Rookie Draft was on the swathe of Gaelic football converts from Ireland, there were a couple of players from other interesting backgrounds in the mix.

As reported in Territorians looking to step up, the Northern Territory is considering applying to enter a combined squad into one of the major state leagues, with the Western Australian or South Australian leagues the front runners. The ABC website reports that a business plan is now being drawn up ready to be put to the WAFL and SANFL.

ABC article: NT footy team gets down to business

Braedon Reynolds, a promising junior from the North Delta Junior Australian Football League (NDJAFL) has had an experience of a lifetime for any international player, a chance to play football in Australia.

Rob Nisbet, one of the organisers of the Barassi Youth Tournament 2008, has sent us the following press release. The Barassi Youth Tournament (BYT) calls for more international youth teams! Along with the AFL's senior cup, 2008 will see the fifth international Barassi Youth Tournament take place in Canberra. The BYT is an international schools (16-year-old) non-elite Aussie football competition. The Tournament is organised by a non-profit incorporated association in the ACT. Over the years (1998, 2001, 2003 and 2006) youth teams from the United States, South Africa, Denmark, Samoa, Nauru and New Zealand have competed against invited Australian teams from the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory (Kormilda College) and Western Australia. Yes playing Australian football!

In yet another coup for footy in the US, the United States Australian Football League has announced the appointment of Wayne Jackson to the Australian Advisory Board. The Australian Advisory Board was set up in 2006 with a vision of inviting friends of the USAFL in Australia, who have stature in both business and football, to advise the USAFL on issues including business in Australia, the inner workings of the game in Australia and to increase the USAFL’s general understanding of everything football.

Wayne Jackson is the former Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of Australia's biggest sporting body, the Australian Football League. Wayne has recently received a life membership of the AFL. Prior to this high profile position, Wayne held senior management roles with leading Australian companies including South Australian Brewing Company Pty Ltd, BRL Hardy Limited and Thomas Hardy & Sons Pty Ltd. Wayne joined Minter Ellison Lawyers SA/NT as a consultant in 2003 and since July 2007 holds the position of Chairman. He played 71 games for West Torrens in the SANFL from 1965 to 1971, and played for Adelaide University in the South Australian Amateur Football League prior to that.

The Kangaroos have rejected the Australian Football League's offer to move to the Gold Coast. The club, which changed its name from North Melbourne to the Kangaroos in 1999 in an effort to gain wider support, had toyed with Sydney, ACT and Gold Coast markets for several years. With Aussie Rules booming on the Gold Coast thanks to internal Australian migration and massive AFL investment, ultimately the time would come when they had to decide whether they would take up the AFL's plan for a club fully based in the region. The Roos looked for a further year extension to make a go of things in Melbourne, but the AFL informed them yesterday that a decision had to be made now. After a drawn-out saga the answer was swift - the club will not commit to the Gold Coast and will try to stay alive in Melbourne. This means a new, 17th AFL club, is likely, and the number of AFL players will expand - perhaps even opening the door for a few more international recruits.

Back in March of this year WFN looked at a wide list of countries that may consider sending their team to the 2008 Australian Football International Cup (see 2008 International Cup - country attendance likelihood list). Eight months later, and much less than a year before the tournament, we listed the teams the AFL say have expressed an interest (see IC 2008 - Hands up for Division 1?). We've spoke to representatives from most of those nations to see whether they are expecting to get Down Under for international footy's premier event. If all the countries we rate as moderate or better make the journey, the Cup will feature a major jump in numbers from past years, going from 11 (2002) and 10 (2005) to 16 in 2008, giving the AFL the number of nations they are hoping for to give balanced divisions. That's not including possible teams based on recent ethnic migrant groups in Melbourne, whichever division they end up in.

The Swedish Elks held a national team training camp in Jönköping last weekend as the start of preparations for their planned International Cup debut in 2008. Thirty Swedish players and two coaches took part, with another ten players under consideration but unable to attend.

Swedish AFL president Jimmy Ljunggren is rating Sweden very likely to make the trip down under. As he explains, "We had representativies from Gothenburg, Stockholm, Falun, Karlstad, Landskrona and Malmö. We are planning to orginize another camp in April, a club-cup event in May, an international game in June (most likely Finland) and one in July (hopefully against Denmark)."

The session was organized by Swedish footy veteran Andreas Svensson and coached by Australians Ryan Kingsley and Cameron Crooks. Ljunggren tells us Svensson is currently the frontrunner for the job as captain as the most experienced campaigner and the only Swede to have played in the IC so far, representing Denmark in 2002.

Its official! The Ottawa Swans Australian Football Club will compete in the Ontario Australian Football League in 2008 becoming the 10th team in the largest Australian Football League outside of Australia. Finally football is coming back to Ottawa!

The AFL website has listed all four of the community camps to be held by AFL clubs in South Africa in the coming months. All states and territories of Australia will also have camps (see Lets go camping for more details - also being shown on AFL club websites as "AFL's pitch to the nation and the world"). The South African travels are:

West Coast Eagles from Dec 8 - 15 2007 (KwaZulu Natal, especially Durban and Umlazi)
Collingwood from Jan 20 - Feb 6 2008 (Potchefstroom and Western Cape)
Carlton from Jan 21 - Feb 3 2008 (Gauteng Province)
Fremantle from Jan 27 - 4 Feb 2008 (presumably North West Province)

Exhibition match: Carlton vs Fremantle, SuperSport (formerly Centurion) Park, Pretoria (Gauteng Province), February 2nd 2008.

It's easy to take all this for granted, but if two years ago we'd predicted this much AFL involvement in another country our readers would be posting comments that we were crazy - and resist the temptation now people....

During West Coast's stay they will spend a night living with the locals in Umlazi, see Eagles will rough it on African adventure.

Melbourne's The Age newspaper reported this morning that business leaders, representatives of the AFL and board members of AFL clubs would meet tonight to pledge funds to make the Peres Peace Team a reality for next year's International Cup.

Although footy has had an on-again off-again presence in Israel for well over a decade, the team would require training young athletes from scratch, with only 9 months to have a team ready for the cup. Reportedly, the side will be based around soccer players, with expat Australians coaching in Israel and the AFL providing clinics when the team arrives in Melbourne.

Support from the Melbourne end looks promising, with the Melbourne Jewish community having a long history of support for Aussie Rules, as has more recently the Melbourne Arabic-speaking community.