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.

WFN recently stumbled across an old arcade game with the title Ozi Rules 2010. The unit is still in working order and features several countries competing in Australian Football, at stadia from around the world. We tracked down the developers of the game and asked them about when the system was made, how many were sold and what the response was like. We also learnt that one character was based on a real life enigma of footy, reported to drop punt the ball 70 metres but too shy to have a crack at the big time.

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.

Just a quick note to let people know that the AFL's website has undergone a minor restructure and the web address for their International Leagues section is now: http://www.afl.com.au/Development/International/tabid/10238/Default.aspx. The link in our database has been updated to reflect this change. You can also navigate to the section from the AFL's front page by selecting Development then International. We hope one day the International section will be directly accessible as a prominent link from the front page, but I think all will agree that their coverage of international footy has improved significantly in the past 12 months.

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.