World Footy News

Following on from our story on the AFL's press conference for the International Cup (see Warrnambool to co-host 2008 International Cup), in this story we present photos and audio from the day, and links to some of the local media coverage. The AFL's General Manager of Game Development David Matthews briefs journalists, the Mayor has a chat and Kevin Sheedy spruiks for the internationalising of footy. Many thanks to WFN reporter Troy Thompson for making the six hour return journey for the press conference.

Regular readers of World Footy News this year will have appreciated the great coverage given to footy in the USA by our US correspondent Chris Adams. Chris was recently interviewed in The Connection and the article can be seen here. The interview reveals his deep knowledge and love of both the US and Australian versions of football and gives a nice plug to the Baltimore Washington Eagles footy club and Chris’s junior clinics.

Soccer superstar David Beckham's promotional visit to Australia for the LA Galaxy vs Sydney FC exhibition match featured a sampling of some of Australia's own football code.

During his first visit to Australia, Beckham met with young AFL and Collingwood Football Club star Dale Thomas in Sydney. Thomas gave the soccer star some tips on kicking a goal with the oval shaped Sherrin.

Suffice to say that while Beckham can certainly bend the round ball as shown in the match against Sydney FC, his effort with the oval variety was not as spectacular, though good on him for trying. You can see pictures of Beckham kicking a footy on the Herald Sun's photo gallery.

The AFL today announced that Warrnambool will join Melbourne as the host of the 2008 International Cup. The announcement was made by Kevin Sheedy (Ambassador for the sport's 150 year celebrations and ex-Essendon coach) and David Matthews (AFL Game Development) at Reid Oval, one of three venues that will be used for Warrnambool's matches (Walter and Mack ovals are the others). The decision to play some matches at a regional location is no doubt the result of a very successful trial at the 2005 tournament, where fellow Victorian country-town Wangaratta hosted one round of matches. Warrnambool is on the southwestern coast of Victoria (three hours from Melbourne) and has a population of a little over 30,000.

An updated fixture (including locations) was also revealed which we’ve included below. More news will follow in the next few days, including a current list of likely attendees, a proposed division breakdown and a review from World Footy News' representative at the launch, Troy Thompson.

The Lao Elephants, Asia's newest footy side, made their debut on November 17th in Hanoi, taking on the Thailand Tigers and hosts Vietnam Swans in a three-team tournament. Thirteen players made the trip from the Lao PDR to pull on the pink and grey jumper (pictured at right), augmented by eight curious Irishmen who had seen them carrying a Sherrin at the airport and decided to come along for a kick. The Elephants went down to the Vietnam Swans 5.2.32 to 3.5.23 in their first-ever match, a gallant effort in extreme heat and humidity with a number of players (not least the Irish) having never played competitive footy before. In the following two games, the Thailand Tigers proved themselves a long way ahead of their Indochinese regional rivals, defeating the Swans 85-21 and the Elephants 63-28. The tournament also included a ladies' netball tri-series, with the Lao Mahouts running out victors over the Thai and Vietnamese sides in their first international appearance. In a side note for trivia buffs, international footy identity and former WFN Asia writer "the Big Rooster" both designed the jumper and took the field for the Elephants, meaning he has now played for teams from 19 countries. International footy connoisseurs may also recognise the Elephant on the Lao jumpers as once having been at home in Eastern Europe.

We reported in VAFA clubs invited to host International Cup teams that the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) had apparently been approached to enter into a hosting arrangement with international teams attending the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. We've followed this up with the AFL and the VAFA to find out more details.

Just a quick reminder that there are now four 2005 Australian Football International Cup videos on our World Footy Channel, a link for which also appears in the top bar of the website. In addition to Opening Ceremony footage and the Japan victory over Spain in their first round match, we've now added South Africa's win over Japan, the New Zealand haka and Samoa's Siva Tau. See our 2005 Australian Football International Cup playlist.

The Japan AFL's Top League expanded to outside the Tokyo area this year with the arrival of the Osaka Dingoes bringing the numer of clubs to six. The 2006 season saw the number of JAFL clubs grow to five, with the "Samurai" club of University students splitting into the Senshu Uni Powers, Komazawa Magpies and Tokyo Leopards and joining the expat-based Tokyo Goannas and Uni Graduate Eastern Hawks. The Osaka Dingoes formed a few years ago, but didn't join with the Tokyo clubs until 2007, having a big first season and only narrowly missing the premiership.

The heartland for Australian Football in South Africa has been North West Province, with Gauteng also growing. The increased push into the Rainbow Nation has also seen development in Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, and although the focus will be on juniors, open age footy has begun there, adding to the possibility that the 2008 version of the national side, the Buffaloes, could have representatives from all four footy provinces.

The Tianjin Normal University (TJNU) footy club has recently branched out to form a club at its Yangcun campus, the newbies debuting last Saturday in an all-Chinese three-team tournament in Tianjin.

The TJNU City and TJNU Yangcun teams were joined by the SiShen Bombers, the local development squad of the Beijing Bombers, with around 50 Chinese students aged 18-22 taking part. The TJNU City side came out on top on the day, defeating Yangcun 36-25 and the SiShen Bombers 43-13, in a tournament enjoyed by all despite the wind and cold weather.

In other Chinese footy news, the two Aussie expat-based mainland clubs clashed in Shanghai on the weekend of November 10th, with the Beijing Bombers having their first-ever away win over the Shanghai Tigers.

On Veterans Day (Rememberance Day) Weekend, Broward County Florida conducted the opening ceremony for Central Broward Regional Park. A pretty boring name for a very exciting park. The CBRP includes an International cricket stadium that has covered seating for 5,000 and the ability to accommodate over 20,000 for day and night matches. The stadium could also handle AFL games on a field slightly shorter than the G, but more rounded. The CBRP also has the ability to run three full-size footy games simultaneously during the day and night. It includes netball courts, super boxes, professional changing rooms, picnic areas, water access and a kid’s water park. That’s over a 100 acres of footy heaven.

AFL clubs have now lodged their final player lists prior to the main National Draft on Saturday November 24. As expected, several of the recent Gaelic football recruits from Ireland have been added to official Rookie Lists, which locks the players in with their respective clubs for up to two years and allows them to be elevated to the senior list should there be a long term injury.

Rookie listed were County Mayo's Pearce Hanley (Brisbane Lions), County Armagh's Kevin Dyas (Collingwood) and County Carlow's Brendan Murphy (Sydney).

As reported earlier, Aisake O'hAilpin joins his brother Setanta on Carlton's senior list, and Martin Clarke stays on Collingwood's books having been temporarily promoted last season when a fellow Pie went down with injury.

Remaining on St Kilda's Rookie List for a second year is South African born Luke van Rheenen.