World Footy News

At the USFooty Admin Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, Joshua Goodstein of the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids presented an update on the International Cricket and Footy stadium being built in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The stadium will be ready later this year and the Fighting Squids are planning a major tournament at the site in April or May next year.

Here are some stats:

* Seating for 25,000 (8,000 covered).
* Private suites and announcement facilities.
* Fully-lit oval in the main stadium.
* 2 additional (non-Stadium) full-size ovals with lighting.
* Main stadium oval measures over 170m diameter.
* ICC sanctioned facility.
* Wired for TV broadcast.
* Digital scoreboards and the newest in announcement and broadcast technologies.
* Full service concessions.
* Will play host to international and local Australian Rules Football events as early as 2008-2009.

The idea of a purpose-built footy stadium with two more fields in the facility had football administrators from across the US dreaming of the possibilities and looking forward to having a kick. The lit fields allow the possibility of night games which will help reduce congestion during the USFooty National Tournament Championship.

Back in 2004 the Australian Football League, in conjuction with state leagues, launched Recreational Football, or Rec Footy. Essentially it is non-contact football, played on a smaller field with eight players per side. "Tackles" are made through pulling flags from the player with the ball - a similar concept to flag football in the US, and in the same vein as a touch replacing a tackle in touch football (touch Rugby) in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The new game gives the opportunity for people to play a form of Australian Football over summer in a social setting, without the physical load of traditional Aussie Rules. The game has the potential to fill a crucial hole in the market which allows sports such as soccer and touch football to draw players away from footy. I've written before of the effect touch football has in Australia of introducing the skills and interest in Rugby Union and League to future fathers, mothers and their children. Australian Football clearly needed an equivalent, so as the 2007/08 season approaches it's timely to see how this new sport is going, based on statistics from the AFL's 2006 census. And it's also timely to remind prospective players, those with footy backgrounds and those without but who had always wanted to try the game themselves, males and females, young and not so young, to contact their local associations to find or make a team and launch their Rec Footy experience.

Major Melbourne newspaper The Age today had a lengthy article in its business section on the Melbourne Football Club's push into China.

The article is written by Steve Harris, current CEO of the Demons and former Editor-in-Chief of The Age. The full article is available at China's AFL link is kicking goals via The Age's website.

The Jakarta Bintangs are well known to International footy fans, but also kicking the sherrin in the Indonesian capital are the Jakarta Bulldogs, an under 18s side formed in late 2006 by students from the British International School (BIS) in Jakarta.

The driving force for the side were two teenagers from South Australia, who recruited schoolmates to form the team - most of whom had no idea what Australian rules football was. Consequently, the team sports players from all over the globe, including Finnish, New Zealander, British and local Indonesians. Their first match was against West Java AFL team the Pancawati Eagles on November 24th, a fixture which saw the Bulldogs go down to the Eagles 74-70. Since then, the Bulldogs have maintained an unbeaten run through '07, defeating the West Java AFL's Depok Garudas, the Jakarta Bintangs' reserve team and last weekend a team of junior Indonesian rugby players.

The match on Saturday October 6th was held at the halftime break of the senior match between the Jakarta Bintangs and the International Sports Club Indonesia (ICSI). The Bintangs vs ICSI match has been an annual fixture for some years, played as half-footy-half-rugby - or "fugby".

The Bulldogs took on the ICSI junior rugby players confident in the knowledge that the ICSI boys had little to no idea about Aussie Rules, and piled on 5 goals in the first half while holding the ICSI side goalless. The second half saw the Bulldogs loan ICSI a few players, evening up the match but still seeing the Bulldogs run out 5.6.36 to 0.3.3 winners.

For more information on the Jakarta Bulldogs, visit their website.

Australian Football in Europe has been relatively slow to develop. The United Kingdom has seen its fair share of the game over the last one hundred years, so it is no surprise a number of solid leagues have been established. Denmark then took to the game in the 1990s and has made slow by steady progress since, bringing in southern Sweden at the same time. Ireland were the obvious next choice to flex their footy muscle, but after them, there was a period where few leagues developed and a number of nations were stuck in the one-country-one-club situation.

There are signs this limitation is starting to be thrown off, and at the same time there are an increasing number of internationals being played. Clearly it's high time Europe was able to crown its own champion nation, but any undisputed mechanism to achieve that is far from settled.

The New Zealand National Provincial Championships were played in Wellington at Martin Luckie Park on Saturday the 29th and 30th of September. Auckland continued their dominance at Representative level and were successful in taking out the title for the third successive time. According to NZAFL CEO Rob Vanstam "Every one of the six games played on the weekend was in the balance at some stage. The big improvers were Waikato and although yet to find their first NPC victory, they gained the respect of all competitors." For more from the NZAFL CEO see Auckland Takes Triple Crown, or read on.

At the recent BARFL AGM there were several interesting changes in personnel. President Remon Gazal stood down as he is returning to Australia, and long time committee member Donald Eastwood did not stand for re-election. Also departing is Chris O'Neil. Taking on the top job is Sam Percy of the Wandsworth Demons - reprising a role he held for three years from 2002 to 2004. Other notable changes were the addition of Kat Conner from the Manchester cliub, and Glen Ocsko, who readers may recall was the author the UK Footy plan discussed in UK Footy unity plan being debated and BARFL respond to UK Footy plan. The other committee members are Daniel Bussau (Treasurer), Martin Smith and Luke Shaw. Comments from the new President suggest that the mood is now right to push through significant structural changes.

On Saturday, September 22nd the AFL Canada held its 2007 Ontario Australian Football League annual Best & Fairest Awards presentation at the 130 Event Center in Toronto, Ontario. The League also announced its All-star team, and it's always interesting to see the mix between expatriate Australians and Canadian players. The full line-up is shown below.

Over 150 players and coaches attended the gala event and witnessed one of the closet vote counts in OAFL history. At the conclusion of the count, it was Broadview Hawk’s rover John McGrath who finished on top with 26 votes closely followed by Lachlan McDonald of the Toronto Eagles with 25 votes. Both players have had fantastic seasons and both polled well in each of the 15 rounds.

The USFooty National Championship Tournament takes place in Louisville, KY this weekend (October 13 and 14). The tournament will see over 30 mens teams and three womens teams competing in 5 divisions, plus junior clinics, a junior game, and a match between the US Revolution and the Convicts. It will be one big weekend of footy!

USFooty is hosting two AFL legends during the weekend. Former Essendon Coach, Kevin Sheedy will be there as well as former Carlton star, Steven Silvagni. Son of George, Rod Grljusich will make the calls on Field 1 which will host all Division 1 games, the finals from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 and the Revo/Convict game.

The San Diego Lions go into Nationals as the undisputed favorites with 6 wins and no losses this season. Looking to take them on are the Denver Bulldogs and the Baltimore Washington Eagles, both of whom will be fighting to represent Group 2 in the Grand Final on Sunday afternoon.

Check out the radio advert playing on Louisville station "1570 The Zone" here.

WFN and USFooty News will provide updates over the weekend.

The Beijing SiShen Bombers - all-Chinese expansion team of the Beijing Bombers - took on the Tianjin Normal University Demons in a 10-a-side match in the Chinese capital last weekend.

The match was the first domestic fixture in China to be played between two 100% Chinese sides, the SiShen Bombers running out winners 6.13.49 to 5.10.40 in wet conditions at the Beijing Science and Technology University.

In several countries Australian Football has moved beyond what could be considered the first and second phases of game development - expatriate Australians playing the sport and local adults then learning the game. With junior development beyond small groups now taking place in countries such as PNG, New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa, Tonga, China, the UK and Canada, budding young talent needs to be exposed to the highest levels of competition and training if they are to reach their full potential and attract the eye of AFL scouts. For the past couple of years there have been signs of some positive moves in this area but there hasn't been a breakthrough yet. We look at what's on the cards but by no means confirmed.

Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported this morning that the AFL's Demons will pick two Chinese teenagers for training scholarships in its upcoming 10-day China tour. Melbourne's connections with the city of Tianjin, as well as junior programs and/or clubs in Beijing, Suzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong have been a regular feature on WFN and elsewhere over the past few months. Maybe this could be the start of something big?