World Footy News

The National Provincial Championship (NPC) is set for AFL Grand Final weekend and will be played in the capital city of Wellington. Four provinces will contest the Championships this year with Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington the contenders.

Previous results (available here) have shown the well-established six club competition in Auckland to be the country’s strongest. Last year’s NPC saw the Auckland team clearly superior, with an improved Canterbury team runners-up. A disappointing Wellington team, who have slipped from their high standards earlier this decade, and the Waikato team, involved in their second campaign after forming as a competition in 2004, made up the numbers.

Channel 7 Melbourne has scheduled a documentary prepared by their news team, called "Footy's Wild Frontier - AFL in South Africa". The stations blurb explains:

"Watch as reporter Nick McCallum travels to the shanty towns of Johannesburg and other regions of South Africa , discovering passionate AFL communities along the way. This program provides a rare insight to how the AFL views South Africa as football's final frontier and a viable market for players and television, having already expanded its presence into countries all around the world. In the documentary, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou outlines his confidence over the sport's push into the far-off region".

The Age newspaper also quotes Demetriou as saying in the program "There's no doubt in 10 years, there will be a player drafted out of South Africa".

Sadly the show appears to only be scheduled for Melbourne, 5pm - 5:30pm, Sunday 23rd September. Channel 7 Melbourne have advised that there are no plans to air the documentary to the wider Australian audience, and Channel 7 Adelaide have no immediate plans to show it but have put a request into the system (fans shouldn't hold their breath).

Tonga is a small country in the South Pacific hopeful of attending their first International Cup in Melbourne next year. To help finance the trip, the Tonga Australian Football Association is raffling two AFL Grand Final tickets. Raffle tickets are AUD$10 each and the draw will take place on the 28 September, Grand Final eve. This realistically restricts entry to those in Australia only, and means that if the winner lives outside Victoria, they will need to organise a flight for Saturday morning. More information is available from the TAFA website. General donations or sponsorship to support the national side are also welcome, as without significant fundraising the team will struggle to make the journey.

In related news, TAFA is still accepting Development Officer applications. The twelve-month position will begin in March 2008. Further details available here.

Sweden defeated Germany 94-53 last Saturday to take out the 2007 EU Cup. A full report will follow, scores are available at the Footy Record. Final standings for the cup were as follows:

1. Sweden
2. Germany
3. England (ARUK)
4. Spain
5. Czech Republic
6. Finland
7. France
8. Catalonia
9. Belgium
10. Netherlands
11. Austria
12. EU Crusaders

As far as we've been able to tell from searching the internet, despite great gains by AFL South Africa in the past few years, there hasn't been a lot of media coverage within South Africa itself. This of course will slowly change with time, and no doubt they're up against entrenched sports that guard their coverage closely. So it's pleasing to see an article in called Now kids are to play new game by Tandie Ntsepe on the City-Vision Western Cape website. They spoke with Development Officer Allison Simons about the FootyWild program being presented to local schools in Khayelitsha and Nyanga. Let's hope interest continues to grow.

Also of interest is an article that reviews some of AFL South Africa's progress in part from the point of view of Australian Volunteers International, an important partner early in their program. See A game for all seasons.

Timor-Leste (East Timor) is a country in Southeast Asia made up of the eastern part of the island Timor, the Oecussi-Ambeno region in Northwest Timor and the smaller islands of Pulau Atauro and Pulau Jaco. It has a population of a little over one million. It made headlines in 1999 when incited anti-independence violence followed a successful referendum by Timor-Leste to be recognised as their own state.

An Australian-led peacekeeping force was deployed to the region to support the new state, and they remain in the country (along with peacekeepers and police from 20 other countries) following more recent violence. Under the banner of “Operation Astute”, the Australian Defence Force are aiming to bring “stability, security and confidence to the Timorese to allow them to resolve their differences democratically and peacefully.” Sport has been identified as one avenue to achieve these goals, and consequently Australian football has been in the limelight.

Photos and videos of football matches and Auskick clinics in Timor-Leste can be found on the ADF website. More photos and a short review of the Auskick clinics can be seen on pages 16 and 18 of the September 2007 edition of Timor-Leste’s Guide Post Magazine. The Auskick website also ran articles titled NAB AFL Auskick in East Timor and Auskick Timor Leste Coaches Report.

It may currently surprise some in the international footy scene that an internationally developed Australian Football player is participating in the Rugby World Cup in France right now! And he credits Aussie Rules for helping develop the skills that got him there. Also helping the Kiwis with their line-outs (throw ins from the sideline where players boost each other into the air to try to gain possession) is a former VFL/AFL ruckman who experienced both codes, and Rugby League, in the diverse Sydney sporting scene.

The number three ranked (WFN USFooty Top 10 Polls) Baltimore Washington Eagles (BWE) have won the 2007 Eastern Australian Football League Premiership, suggesting they are the best team on the East Coast for 2007. The Eagles have won 11 games in a row, which includes a 5-0 record in 2007. The EAFL Premiership was finalised last weekend with the Eagles beating the Philadelphia Hawks 98 to 17 in Philadelphia to finish 4-0 in EAFL play. The New York Magpies (5 in the poll) finished second with their only loss being to the Eagles at home. Boston (8) finished third after losing to the Eagles in Washington and failing to hold off the Magpies' last quarter come-back in New York last weekend. The Hawks finished fourth with one win over the North Carolina Tigers in Washington DC. After their strong finish to 2006, BWE still had plenty to prove but knocking off New York will surely make the USFooty community take notice.

Samoan-born forward, Aaron Edwards, was the stand out forward in today's AFL semi-final between North Melbourne and Hawthorn. In a match when all eyes were on the Hawks' twin towers of Lance "Buddy" Franklin and Jarryd Roughead, the "recycled" Edwards booted four goals and launched himself skyward to pull in one of the 2007 season's great marks. The forward is one of those rare success stories where a player is let go by a club (in this case West Coast) and plies his trade in a state league (the VFL), and is thrown a lifeline by a different AFL club. Edwards rewarded the Roos with his four which were the equal top contribution (with on-baller Brent Harvey) in a relatively low scoring game as North Melbourne redeemed themselves for last week's annihilation at the hands of Geelong, defeating Hawthorn 14.9 (93) to 8.12 (60). North now get a crack at Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium and Collingwood face the daunting task of Geelong, probably before close to a sell-out crowd of 100,000 at the MCG - the only risk to that being if Pies fans don't believe they have a genuine chance to winning.

AFL Samoa intends using Edwards as their inspiration for young Samoan boys taking to our sport and such heroics from the player can only help that cause. There aren't too many men of his size, carrying that much muscle bulk, who can leap high above a pack - maybe one day AFL scouts will turn their eyes to the South Pacific island to see if there's any more such talent.

Collingwood tonight steamed home to win their first game against the Eagles in Perth since 1992 after scores were locked at 10.12 (72) each at the end of the fourth quarter. For only the second time since the system was brought in to decide drawn finals, extra time was needed - two additional mini-halves of five minutes each. Young international recruit Martin Clarke was involved in a crucial play in the closing minutes of the dramatic match.

Two Samoan footballers, Fia Tootoo and Chris Teniselli will face off against each other this weekend in the Ellinbank & District Football League Grand Final, a country league about an hour's drive east of Melbourne. Teniselli represented Samoa at the 2005 International Cup whilst Tootoo was alongside him in 2005 and part of the inaugural team in 2002. He was also named in both All-star teams.

Both players are former team-mates at the Moorabbin Kangaroos, although come Saturday, Teniselli will pull on a Catani jumper whilst Tootoo lines up for Nyora. According to Michael Roberts, AFL Samoa’s Game Development Manager, "both lads can play. Chris is one of my favourite players and should make the best team in 2008. Fia should be our captain next year". The game will be held at Cora Lynn.