World Footy News

WFN updates a couple of recent US stories on the 2006 USAFL Nationals and the 2006 US television coverage of the AFL season - including confirmation of Las Vegas as location for this year's national club championships and two broadcasters (Setanta broadcasting live, MHz carrying match of the week) bringing footy to US television.

The recent Indigenous tour to South Africa was reportedly a great success and we mentioned that a key was for the AFL to continue that commitment. It was very pleasing that tour leader Michael Long recently announced that the Africans will reciprocate the tour with matches against an Aboriginal squad in Australia in 2007. The following report is from the AFL website and can also be found at the Northern Territory AFL's site under AFL Trifecta for Northern Territory.

The Caribbean nation that is the Cayman Islands has it all, sun, surf, sand and….footy. Though not quite a staple of sporting life on the island it is a regular feature on the calendar each year for the past few years. The Gaelic Football Club started there in 1990 and as it progressed with a number of expatriate Australians playing the game there, they brought two regular Aussie Rules games each year into their schedule on St Patrick’s Day and Anzac Day.

The 2006 AFL season starts in earnest on Thursday night with a blockbuster clash in Perth between last year's runners-up West Coast against premiership favourite St Kilda. Both sides are tipped to give the premiership a shake, with both featuring highly in our reader poll (first and second) and ranked first and fourth with most bookmakers. Also favoured by the bookies are 2005 minor premiers Adelaide (second with the bookies) and Geelong (ranked third). Reigning premiers Sydney have drifted out to fifth. WFN's focus is on the international aspect of Australia's indigenous game, but here we give a quick preview of the season ahead in the sport's premier league, as well as note the AFL players with a distinctly international flavour.

Tanzanian marathon runner Samson Ramadhani took gold at this year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, but will be bringing a footy back home along with his medal. Ramadhani was sighted practicing his kicking with other members of the Tanzanian team at the games village after the team were donated two balls by Aussie Rules travel group the Convicts.

The Jakarta Bintangs proved too strong for hosts the Bali Geckos in an all Indonesian final in the 2006 Santa Fe Bali Nines Masters Australian Rules Football Championships on Saturday March 13th. After a dominant first half, the Bintangs came out convincing winners in front of hundreds of spectators at the Canggu Club, Bali’s first private member’s sporting and recreational club.

In another impressive performance by AFLPNG's junior pathways program five young players were in the mix for selection to represent Country Queensland in the Kookaburras under 18's squad that played at the Queensland state championships, with Emmaus Wartovo leading the way on the scoreboard. The country squad struggled against the rapidly improving city teams at the championships through March 2006, but the next step for AFLPNG will be to get some of their lads into the state U18s team picked from the tournament.

Japan Samurai player Michito Sakaki has been recruited by the Wodonga Raiders from the Ovens and Murray Football League, around three hours north of Melbourne and generally regarded to be the strongest footy league outside Australia's capital cities. Sakaki has signed a contract with the Raiders that nets him a few hundred dollars a week, plus free accomodation, car and petrol. He is also teaching Japanese at a local high school and has helped create one of the biggest pre-footy-season buzzes the area has seen in recent times.

WFN recently spoke with the founders of a new footy club in Manchester, joining the BARFL for 2006. Since then, a draft BARFL Regional league draw has been circulated, featuring no less than 9 clubs - these being the four teams who competed last year, three new clubs from regional England, and Glasgow and Edinburgh from Scotland. WFN takes a sneak preview of the regional league, and talks to players from another of the new clubs - the Thanet Bombardiers.

2005 saw clubs such as Bakersfield and Las Vegas make their debut on the US footy scene. A number of others around the country are in the embryonic stage, with the major determinant to their likely success being raw numbers of players. Once they have enough numbers it is hoped that the existing clubs can do their best to foster their new comrades and welcome them into the fold. World Footy News profiles some of these efforts here.

In a major announcement for footy viewers in the US today, independent public broadcaster MHz NETWORKS has announced it will broadcast the Australian Football League (AFL) "Match of the Week," and an hour-long highlights show, on its new national program service MHz WORLDVIEW for the full AFL season. Matches will air on Saturday nights at 8PM EST with replay Sundays at noon EST.

Western Australian Football League club the West Perth Falcons have sought out the Milwaukee Bombers to form a partnership that will allow them to promote themselves at an international level in the US. Importantly, the deal will see scholarship positions created allowing two Milwaukee players to undertake pre-season training with the club (who play in the professional state league feeding into the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers) and then stay on to play local football for the season.