World Footy News

Melbourne Lord Mayor (and Demons' number one ticket holder) John So is looking to extend Melbourne's sister-city relationship with the Chinese metropolis Tianjin through an exhibition game featuring the Demons, possibly as early as next year. So (born So Chun Sai in Hong Kong and a familiar figure in Melbourne's multicultural community) has discussed the idea with Tianjin mayor Dai Xianglong who is keen on providing the Demons with a stadium to exhibit Aussie rules football.

At the third attempt after returning from the football wilderness, the Farum Cats finally clinched their second DAFL premiership yesterday with a hard-fought 44 point win over the impressive underdogs, South Sweden Saints.

The final scoreline read Farum 15.16(106) to South Sweden 7.20(62). Full scores can be found on The Footy Record.

Looking for an AFL Grand Final Party or somewhere to watch the big game between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans and you're not in Australia? Here are a few places you can watch the match around the world, from New Zealand to North America.

As reported recently in O'hAilpin brothers to get senior list promotions in 2006?, Irish recruit Setanta O'hAilpin has continued his good form with Carlton's VFL feeder club the Northern Bullants. In our last update on his VFL matches "Carlos" had been called up to play a one-off match with the Blues in the AFL. Here we review his match-by-match form since returning to the Bullants and keep track of how younger brother Aisake has been doing.

Plans for WAFL grand finalists Subiaco and South Fremantle to tour to Mumbai, India have been postponed until 2006 for organisational reasons, but there are big plans in the west to put some significant energy into promoting Aussie Rules across the Indian Ocean rim, from Indonesia, to India, to South Africa.

With a bid on for the 2008 International Cup and a delegation from the AFL South Africa visiting Perth this week, Perth might be the place to watch for a big burst in footy's international development.

WFN spoke with the Western Australian Football League's General Manager Grant Dorrington.

The AFL funds quite a number of countries to pursue Aussie Rules programs. However the level of that funding is often a source of debate, with most countries naturally wanting more. The Age writer Caroline Wilson wrote an interesting article on August 14th about the future for South Africa and gave a breakdown of the major funding targets.

Danish side Farum are well-known for having the biggest juniors competition in Europe, maintaining a strong partnership arrangement with Geelong College and their senior side now reaping the benefits of a large contingent of highly-skilled young Danish players.

The Farum Cup is the annual lightning premiership for the club's junior players, this year held on August 28th with children in the age range 9-12 years playing.

Chiswick Rugby Club in London will host the inaugral EU Cup 9-a-side tournament on Sunday, October 9th, featuring a mixture of club sides and national squads from countries around Europe.

The New York Magpies sealed top spot, and with it the Eastern AFL premiership, defeating the Florida Redbacks in Sarasota, Florida. This closes the first ever-season of the EAFL, WFN's Troy Thompson giving a season review.

The 2005 AFL Grand Final is fast approaching, with four teams from four states still in the running - West Coast (WA), Adelaide (SA), Sydney (NSW) and St Kilda (Vic). A great tradition around the world is for Aussies to get together for Grand Final parties at pubs and clubs - anywhere that has a telecast of the game.

If venues or clubs would like to send us a very short piece of information on any such event they're having we'll put up a summary next week.

After their successful tour of South Africa in February 2005, the Convicts are set to do it all again in South America in February 2006. The Convicts Tour will feature two matches in Buenos Aires against the Argentine national team in what will be the first ever match between Australian and South American teams. The tour also includes sightseeing in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, including a visit to Rio de Janeiro.

The Australian Football League Germany grew to 5 clubs in 2004 with the commencement of the Düsseldorf Lions, and in that year over 120 players pulled on the boots in the course of the season. This year they're on track for as many as 150 having played at least one match and have at least two potential new clubs for the coming seasons. However, despite having more players actually playing than Spain (who attended the International Cup) and Sweden (who've started playing internationals against Denmark), the Germans have generally kept to themselves, with only 'scratch' national teams having played any outside opposition.

World Footy News spoke with German footy pioneer Malte Schudlich about how the scene is developing in this relatively reclusive footy nation.