World Footy News

As the Sydney Swans prepare to do battle with the West Coast Eagles in the 2005 AFL Grand Final, the decisions of coach Paul Roos will be vital to the success of the New South Wales team. Even more important to any side is the preparation put in over the preceding year or more. Players from the United States AFL are well aware of just how good Roos is, and how meticulous his planning will be. Before his move to the coaching helm of Sydney, the former AFL great spent some time in the US and coached the national side to victory over Canada. The following article was written by Roos himself back in 1999, summarising his time in the US. It was submitted by respected US Revolution player Tom Ellis. Paul Roos time spent in the US is still spoken of glowingly by those that met him.

With the Sydney Swans taking on the West Coast Eagles in the 2005 AFL Grand Final, it's quite possible that the Swans will be the "most supported" team in Australian football history. Naturally they'll have the large New South Wales support base, and other states such as South Australia seem happy to get behind the Sydney team, but the prevailing mood in Victoria is also to back them against the West. This comes from the club's history as formerly South Melbourne, and also the theory that a Sydney win would be "good for the game" in developing the NSW market. So all-in-all there will be unprecedented Aussie support for one of the Grand Final sides over the other. But there will also be a lot of support for the Swans from further afield, with reports that there is big interest in the match from Ireland with Sydney's Irishman Tadhg Kennelly fast becoming a star in both countries.

After having reviewed the form of the sides that finished 6th to 10th at the 2005 International Cup, we now look at the top 5 and how they performed compared with predictions.

The Singapore Wombats won the 2005 Asian Championships, the second win for the Wombats in six years. The Wombats fought off a fit and determined Bali Geckos in the Grand Final with the final score Singapore 7.3 (45) to Bali 2.4 (16), watched by over 700 onlookers. The Championship Cup was presented by His Excellency, Australian Ambassador Tony Hely.

Nine teams participated in the 2005 Championships - the Hong Kong Dragons, Singapore Wombats, Malaysian Warriors, Thailand Tigers, Jakarta Bintangs, Bali Geckos, China/Shanghai Tigers, Japan Goannas and the Philippine Eagles.

One of the AFL's richest and most-successful clubs, the Collingwood Magpies, have confirmed that they will embark upon an ambitious pre-season training camp at Northern Arizona University in a bid to be more competitive in 2006.

With the withdrawal of the Spanish side organised through the Madrid Bears, an announcement has been made by the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya (Australian Football League of Catalonia) that they will attend in their place.

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.