World Footy News

The US television deal for the broadcast of local USAFL matches has created much excitement but also scepticism. The USAFL have issued a statement that they accept there may be teething problems with the ASTN deal in its first year, but they remain confident that it will be a great step forward for the game in America. The release follows.

The Melbourne Age reports (note this may require an account at some point) the Brisbane Lions as having taken on Gerard Sholly, former Collingwood recruiting manager to assist with taking on a rookie from Gaelic football in Ireland.

On April 8th and 9th, the AFL's Collingwood Magpies held open tryouts in association with the Denver Bulldogs, the reigning 3-in-a-row USAFL champions. James Waddell, officially representing Collingwood, put a group of hopefuls through a series of athletic tests, with the results forwarded to the club for examination. Waddell would like this to be just the first of many trials, with the aim of finding young American recruits to take to Australia on scholarships, with a view to AFL careers.

You know Aussie rules is back for the year in Britain when the annual ANZAC Cup is played. This year the tournament returned to Clapham Common in London. On Saturday 16th April in the most perfect weather conditions the West London Wildcats made it back-to-back on last year, defeating the Wandsworth Demons by 13 points, 3-2 to 2-1, to take the 2005 VB ANZAC Cup.

The recent KICK fundraiser held in Papua New Guinea, featuring Australian sporting celebrities Merv Hughes, Rodney Hogg and Doug Hawkins, was a huge success.

While worldfootynews.com focuses on Aussie Rules outside of Australia, in compiling the statistics on player numbers around the world, it would be remiss of us not to examine the numbers in the game's traditional homeland. Fortunately, such a mammoth task is performed independently, with consultants Street Ryan and Associates hired by the AFL to examine the game each year. Here we present a snapshot of those numbers, in the same format as our survey of other countries.

April 9th saw the finals of the ARFLI Super 10’s Competition being played with the usual suspects of Lions, Eagles, Demons and Crows competing in the finals.

As the only new side at this year's International Cup, Los Toros de España are arousing a bit of interest - and things are looking good from the Bulls' camp. A match televised on national TV, a theme song recorded and played on radio (complete with 'Making Of' documentary on TV's Telemadrid), the Bulls are working overtime to get some attention at home.

The AFL Canada have announced that the Sydney Swans will be their host for the 2005 International Cup. The Canadians have also made several more appointments to their staff for what is looming as a high standard tournament.

Sponsorship is vital to all sporting clubs, from small community clubs to massive world icons. The Dublin Eagles in the Australian Rules Football League Ireland have secured a prominent international company. The following is courtesy of the Eagles' President, Phil Howarth.

The Florida Redbacks are looking forward to the beginnings of a bright season, hosting the Baltimore-Washington Eagles this weekend in the first match of the Eastern AFL season and announcing the formation of a third Florida metro league side in the southern city of Fort Lauderdale.

The 2005 AFL season was launched in Brisbane this year, and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou was full of praise for AFL PNG. The organisation, responsible for an explosion in junior footy numbers in Papua New Guinea, has now formally come under the wing of AFL Queensland. The plaudits from Demetriou are the first for another country that we know from the top AFL official. The following report is from AFL PNG Director Justin Karcher.