World Footy News

Australian Rules football has slowly begun to spread around the world, particularly gaining momentum in the last decade. But the development of the game outside of Australia partly depends on the strength of the game within. The sport has a long history in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory in Australia. This weekend sees the first ever AFL premiership season match played there.

The British Australian Rules Football League (BARFL) finals are coming up, and are being promoted in conjunction with the website Active Antipodean. Their press release follows. In addition, this weekend also sees the BARFL Regional and Scottish League Grand Finals. The BARFL website has all the details.

The Western Regionals are being held in San Diego this weekend. This is the second leg of the series, to help determine seedings for the United States AFL 2004 Nationals, to be held in Atlanta in October. With each of the attending five teams playing against every other team once, the Regional should be a fair measure of the relative strengths of the teams. The draw follows.

Australian Rules football has made great gains around the world in recent decades, but Africa has remained largely untouched. South Africa is the exception, and the targeted growth is certainly exciting.

There has been a report that an All-Australian amateur football side may tour Ireland later this year.

Australian football in Fiji started with the building of a solid administrative framework, but not much actual footy. Recently, a change of direction has been promised.

West Coast USA was slower to take to Australian football, then it looked like it might outshine the East. Now the game is at the crossroads in the giant state of California - will it hit rock bottom or is the sky the limit?

Every year the AFL clubs seem to find themselves hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, but clubs outside of Australia are by no means immune to controversy either.

Australian football continues to grow in a country where it already has a well established base.

The China Blues chalked up their first win on foreign soil during the Asian AFL Championships in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on Saturday 31st July. It had been a long time between drinks with their only other win being at home versus Japan on November 6th 1999 in their debut match. Rather than an overall match report, we have an interesting account from some of the players involved. Hopefully we'll have a full tournament run down shortly.

Hampden Football League side South Warrnambool (270km west of Melbourne, Australia) boasts an impressive list of youngsters that are currently playing at the highest level. Jonathan Brown, Brent Moloney, Matt Maguire and James Rahilly are all products of the club's successful junior program, which also boasts recent stars Wayne Schwass and Leon Cameron. Could the next South Warrnambool player to step up be an 18-year-old exchange student from Japan?

The chances of an AFL match being held in the US next year are considered better than ever.