The Greater Western Sydney Giants have become the first AFL club to launch on Chinese social media.

 The Giants have created a club account on Weibo, one of the largest social networking sites in the world used by more than 500 million people.

The Giants have teamed up with the Shanghai-based Mailman Group which has created Weibo accounts for some of the biggest sporting clubs in the world including Liverpool and Manchester United.

The Jakarta Bintangs recently featured on Channel 9's Adelaide news, with a focus on the role played by former South Australian policeman Adam Bray.  Possible International Cup opponents of Indonesia would view this with interest.  The locals look to be of slight build but fast and hard at the contest, and a few players displayed good skills (allowing for very slippery conditions).

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Here are a few youtube videos showing some of the coverage AFL India (ARFAI) has secured recently and a presentation to a UN Next Step Conference.

News piece on a Bengali New Channel which was aired for 4 consecutive days and later bought by another Bengali channel and shown on their channel as well.

Bengali article
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Tom Calder, Australian Trade Commissioner in India and also ARFAI President speaking at the UN Next Step Conference on sport for development, organised recently in Delhi by Magic Bus (famous international sports NGO).

Melbourne Football Club is excited to announce China Southern Airlines as a new Platinum Plus Partner in 2014.

The world’s fourth largest airline will become the Club’s second highest commercial partner.

China Southern will become Melbourne Football Club’s presenting membership partner and gain extensive exposure through the Club’s media backdrop, scroll and parapet signage at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), digital advertising through the website and extensive match day activations.

Thanks to the Williamstown Football Club for the following story.

 

The Williamstown Football Club is pleased to appoint Jiaming (Jamie) Pi as the club’s Multicultural Advisor. Jamie will be working closely with the club towards the lead up to our Multicultural Community Day on Sunday 13th April and when the club hosts the China National Team at the International Cup in August this year.
 
Jiaming (Jamie) Pi is leading the pack with diversity in footy. Jamie first came to Australia as a 13 year old with his parents from the far North Western corner of China. After falling in love with the game of Aussie Rules in  the school yard, Jamie used our great game to learn English and settle into Australia.

Mickey Randall writes for The Footy Almanac - a great piece written around the modern international world of Auskick on Australia day with the Singapore Sharks and taking Mickey back to his own junior days in Kapunda, South Australia.

The following article was written by Kym Morgan, published in Adelaide's Sunday Mail and is reproduced below.

SOME arrive without boots.

Others are slightly weary after having travelled six hours just to be there.

But every member of the Jakarta Bintangs Aussie Rules team beams with excitement - and tonight is only training.

"The level of enthusiasm and the love these kids have for Australian Rules is pretty phenomenal,'' team coach and Adelaide expat Adam Bray says.

Bray moved to Indonesia with his wife 18 months ago and, as a former amateur level player in Adelaide, decided to join the Bintangs to stay involved in footy.

Today, he finds himself not only coaching the Bintangs but helping drive the growth of AFL among 12-23-year-old Indonesians.

The Asian football year has kicked off with simultaneous games being played around the region in the East Asian Australian Football League (EAAFL) and the South China Australian Football League (SCAFL) for the Australia Day weekend.

The Vietnam Swans defeated the Cambodian Eagles in a dominant performance, winning 13.15.93 to 3.6.24 at RMIT in Ho Chi Minh City in the first game of the year after the festive break.

The match was preceded by an AFL 9s game between Reds and Whites, inviting everybody to get involved for the lower contact version, and included a high percentage of women.

The following article is an adaption of an original story written for the Guangzhou Scorpions website detailing the finale to the first season of the GDAFL competition in Guangzhou, a competition within the overall SCAFL (South China Australian Football League).

The GDAFL finished it first season on the 4th of January. GZSU (Guangzhou Sports University) Seagulls 10.7 67 beat the GZ Scorpions 3.4 22 making the Seagulls the first GDAFL Champion. Seagulls won all of their games this season. It was amazing achievement for them.
 
In the first semi-final, GZSU Seagulls defeated the HuiZhou Hawks 19.8 122 to 0.3 3. They were very eager to win the first GDAFL championship and their offensive and defensive game was organized very well. The HuiZhou Hawks didn’t have enough players to join the final game, so they borrowed a few players from Scorpions. But even then the two teams were not level on the same stage, so the Seagulls killed the Hawks.
 

Following last year’s success of the inaugural national level tournament of Australian Rules Football in Kerala, India and the wonderful reception it enjoyed from people, it was time for hosting the 2nd annual national championship - AFL India - OGM Cup 2013. The venue for the tournament this year was the richest state of India, in terms of per capita GDP, Goa which is located on the western coast of India.

There was fair bit of improvement on last year's tournament which witnessed participation of five teams from three states of India. This year, with the immense popularity of the sport increasing day by day, a new state featured in the tournament from West Bengal, the birth place of Footy in India. All up there were six teams participating- three junior teams and three senior teams. The senior teams were Bengal Tigers, Maharashtra Giants and Kerala Bombers and the junior teams were Maharashtra Giants, Maharashtra Tigers and Tamil Nadu Kangaroos. All the teams played in round robin format with the top teams qualifying for the Grand Final. This year the tournament witnessed two winners-one in the senior division and one in the junior division attesting the fact that the popularity of Footy in India is disseminating like wildfire.