The AFL is pleased to announce that Gold Coast Suns ruckman Zac Smith was tonight awarded the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award established by the AFL and The Reach Foundation in honour of the former Melbourne Football Club President and champion player.

The following press release from the AFL details the National Female Indigenous Kickstart Championships in Melbourne this week. This event is a follow up to the indigenous male championships played earlier this year. Our thanks to the AFL and the AFLNT (Northern Territory) for this information.

The AFL wishes to advise that the inaugural National Female Indigenous Kickstart Championships will be held in Melbourne at Victoria Park, from today, Monday, September 9.

Supported by the Coles AFL Indigenous Program and The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), the five-day Championships will see seven teams represented at Under 18 level, including all States and Territories.

In an incredible performance for an AFL junior footballer, local Cairns product, Kanjia Kamara, has won the Under 14 Best and Fairest award. Now, this kind of thing happens all the time, so what would make this particular award so different?

Firstly, this young man is another success story of a kid from Sudan playing our national game and experiencing success. But secondly, and far more tellingly, Kanjia has won this award – the best and fairest in the whole Under 14 competition – in just his very first season playing Australian Rules football.

Are we seeing a new Sudanese superstar in the making who could go all the way and equal, if not better, the deeds of North Melbourne’s Sudanese player, Majak Daw? In a situation that is likely being played out with other teams and leagues across the nation, kids of African heritage are taking to the game in greater numbers and, as proved by Kanjia, experiencing success. Figuratively speaking, Majak has kicked the door down and the young kids are now walking through that doorway.

STATEMENT FROM AFL CHAIRMAN MIKE FITZPATRICK

ESSENDON FC HEARING - 27 AUGUST 2013

I want to start by addressing all Australian football supporters.

The AFL Commission shares your anger and frustration that the 2013 season has too often been dominated by headlines that we would rather not see – and hoped we would never see associated with our sport.

The issues involved in the Essendon Football Club’s supplements program are deeply disturbing. The investigation undertaken over the past six months and the actions we have taken today reflect this gravity.

Sunday the 25th August saw the perfect window of good weather for the WA Women’s Football League Grand finals to be held. For the first time a youth girls league moved into the season proper providing a complete pathway from Auskick, Youth Girl’s league, Reserves and Women’s League.

The WAFL has worked closely with the WAWFL to produce a vibrant league that has performed strongly at all representative levels. The WAWFL also has nine regions arranged aligned closely to those of the WAFL.

The red dust of the Australian outback is the best in the world. Or the worst, depending on your point of view and your direct association with it. But that dust doesn’t dull the love of footy in Lajamanu. In fact, if anything, it just brings out the best in the local footballers as they run, kick, bounce and mark with the same athleticism you would find anywhere else.

For Lajamanu’s AFLNT Regional Development Manager, Ty Ebdon, his journey to this remote outback Northern Territory community has been a life change. The town is nestled on the northern fringes of the Tanami Desert, not far from the border with Western Australia. It is almost 900 kilometres south of Darwin, and 557 kilometres south-west of Katherine. Ty had never experienced this level of isolation before.

The Masala FC has completed its first season in the VAFA's Club XVIII Division, and although the side only managed two wins for the year, the beginnings of the club's mission of exposing new players from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds has been deemed a success thus far.

Since securing a home base in the suburb of Noble Park in Melbourne's south east and playing its first matches earlier this year, Masala has grown to a playing list of almost 50 players, with most of those being new to the code.

The 2013 squad's largest contingent consisted of players of Indian and Sri Lankan backgrounds, but the club also included a number of Anglo-Australians and other players born in (or with both parents born in) Fiji, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Italy, Serbia, UAE, Kuwait, Afghanistan, NZ, Italy and Estonia.

This broad range of cultures and backgrounds reflects the club's name 'Masala', a word used in numerous languages of India to mean a blend of spices, which in turn is represented by the star anise in the club's logo.

Early last year two primary schools in Cairns, Queensland, faced off in the final of the Gold Coast Suns Cup. After a classic encounter, Freshwater State School defeated Gordonvale State School by a solitary point. After the presentations, the opposing coaches, Kristen Knight and Wesley Hull, floated the idea of a follow up.

The result was later dubbed the “1st Annual Women In AFL Challenge” match.

Whilst the official “Women In AFL” round is recognised nationally at the end of June, the schools could not play a game then as they were still on mid-year holidays. The decision was made to play the round in August, mid way through the school term, as a way of recognising the role of women in all aspects of Australian Rules football, whether that be as players, umpires, administrators, mothers, sisters or daughters.

Darebin have defeated rivals Diamond Creek 14.7 (91) to 6.6 (42) in the 2013 VWFL Premiers Grand Final to end a record unbeaten season with the Susan Alberti Cup and the title of VWFL Champions.

The remarkable feat marks the return to glory for the former VWFL powerhouse who recently suffered subsecutive grand final defeats. The game was played at Coburg City Oval in front of packed stands of fans and was also streamed live on the VWFL YouTube channel

The VFL's Williamstown Seagulls held their inaugural Asian Community Football Day this weekend, with VAFA side the Southern Dragons taking on the Williamstown Asian All-Stars as a curtain-raiser to the match between the Seagulls and AFL club Geelong's reserve side.

Instigator for the event was Grant Dooley from Williamstown FC, who previously had also worked as Consul General for Australia in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where he helped establish the South China Australian Football League together with other local clubs and the assistance of Tony Woods and the AFL.

Williamstown FC last year announced a $10,000 sponsorship of the South China AFL, which will go towards development of the competition and recruitment of young Chinese athletes to join their clubs.

The day was hailed a great success - the Dragons eventually triumphing by 4 points, despite the All-Stars having Chinese import Chen Xiaoliang take the field for them - and Dooley hopes the event can become an annual fixture on the Williamstown FC calendar. Read on for a report from the AFL Victoria website.