Australian Rugby League fans already know Innisfail, in North Queensland, as the home of two test match internationals. Ask anyone remotely connected to Australia’s “other” football code and they will tell you that Innisfail is where North Queensland Cowboy’s star Ty Williams was born, along with Melbourne Storm’s Billy Slater, argued by many to be one of the game’s greatest full backs.

Innisfail has not been seen as a hotbed of talent for Australian Rules footballers.

Until now.

AFL Cairns Juniors have invested a great deal of time in recent months developing a junior Australian Rules football team in this beautiful town, located in the picturesque Johnston River Valley, 90 kilometres south of Cairns. Eddie, Tim, Baden and the crew from this organisation have been training Innisfail kids, as well as others in nearby Tully and Mission Beach, to produce the next wave of Aussie Rules stars.

The work they have done with local primary schools to get kids involved in our great game may see the next Billy Slater wearing a Gold Coast Suns or Brisbane Lions jumper rather than that of a Rugby League team.

WFN welcomes aboard Wesley Hull who, amongst other interests, will examine some of the stories of grass roots footy within Australia.  Wesley will be familiar to some readers through his involvement with the Pyramid Power football club and our story about it.

White driftwood sits on the golden sand of Lilly Beach on Badu Island in the Torres Strait. Coconut Palms sway gently in whatever breezes the day brings. The water changes from blue to green to shades of grey, depending on the moods of the day. Turtles and dugongs cruise languidly by beneath the surface and various sea birds chatter and squawk about whatever they wish.

Surely this description of paradise has nothing to do with Australian football. Does it?

This picture of paradise changes once you add a few young boys and girls, who run with excited freedom along the beach. They gallop, screaming and laughing with joy, as they play a game of Rugby League, touch football or Aussie Rules. The delightful sounds of youth combined with the majesty of their surroundings. Idyllic.

Torres Strait is the body of water that separates mainland Australia from Papua New Guinea. At its narrowest it is 150 kilometres wide and contains over 250 islands. Some of these are alluvial islands made from the sediments of nearby rivers. Others are coral cays and others still are continental islands, part of the original Great Dividing Range. Very few of these islands have permanent settlements.

This is where Henry and Nathaniel grew up. Born on neighbouring Thursday Island and living their youngest days on Badu. This was light years away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, and equally as far away from the MCG, the symbolic home of AFL football.

A total of 94 players were tonight added to AFL club lists at the 2012 NAB AFL Draft, held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland.

Dandenong Stingrays' midfielder Lachie Whitfield was taken at selection number one by the GWS Giants, with the Giants adding Jonathan O'Rourke (Calder Cannons) and Lachie Plowman (Calder Cannons) at selections two and three respectively.

Jimmy Toumpas (Melbourne), Jake Stringer (Western Bulldogs), Jackson Macrae (Western Bulldogs), Oliver Wines (Port Adelaide), Sam Mayes (Brisbane Lions), Nick Vlastuin (Richmond) and Joe Daniher (Essendon) rounded out the top 10 selections, while three players with previous AFL experience were re-drafted onto club lists - former Port Adelaide player Ben Jacobs and former Gold Coast player Taylor Hine both selected by North Melbourne while Hawthorn re-drafted premiership player Michael Osborne.

Irish rookies Zach Tuohy and Niall McKeever were both ugraded to the senior list as were Sudanese born Majak Daw and South African born Jason Johannisen.

Full draft list below:

 

The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS have welcomed the announcement by the Federal Government of a partnership to support young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in Greater Western Sydney.

The Federal Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Sport, Senator Kate Lundy, announced at ŠKODA Stadium that the Federal Government through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has committed $1.2 million over three years to fund a national approach to youth settlement through the Multicultural Youth Affairs Network Australia (MYAN)

As part of this commitment, $270,000 has been earmarked to fund the establishment of a new independent service in New South Wales through a partnership between the GIANTS, the Centre for Multicultural Youth and Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW and its local host organisation, Settlement Services International (SSI).

The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS today announced the appointment of David Matthews as Chief Executive Officer for the next three years.

 

Formerly AFL General Manager National and International Development, Matthews joined the GIANTS last November for an initial period of 12 months after a career spanning 14 years at the AFL.

 

Chairman Tony Shepherd said the board of the GIANTS were delighted to secure Matthews for a further three years as the club continued to grow across Western Sydney and Canberra.

 

"This is the biggest and most exciting challenge in Australian sport. Since he joined the GIANTS, David has led the club with distinction through its first 12 months in the AFL competition and shown why he is a highly respected figure in the game," Shepherd said.

Victoria will host the first competitive AFL football to be played for the 2013 year when the NAB Cup begins with a triple-header match up involving Collingwood, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Friday February 15 next year.

 

AFL General Manager Broadcasting, Scheduling and Legal Affairs Simon Lethlean today announced the fixture for the opening three rounds of the 2013 competition, including the six divisions of three teams apiece for round one, that was introduced in 2011.

 

Round One has been split across two weekends, Mr Lethlean said, to ensure that all six match-ups of three teams apiece were played in twilight / night conditions in the late summer period, for the opening shortened games. All clubs then play two full-scale matches across the weekends of March 1-3 and March 8-9, with the leading two teams to contest the final on either March 15 or March 16.

 

All Round One match-ups will be broadcast on FOX FOOTY and, following the opening night at Etihad Stadium, the Geelong Cats will travel to WA to join West Coast and Fremantle at Patersons Stadium on Saturday February 16 while St Kilda will travel to SA to join Port Adelaide and defending champions the Adelaide Crows at AAMI Stadium on Sunday February 17.

 

 

A couple of days back the story of Patty Ndongo from Cameroon via Frankston in the VFL was told. One of his team mates is Khan Haretuku, who, whilst Australian born (to New Zealand parents), was raised in Sydney (in Mascot) and as Eddie McGuire has attested in the past – Sydney to Melbourne is not just another city, it’s another country.

Today (Saturday) sees Khan make the trek to Etihad stadium for the AFL State Combine testing. Khan is one of 7 VFL players amongst the 74 invited to attend. Haretuku is the only key forward amongst the 7 VFL players and is hopeful of re-igniting his AFL journey.

Moving image coverage of the 1909 VFL Grand Final, the earliest known surviving film of Australian Rules football action. In 2009, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this precious sporting film, the National Film and Sound Archives produced this new digital video master from 35mm film.

Played on Saturday 2 October 1909, Carlton and South Melbourne fought out a tough, low scoring contest at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. South Melbourne, chasing their first premiership in the Victorian Football League (VFL), held off a desperate Carlton, looking to win their fourth consecutive flag. In front of more than 37,000 fans, despite being held goalless in the last quarter, The Bloods triumphed by two points. South Melbourne 4 14 38, Carlton 4 12 36.

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Belinda Duante has been named 2012 Football Woman of the Year at the Grand Final Comedy Debate at the Crown Palladium. Duante is a senior executive at Richmond Football Club and is the inaugural director of the Korin Gamadji Institute, which provides leadership development, education and training to young Indigenous men and women. She also had a key role in the establishment and development of AFL SportsReady’s National Indigenous Programme and has helped in the development of the Career Oriented Participation in Sport program for first-year AFL players, which now incorporates specific Indigenous considerations.

Richmond CEO Brendon Gale described Duante an outstanding contributor to the Richmond Football Club.
“As a proud Wotjoboluk woman, Belinda has a wonderful understanding of the role football can play in the lives of young Indigenous Australians and she continually advocates for them to stay in the game at all levels,” he said.