Australian football has undergone steady and at times impressive growth around the world over the last decade or so. This is mostly but not entirely started by expatriate Australians who sow some seeds and then either tend to them or have enthusiastic locals continue the experiment.

But another important player in this is the Australian Football League. For some countries their contact has been negligible, but for most it has been useful and at times a strong source of encouragement, funds or other support. And every three years the AFL’s contribution is at its most visible in the form of the International Cup. Given their importance as the catalyst with most potential to drive rapid growth it’s always good to try to understand the role the AFL sees for itself, who the main people are and how they fit into the larger AFL administrative body itself. This is our first update on that front for several years.

Grant Williams and the AFL international structure

With many changes in recent years worldfootynews.com thought it timely to catch up with a key figure in Grant Williams, AFL General Manager Community Football Operations. Grant is pictured far left with AFL colleague Pete Romaniw (right) and former AFL Asia interim President Grant Keys (centre). We started by asking him where he fits into the international scene and where he’d like to see it go.

Friday night footy at the MCG kicks off Round 21 with Hawthorn hosting Port Adelaide. 

Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. 

The debut of Jason Holmes will not be shown on television anywhere outside Australia other than the Middle East on TV.  So to catch that action viewers in the US and elsewhere will need to stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au.

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan spoke for around 30 mins today at Australia's National Press Club in Canberra, the nation's capital.  His focus was on the AFL's signing of an historic $2.508 billion 6 year media rights deal, and the four key beneficiaries to be fans, grass roots community football in Australia, the AFL clubs and (perhaps not by chance) lastly the players - which is not to say they will be anything but richly rewarded, but the AFL knows the AFL Players Association will be coming at them hard over the next 12 months.

But at the conclusion of Gillon's speech a remarkable thing happened.  To be honest, as Chief Editor of worldfootynews.com and knowing how difficult it has been to obtain statements of vision for international football from the highest ranks of the AFL over the past decade, it was like we had plants in the audience - to my knowledge we did not!

Areas touched on included the International Cup and expansion into China, India and New Zealand.  In all, not much detail, but in some ways exciting signs of possible commitment at the highest levels.

 

Following on from yesterday’s lucrative broadcast deals for the AFL, Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan announced at the National Press Club in Canberra a potential scheme to help develop and grow the game of Australian Rules football further. By looking towards a more focused development of multicultural and indigenous communities, McLachlan can visualise an idea where all existing AFL clubs buy into a “zoning” program to develop their own markets.

 

Similar in some ways to the zoning of Victoria in days gone by, just on a national scale, the idea certainly may have ramifications for the further tapping of indigenous talent across the country. It may also be a huge step towards the genuine development of player talent across a spread of multicultural communities nationwide which might see greater numbers of players from all over the world embrace the game. What might start small may one day grow into an enormous pool of future talent.

 

 

The following article is from the ABC News website and details McLachlan’s vision which, if funding and his own drive have anything to do with it, may take off in some form in the very near future.

The following is a media release from the AFL Diversity Unit highlighting the recognition of the Multicultural programs both at a football and wider community level. Being involved first hand there is an enormous amount of work involved and this award recognises the efforts of many people to grow the game for a healthy and diverse future.

The AFL is pleased to announce the AFL Multicultural Program has been awarded the Virgin Australia Sports Leadership Award at the 2015 Australian Migration and Settlement Awards in Canberra yesterday.

Hosted by the Migration Council Australia (MCA), the awards recognise the contribution of organisations and individuals in supporting migrants settle in Australia.

The 2015 edition of the 49th Parallel Cup between Canada and the United States was played on the weekend of 31/7/15 and 1/8/15 with both men's and women's matches played out. There was mixed success for the US with the Revolution triumphant over Canada's Northwind in the men's match and the Northern Lights defeating the Freedom in the Women's match, continuing the trend between these four sides.

These were the first full field internationals since the International Cup last year, with this post-IC year continuing the tradition of not seeing much international vs international footy action. The only change in our men's World Rankings was the United States swapped places with Canada moving from 8th to 7th. For the women there was no change.

Friday night footy at the SCG kicks off Round 20 with Sydney hosting Collingwood. 

Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. 

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

Friday night footy in Adelaide kicks off Round 19 with Adelaide hosting Richmond. 

Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. Details of free passes for viewers outside Australia for this round only can be found here.

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

To help celebrate the 2015 AFL Multicultural Round, WatchAFL (the AFL’s official global streaming service) are offering all people outside of Australia with the opportunity to watch ALL Round 19 Matches for FREE (August 7-9) either Live or On Demand. 

Multicultural Round FREE passes will be available at  http://watchafl.afl.com.au  from Wednesday 5th August. 

 

 

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Friday night footy at the MCG kicks off Round 18 with Hawthorn hosting Richmond. 

Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. 

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.