Geelong vs North Melbourne and Fremantle vs Port Adelaide Semi-finals are on this week with the winners headed for the Preliminary finals and the losers heading to the offseason.

The international broadcast details for both matches and highlights packages can be seen below.

The number crunchers will point to sheer statistics. A return of 44 senior games at a cost of millions of dollars. Little room for argument there. Maybe adding on his collection of reserve grade games and his inaugural season in the VFL pushes that number of games higher, but not significantly. No, on statistics alone it is difficult to see success.

Hunt’s situation is also not helped by the prior failure of Israel Folau. Hunt was clearly the superior Australian Rules player of the two, but the inability of Folau to grasp the game and walk away placed Hunt in the red immediately. No matter what he did, possibly short of a Brownlow, he would always be earmarked as part of the failed Rugby-League convert experiment.

His after the siren match-winning goal in Cairns in 2012 was briefly deemed evidence that the idea would work out well, but since that time patchy form, injury and opportunity have seen Hunt’s stocks as a player dwindle rather than rise.

The AFL finals kickoff Friday night in Melbourne with the two Qualifying finals and two Elimination finals to be played this weekend.

The full international broadcast schedule can be seen below.

Four internationals have been invited to this year’s NAB AFL Draft Combine in Melbourne.  Americans Marvin Baynham and Evan Bruinsma will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Eric Wallace, Patrick Mitchell and Jason Holmes who were signed as International Rookies after attending the Draft Combine. 

Baynam is 6'7" and 210 lbs and played college basketball at the Georgia Southern Eagles.  The 22 year old recorded  344cm for the Vertical Jump,  2.82s for the 20m Sprint and recorded 8.14sec in the agility test at the L.A Combine.

Bruinsma is a 21 year old college basketballer who played with the Detroit Titans and stands at 6'8" and weighs in at 214 lbs. 

The AFL this week confirmed ABC International that broadcasts footy on the Australia Network into the Asia/Pacific region would continue this season to provide AFL matches and in fact increase the coverage from five to six matches per weekend.

This came after the Australian Government announced the ABC's multi-million-dollar Australia Network contract had been cancelled and the corporation had its overall budget cut by 1 per cent, with a possible 80 jobs to be axed.

It should be noted that the statement does not make any indications that the service will or will not continue in 2015. The full statement can be read below.

When given 10 minutes to interview the great AFL legend, Kevin Sheedy, as an Essendon supporter the temptation is great to blow it all on talking about the premiership years, the North Melbourne “Marshmallow Incident”, the West Coast “Jacket Waving” or a thousand other personal interests.

In Cairns for this weekend's Gold Coast Suns v Western Bulldogs clash, talk could have drifted to that topic, or the injury to Gary Ablett, or just about anything to do with football in North Queensland, But true to the occasion I was restrained enough to keep the conversation in the domain of international football and was rewarded with a brief but fascinating point of view from one of the most creative and successful people in the history of the AFL.

The initial question was very broad. When asked about his opinion of international footy he responded “It’s great. We have the best game in the world and we have do develop it and encourage it. We have to give it lots of encouragement for it to succeed overseas. It is important for the future of the game that we develop it in markets everywhere.”

The AFL today announced the 2014 World Team squad which will compete at the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships on the Gold Coast in July.  AFL Hall of Famer Anthony Koutoufides has been named head coach of the World Team again in 2014.

I was going to simply comment in response to the article Wellington AFL Game Doubt? but decided this issue is so significant it deserves as much focus as possible.

So I repeat the title. Wellington simply must succeed.

If the AFL can successfully host matches in Wellington each year then that will complement the significant work being done in junior development across New Zealand and gradually, if done well, in a generation build support for the country to have its own AFL club. At that point the eyes of Australians will be truly opened to an international future for the sport.

Why is there a problem already in just the second year of this experiment? I think this is almost a case of being too greedy too quickly. The Wellington deal is a golden goose for St Kilda and the AFL but there's a real danger of immediately killing it in a breathtakingly short space of time.

The generous offer put on the table by Wellington council was amazing and gives the AFL an historic opportunity to secure a foothold in New Zealand to back up all the grassroots work being done. That grassroots work may never yield the large outcome many of us desire without having the shiny beacon of regular popular AFL matches to aspire to.

But to respect and nurture such an amazing offer requires a reasonable contribution in return.

This week's international broadcast networks and airing times are tabulated below. Screening times and networks are provided in good faith but are subject to change so you should check your local guides.

 

This week's international broadcast networks and airing times below. This is the last week of the bye rounds where there are only six matches played. Round 11 returns to the 9 match per round schedule.