This year a carnival of football will headline the return of Australia’s game as the 2014 NAB Challenge rolls into every Australian state and territory with 18 games in 18 days.

The full international broadcast schedule for Feb 17th to 23rd can be seen below.

This year a carnival of football will headline the return of Australia’s game as the 2014 NAB Challenge rolls into every Australian state and territory with 18 games in 18 days.

The 2014 NAB Challenge will kickoff  with Wednesday’s opening match in Geelong where the Cats will host Collingwood at Simonds Stadium (7.10pm local time), the first of 18 consecutive matches to be played over the next three weeks.

The full international broadcast schedule can be seen below.

With the commencement of 2014 many (but not all) Australian football clubs will be thinking of a new season and how they can best prepare, not just in terms of improving existing players but in terms of developing their club.

WFN has used this quiet period to formulate a questionaire for the benefit of all clubs and leagues.  From the replies we will attempt to identify effective means of developing football club growth.

In effect, we are asking clubs what they have and haven't tried in an attempt to widen support for their club and to rate their experiences.

A number of leagues have been approached and they have expressed interest in the results which will be open to everyone, and hopefully serve as a future reference. We hope all clubs around the world will share their experiences by following the link below.

There's no firm cut off date, but we hope to collate results by the end of January 2014.

World Footy Development Techniques Survey
 
 

The AFL this week announced a new multi-year agreement with Rightster - the digital video distribution, marketing and monetisation specialist - relating to the AFL’s international live streaming subscription service, AFLTV. The service, operated and built by Rightster on the AFL’s behalf, offers live and on-demand coverage of every Toyota AFL Premiership season match to fans all over the world, via AFLTV.

Throughout the 2013 Toyota AFL Premiership season, AFLTV reached thousands of fans in over 216 territories, delivering more than 2.5 million streams, including Hawthorn’s Grand Final win over Fremantle earlier this year. 

GWS Giants chief executive Dave Matthews says the club may look at playing matches for premiership points in the coming years, with China, India and the USA mentioned in an article that appeared in Melbourne newspaper The Age this morning.

Mr Matthews praised the NZ venture that saw St Kilda and Melbourne clash in Wellington this year, and says the Giants may be interested in also taking matches offshore.

However, he also mentioned that Giants home games could not be transferred, with an agreement in place with the ACT government to play 3 home-and-away matches in Canberra each year until 2021, and the remainder to stay at the Sydney Showgrounds.

This raises the possibility of another AFL club to move an otherwise low-drawing home game against the Giants overseas, if a financial incentive presents itself.

For more, read AFL Team Giants keen to play in China, US and India.

With Wednesdays’ AFL rookie draft the international focus of AFL clubs continues to expand.
The formalisation of American recruits Jason Holmes (StKilda) and Patrick Mitchell (Sydney) along with Irish pair Ciaran Sheehan and Ciaran Byrne (both to Carlton) and another Irish lad Daniel Flynn to Port are the more traditional speculative ‘code conversion’ pathways for international recruiting typified in the past by names such as Stynes, Wight, Kennelly, Pyke, Tuohy, and Wallace..
Of more interest to Australian Football pathways overseas are the pair of Kiwis in Kurt Heatherley and Shem Tatupu. Both from New Zealand and both have been developing as juniors and have participated in the junior pathways for both New Zealand and regionally for the South Pacific squad.
As it is – the first list lodgement occurred in late October and Hawthorn nominated the pair then so there was no real surprise today – however, it is the formalisation of the process and the next phase can begin and in most cases continue for all of these players.

See below for an overview of the 7 internationals.

I lined up in a forward pocket. I remember that. It was at the Houghton Road reserve in Clayton playing for “The Holes”. History says that the Clayton Football Club, who wore the Collingwood colours, and were officially known as the Magpies, has adopted this other name because a set of donated jumpers from Collingwood arrived, nibbled severely by moths, and the players ran out in jumpers full of holes. The name stuck. It became one of my first memories of footy. My journey had begun.

So, what about the forward pocket? Well my dad, the coach, didn’t usually trust me in the midfield, or presumably anywhere very close to the ball. The forward pocket was a safe enough place. I remember running about erratically hoping to get somewhere near the ball. To touch it would be something else.

The AFL's Talent Manager, Kevin Sheehan, discussed the 2013 AFL Draft Combine with WFN's Troy Thompson.  They chatted about how the international athletes fared at Etihad stadium in Melbourne.  With two players listed as international rookies with AFL clubs before the camp finished, one already listed last year and American Patrick Mitchell listed by the Swans earlier in the year after the US Combine - the AFL will be pleased with the fruits of their labour at the international combines in Europe and the US this year.  We've uploaded the audio and photos of some of the players to our youtube channel.

[youtube:-X_wxrq6DFo]

(Better viewed by following the link)

LEFT: Flynn with Port coach Ken Hinkley.

19-year-old Irishman Daniel Flynn has been signed on for two years as an international rookie by AFL club Port Adelaide, after meeting with club management at Alberton Oval on Monday ahead of this week's AFL draft screening.

Flynn was identified by his former countryman Tadhg Kennelly, during the AFL talent screening session of 24 prospects in Ireland in March this year. He is seen as a potential running half-back or midfielder, after he impressed with his speed and agility, achieving 2.83 seconds in the 20 m sprint.

A native of Johnstownbridge in County Kildare, Flynn has been a promising junior Gaelic footballer for the Lilywhites, as Kildare's GAA side are known.

His signing follows hot on the heels of Jason Holmes from the USA, who was signed by St Kilda as an international rookie this week.

Port Adelaide's official press release follows.

 The Australian Banking corporation NAB will today provide commentary of the 2013 AFL Grand Final live on "Footify FM" in 10 languages.  This can be heard at the website link - http://listen.footifyfm.com/ from 2.15pm Melbourne time today.

The broadcast languages are Arabic, Croatian, French, Japanese, Madarin, Spanish, German, Greek, Punjabi and Turkish on 10 seperate streams.