Reports have emerged that the AFL intends that next year's national Under 16s championships will for the first time feature a "World 18", with a squad of 25 players from outside Australia. The squad will compete in Division 2, with Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and NSW/ACT.

It was reported that 15 squad members will be recruited from Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and South Africa, with the remaining ten to be picked from Europe, the US, Canada, Japan and the remainder of the Pacific.

The World 18 will be allowed to include overage players in the side, meaning the playing group will be in the age range 15-18 years. Only players having spent at least the last three years overseas will be eligible for selection.

An official announcement is expected today. For more, see the article AFL to add "World XVIII" to national under-16 championships from Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper.

The post AFL-season trade period has seen plenty of footballers change clubs this year, with international footy followers noticing a few ups and downs in the fortunes of Irish imports.

Irishman Colm Begley has elected to return to the Emerald Isle, after breaking into St Kilda's senior team only once this season. Begley moved to the Saints at the end of 2008, after playing 29 games with the Brisbane Lions over three years, starting in 2006.

Also delisted by St Kilda was Khan Haretuku, a Sydneysider drafted as a NSW rookie by the Saints last year, of Pacific Islander descent via New Zealand.

Fellow New Zealander Adam Campbell was delisted by the Fremantle Dockers, after managing just 13 senior games over the past four seasons. Campbell was born in Christchurch, moving to Australia at age 16 and making very quick progress after taking up the Australian game.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, Swans coach Paul Roos has told the media he is not putting any pressure on Tadhg Kennelly to return to the club, after recent speculation the Irish superstar was considering a return to the AFL. Kennelly has told Irish media his brain was "fried" over the decision of which football code to play in 2010.

Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun this morning reported that AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has raised the prospect of the next stage of expansion to include clubs in Tasmania and either North Queensland or a third Western Australian AFL club.

Speaking at a Latrobe University alumni function last night, Demetriou said "if we were to have another team down the track you would have to say that Tasmania is the logical place for that team to be - and we have expressed that view to the Tasmanian Government."

"Beyond that, if we were to go to 20 teams and who knows, that may or may not happen, you'd have to think it wouldn't be a team in Melbourne because we've got 10."

"But a place like Western Australia, which is a booming state, or even northern Queensland, are the two places that have some attraction."

While the prospect of an AFL club in Tasmania, a state with a relatively small but traditionally footy-mad population, is sure to please many football fans, a move to 20 clubs anytime in the future has raised discussion of how far the talent pool can be stretched.

For international footy followers, more clubs could potentially open the way for more recruitment of non-Australian based talent. A North Queensland club, based in Townsville or Cairns, could be ideally located for tapping into the growing footy community in PNG and the Pacific Islands, with Cairns having already played host to a match between a young Oceania side and a Queensland representative team earlier this year.

For more, visit the original article Tassie gets a guernsey in Demetriou's vision for the future.

There were a few international connections on Grand Final day for the 2009 AFL season. Once upon a time it was difficult to find any.

Alas for St Kilda's Irish recruit, Colm Begley, the story of his year continued, unable to break into the powerful Saints side for the Grand Final. Nor could James Gwilt, of Papuan heritage.

The day was supposed to allow the finalists of the national Under 16s competition to play on the MCG, but the bad weather saw a late decision to move both divisions to Visy Park. Papua New Guinea's David Meli (pictured), international scholarship listed by Essendon, play well for Queensland in their win over NSW. He was mentioned in a match report as being amongst the best, although not in the match report best players.

Later in the day Canadian Mike Pyke represented Sydney in the traditional half-time sprint and it promised to be intriguing to see how well the big man could run. Sadly he slipped at the starters gun, never recovered and soon disappeared from view. We'll never know how he would have gone - maybe next year.

Of course plenty of Scandinavian viewers would have been happy with the result of the big match, with a long association now between Geelong and the Danish league (in particular through Cats star Jimmy Bartel, a visitor to several of the Scandinavian leagues).

The Geelong Football Club has secured its second flag in three years with a thrilling come from behind victory over the devastated St Kilda Football Club, which was gallant all day after being the dominant team of 2009. The final margin of 12 points didn't reflect the pulsating final minutes when there was nothing between the sides.

The 2009 Australian Football League Grand Final will be played between two of the most dominant teams in recent memory. St Kilda finished the minor round with 20 wins and 2 narrow losses. Geelong will be playing in their third Grand Final in a row and have an imperious record over 2007-2009. The football public await an intense battle of the sort seen in 2005 and 2006 when Sydney and West Coast battled out thrillingly tight contests.

However, the result doesn't always live up to the hype as one side cracks under the weight of expectation, but in terms of season form these are the two power sides of 2009 and the odds are good for a classic match. And despite it often being said that Grand Finals regularly have blow outs, out of the last 12 AFL Grand Finals only 4 have been decided by 40 points or more, with 3 being by 10 points or less.

Whether you are a Cats fan wanting to see them make it two out of three, a Saints tragic wanting to see them break the long and painful drought or a neutral just wanting to watch the big game, finding somewhere to watch it when you are overseas is not always an easy task. Once again World Footy News is proud to present you with a wide list of venues to watch the 2009 AFL Grand Final around the world. Feel free to add any venues that are not listed below in the comments section and we will add them to the main list.

Please note: The information is entered here in good faith. worldfootynews.com is not responsible for any incorrect information posted to this story. Wherever possible attempt to check ahead to make sure the party you are planning on attending is still going ahead and has room for you. There have been cases of sell outs and late changes e.g. when a venue could not secure a telecast.

The 2009 AFL Grand Final participants have been decided, with St Kilda scraping home in a thriller against the Western Bulldogs and Geelong running away from Collingwood. The sides will enter the big game with those contrasting preliminary final wins, both tight early but very different margins at the end.

Worldwide: Live scores, stats and audio on http://AFL.com.au
Africa: ESPN, 06:30 CAT, LIVE
Asia: Australia Network, 09:00 India, 10:30 Indonesia, Thailand, 11:30 Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Singapore, 12:30 North Korea, Japan, LIVE
Canada: TSN, 00:30 EDT, LIVE
Caribbean: ESPN, 00:30 EDT, LIVE
Europe: Eurosport 2, 06:30 CET, LIVE
Israel: ESPN, 07:30 ISR, LIVE
Ireland: ESPN, 05.30 BST, LIVE
Middle East: Showtime Arabia, 07:30 KSA, LIVE
New Zealand: Sky Television, 16:30 NZT, LIVE
Pacific: Australia Network, 15:30 Fiji, 17:30 Cook Islands, LIVE
United Kingdom: ESPN, 05.30 BST, LIVE
USA: ESPN Classic, 00:30 EDT, LIVE; ESPN360.com, 00:30 EDT, LIVE

For more info go to the AFL guide here
Confirmed broadcast times will be updated as they come to hand.
Please note that all broadcast times are subject to change.

The Gold Coast Football Club is set to welcome a new group of players to the club as it continues to build its talented list in preparation for 2011.The team will compete in the VFL competition next year which is considered to be the best development pathway for the team and players as they will compete against players on AFL team lists.

GCFC will play 10 games in Queensland and eight in Melbourne with the match fixture and venues to be released next month. After exceeding expectations in its first year in the TAC Cup under 18s competition by reaching the semi finals, GCFC’s 2009 season ended last Sunday with a loss to the Geelong Falcons.

Coach Guy McKenna and his assistants have begun preparing for a new level of football next year in readiness for the Club’s journey to AFL competition in 2011.