At the official 2008 AFL season launch, Andrew Demetriou announced a conference to be held in November where "players, coaches, administrators and other figures in the game" will discuss football's future. A website has also been launched allowing fans to offer their suggestions for the game's next 150 years. Dubbed an "Ultimate Ideas Forum", it is a good opportunity to encourage the AFL to expand their global push of the game.

It may seem a small step, but to have AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou mentioning South Africa and other international leagues as potential sources of extra player depth for the AFL is still something noteworthy for the army of volunteers outside of Australia who have often felt that trying to grow the game they love is a lonely task. Some will no doubt wonder that if international talent is truly sought, where is the support to back that up.

But there's no doubt that the idea of international expansion has slowly but surely been percolating up through the system. It won over the AFL Commissioners sufficiently to have them back a strong push into South Africa, while Papua New Guinea continue as very effective but quiet achievers. So now it's nice to hear Demetriou also talking up the prospect as the league launches into a full-blooded drive into the Gold Coast and Western Sydney, and looks forward to the next 150 years of our game.

In 2006, Australian Traveller voted the Bathurst Island Footy Grand Final #88 on the Top 100 list of "Things to do in Australia before you die".

I am lucky enough to have done 10 of the things on this list, the Tiwi Grand Final being one of them and personally, this would be the top for me. The Tiwi footy grand final is a real insight into indigenous Australia and its culture. The friendly and welcoming people there have an unmatched enthusiasm for footy, the islands are rich in culture, the standard of skills is extremely high and the games are played at a blistering pace. Testament to the quality of the Tiwi Islands Football League is the expansion of the semi-professional NTAFL to include the Tiwi Bombers, and the growing number of Tiwis who are finding their way into the professional AFL. This article looks at some of the good news and bads news for indigenous footy in 2008.

As the 2008 season is about to commence, here's a wrap of the 2007 premiers in all the major Australian Football leagues around the world. Hopefully this will stand as a good record for recalling the top teams at a glance. This is the second year we've compiled the list, following on from the article Club Premiers 2006.

"I make no apologies that this list is of those who dominated in the VFL competition, and then the AFL, as I believe the Victorian competition always was a quasi-national competition. The game started in Victoria, and has been led from Victoria."

With that statement Melbourne-based journalist Mike Sheahan condemned many of the greatest footballers of all-time to distant memories and destroyed any chance the AFL-commissioned book "The Australian Game of Football" had of truly being an accurate reflection of the great Australian game.

The board of the Barassi International Youth Tournament, with the endorsement of the AFL has announced its intention to postpone the 2008 BYT which was to be played in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory this October.

The tournament in the past (formerly known as the Jim Stynes Cup) has seen teams from New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa, Denmark, USA and Nauru attend with other teams featuring local participants from smaller communities around Australia. Only two countries had confirmed their participation at the 2008 BYT. Others had expressed interest but were unable to commit the necessary funds.

While some junior development programs offshore are funded by the AFL, countries are required to themselves raise funds to send teams to tournaments in Australia. The organisation of the Barassi Tournament itself is made possible by private contributions and sponsorships.

With some countries expressing the desire to send U17 youth squads to the 2008 International Cup and with a growing list of nations participating in the senior tournament, it might make sense for the two tournaments to combine in future to make the most of travel packages by sending larger squads, perhaps even including a women's squad.

In the meantime, it seems that the BIAYT seeks to remain the primary youth tournament and is slated to go ahead in October 2009, however the board is initiating discussions with stakeholders concerning the future of the tournament.

While it is disappointing that this year's event is postponed, a potential 2009 tournament could help fill the international calendar between senior International Cups.

An interesting article in The Age profiles the work of AFL multicultural development officers over the past 2 years.

Relevant to international footy is the fact that the article mentions the South African push and Irish gaelic football converts in the AFL, but pushes the angle that the AFL's development focus is still largely domestic.

There are now several development officers working out of AFL clubs, mostly in Melbourne but also in multicultural hotspots of growing interstate areas like Perth and western Sydney. These AFL officers are working with young groups including new African and Asian arrivals to introduce them to our game and culture. It is an interesting note that many of the schools that these kids go to do not even have the sport in their curriculum.

With close to 130,000 arrivals each year, this is some positive growth of a market which is small by international standards. Introducing these people to the sport may help the code to grow slightly and give them other options to the sports their families grew up with back at home. The AFL hopes that as a spin-off, should these migrants become professional players, that it may help people overseas to better identify with our game.

The article "AFL seeks converts in its own backyard" can be read here.

AFL legend Ron Barassi has made several comments about where he thinks the game should go. Besides his well-known desire to see the international side of the game expanded, he also reiterated his belief that North Melbourne should have moved to the Gold Coast, Melbourne has too many teams, Sydney should have more AFL clubs (but not yet) and that there are too many players on the field.

G'day, and what a great day it is, the footy season is upon us with the NAB Cup and the boys are going at it hammer and tongs. I think the tempo is up a bit from last year so it is going to be a pretty tough year, the games I have seen so far have been fast and faster.

Anyway the reason for my post is I noticed a couple of posts on Mr Sheedy talking up international football, so I rang into our local footy /sports radio station SEN (Victoria) and got to have a quick chat to Mr Sheedy, I was talking up footy in the USA and I can't for the life of me work out why the AFL do not show enough interest in the USA. Any way Mr Sheedy agreed with me that the USA is full of talent and we are missing out big time, he said that there would be a player in the AFL from the USA within 10 years I think the AFL must be taking the cheaper option in pushing into Africa the way they are, not that I have anything against the push into Africa or maybe they think that football is entrenched enough in the USA for it to look after itself.

Well I will be embarking on another season of Auskick this year and I am looking forward to it I have some great ideas that I am going to bring to my coaching and it is all about fun, I will be bringing out the old favourites in footy darts and footy on a string, and the handball comp is back with a leaning to goal kicking and umpiring. So I hope I can post a few stories here and there on the exploits of a washed up gunna-be wanna-be football star's coaching exploits.

Cheers
Dale Wilson

The AFL revealed both its power and its insecurity on the weekend, with AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick revealing in an interview with the The Age's Caroline Wilson that the Executive want not only to have the 17th club, on the Gold Coast, by 2011, but to also bring forward the later plans for a second Sydney side to as early as 2012. The report has sent the Australian media into a frenzy and sparked talk of football wars between the codes. And it raises the question of whether it will help or hinder international development. Will we see the first AFL draftees from Papua New Guinea be picked up by a new Queensland club, and will we see even more pressure on Ireland?