Another good story on the international players attending the AFL-AIS Camp appeared on The Age's Realfooty on December 7th. It profiles the players and speaks with AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan.

Following on from our story several days ago International players invited to AFL Camp, we now present the complete list of players attending the AFL camp. The camp is run in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport which gives scholarships for talented juniors. The AIS targets the best players coming out of the AFL Under-16 National Schoolboys' Championship each year. As such the Australian players will generally be younger than the internationals invited this year, although countries such as PNG will be sending boys of similar age. It appears although invitations for 15 players were sent, only 7 are attending the camp.

The AFL website currently features stories advertising a short term development officer position in South Africa through Australian Volunteers International (although the ad indicates New Zealanders are also eligible) and a story describing three Multicultural Development Positions to ensure the game's continued spread amongst Melbourne's diverse community. All positions close shortly.

The annual Australian Football League's AIS Camp sees elite young players from around Australia invited to attend a training camp in which they are put through athletic and skill tests under the watchful eye of AFL scouts. In a tremendous breakthrough for international Australian Football, 15 players from outside Australia have been invited, the first time this has occurred.

Ryan Bartz, an exchange student from New York, was selected in the Green & Gold Australian Women's football team at the Australian University Games late last month. Although selection is honorary as there is no international competition to play in, it is a major achievement for Bartz who had only played two games of Australian Rules football prior to the Australian University Games.

At World Footy News we're keen to see the game of footy grow internationally. A key factor will always be the health of the game "at home". Recreational Football could well prove to be an important factor in that health.

The following article was written and sent to us by Associate Professor Stephen Alomes. Stephen is a historian of football and of Australian nationalism at Deakin University in Victoria, and a supporter of the international growth of Australian Football. He was a keen spectator at the 2005 International Cup. His article also appeared in a recent AFL Record in the Last Line column. As time permits Stephen will continue to contribute to WFN and we welcome him on-board.

St. Kilda and Brisbane will join Collingwood this off-season in organising international training camps that they hope will assist their preparations for the 2006 AFL season.

Nominations are now rolling in for the 2006 VFL Barassi International Youth Tournament in Canberra in 2006 and the organisers are putting the word out for any interested groups to register their interest - whether it be an elite squad or just a school team who want to visit Australia, suitable opposition will be found.

The AFL Record is sold at AFL matches each week around Australia, and has an estimated weekly readership approaching 300,000. In the Round 21 edition a few weeks ago, the AFL's head of Game Development, David Matthews, wrote an article titled "The Wheel Turns", in which he discusses recent growth and hopes for new teams at the next International Cup. It appeared with a photo of New Zealand performing their Haka at the International Cup.