The AFL has again canned the Cape Town match that was originally to have been played between Collingwood and West Coast earlier this year. Back in December 2008 we reported that the match would be deferred for 12 months, but it seems that the AFL believes that the global financial crisis is still biting hard on many and they have again decided to defer the match.

The Footy Show on Australia's Channel Nine features a football news wrap by reporter Craig Hutchison, and tonight "Hutchy" reported that Sudanese immigrant Majak Daw is a chance to be rookie listed by an AFL club. Daw has featured in the news previously, with only a few years in the game, and could be the first of a wave of African immigrants to make it to the highest level in Aussie Rules.

Daw is still reportedly very "raw" in his football skills, but a short piece of footage shown on the Footy Show demonstrated his potential, with a spectacular mark and in a separate play he roved the ball and cruised away from three opponents who appeared to be trying twice as hard but were unable to match his speed. If Daw is rookie listed it should be a boost for the cause of introducing the many recent African arrivals to the great Australian game, and perhaps introduce a new level of athleticism to the sport.

More about the promising young player in an article in The Age, called Out of Africa.

AFL South Africa has been working closely with the University of Monash South Africa and this year has seen the roll out of a pilot program for 60 footyWILD volunteers in the Gauteng Province, which includes the city of Johannesburg. The broad-based ‘Basic Management and Development Course’ will cover generic skill sets but with practical application to the daily life of a footyWILD volunteer, leading to accreditation. It's another example of Australian football becoming embedded with the local community and providing more than just a game of footy.

Earlier in the year Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun reported that the Western Bulldogs were in contact with Azumah Nelson regarding Australian football - see Bulldogs look to forge ties in Ghana. The Bulldogs are a good fit, with a lot of African immigrants in their region in western Melbourne (reportedly 15,000 - over half of which are Ghanaian), hence their appointment of multicultural development officers who work with recent arrivals.

One such employee is Sash Herceg, who was once involved with Australian football back in his original homeland, Croatia, which is indicative of the game's broad spectrum these days.

Azumah Nelson is a famous Ghanaian who held several world boxing titles in the 1980s and 90s and become very well known in Australia for a series of controversial fights with Australian world champion Jeff Fenech. Nelson has visited Australia in recent years using his profile to raise money for the Azumah Nelson Foundation which aims to give sporting opportunities to children in Ghana. The Foundation has been dealing with both the Western Bulldogs and the Australian Football League and recently publicised through their website that Australian football will become one of the official sports of the charity.

We report their release and chat to the AFL's Kevin Sheehan about their involvement.

There is no doubt that AFL South Africa has been a stunning success so far. They are spending a year consolidating their amazing growth of up around 17,000 players across a number of communities, seeking to expand within those fixed programs rather than roll out further areas. It has been speculated before that if the program is successful then the AFL may look to other African nations. The big questions are what defines success and might they spend a decade proving the long term viability before any further moves?

For those that feared an undue level of conservatism it is pleasing to report that the AFL has already begun to look at other opportunities. Or more accurately, other African countries are looking to the AFL. We were aware of discussions with media from several other African countries in terms of showcasing the game, but the AFL Talent Manager Kevin Sheehan has revealed to worldfootynews.com that Botswana and Kenya are the front runners for FootyWILD programs, with Ghana also in the mix.

A common complaint by people trying to promote Australian football around the world is that it's often difficult to show people the game regularly as it isn't on television very much. Happily Africa is getting some coverage in 2009, with 1 game per week and possibly a one hour package. Unfortunately it is almost certainly subscription based, however talk of producing local content relating to AFL South Africa is encouraging. The regions that should have access are:

Sub-Saharan Africa, that is, the continent of Africa – including Cape Verde, the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, St. Helena, São Tomé & Príncipe, and the Seychelles – other than Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara. And Israel.

The Salamander Company, looking after commercial activities for AFL South Africa, recently announced that:

The Salamander Company is pleased to announce that global sports broadcaster ESPN will broadcast one AFL match per week into Africa through the DSTV network.

The Salamander company will work with ESPN to look at ways to enhance the broadcast of AFL matches in the region including the production of local television content focusing on the growth and development of footyWILD in South Africa.

Unfortunately for international footy fans there were no real surprises in Paarl, Cape Town on Monday as the South African Lions received a football lesson from the elite Australian youth side. The final margin was a crushing 132 points, and will no doubt raise some questions about the benefit to the African program.

The case remains that there are pros and cons. Without the contest then the relevance of the tour to the AIS program would have to be in question, and that could have ramifications both in South Africa and Australia. On the downside the defeat must be disheartening to the Lions, especially since they were fielding an open age side. A positive for younger talent is that it shows them what level is required, and of course the associated assistance and exposure that comes with the tour. At the end of the day it probably depends on how the expectations of all involved are managed before the match.

Kicking goals for the Lions were Jawe, Motubu, Malinga - all three were proven performers at the 2008 International Cup. It was encouraging to see some of the younger talent from IC08 making the best players, such as Prinsloo, Sifanelo and Boki, as well as a new name in Xmasa. At time of writing we're unsure of what preparation the South Africans had coming into this game, so perhaps a lack of match practice was an issue. At the end of the day, the margin was not unexpected, with many of the elite Australian squad likely to be drafted at year's end, and the next wave of South African players only just beginning to emerge.

The following is a match report and a spectacular photo courtesy of the AFL.

Supporters of international Australian football often hope that as newcomers to Australia take up our game that their talents will be recognised by AFL scouts, ultimately leading to greater interest in international recruitment, i.e. immigrants playing the game will open Australian eyes to international development. It's also just great to see more people taking up the sport.

One of the groups that have been viewed as likely prospects are the many recent tall athletic Sudanese immigrants. Many of them seem to take up soccer, but slowly Aussie Rules is picking up converts. This would probably accelerate if a Sudanese youngster made it to AFL level. But even someone making state league level must be an inspiration to some of the young players being offered a choice between sports.

So it is good to see Andrea Miar, a 23 year old Sudanese refugee, has been doing well in the new Tasmanian state wide league. We reported in New state league for Tasmania that 2009 would see this competition sit above the northern and southern Tassie leagues, and Andrea Miar's side, Launceston, is one of those competing at the top level.

Miar moved to Launceston, Tasmania, with his family when he was 9 years old. He's now studying information technology at a TAFE (technical college), and excelling on the footy field as an agile ruckman. With plenty still to learn about Australian football, Miar should still have a lot of improvement to come. An AFL call-up is highly unlikely, though if a 24 year old Canadian Rugby player can make the leap, perhaps he's worth a gamble?

You can read more about his story in a Mercury article Sudanese ruckman on the up, by Adam Smith.

Melbourne daily newspaper The Age this weekend reported that the AFL will be holding draft camp-style tryouts in the South African cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, coinciding with the upcoming tour to South Africa by the AIS-AFL under-17 squad.

Similar to the Western Bulldogs' trials in Fiji earlier this year, the project will be partly focussed on recruiting athletes from other sporting backgrounds for the existing AFL South Africa senior programs, as well as selecting up to four South Africans for the "Mtutuzeli Hlomela Scholarship" to attend the AFL Draft camp in Australia later this year.

The league has placed advertisements in Cape Town newspapers calling for boys between 15 and 19 with strong sports backgrounds, who stand a minimum 175 centimetres and weigh at least 70 kilograms, to attend a testing day at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa at Newlands, with follow-up testing also planned. A session near Johannesburg, featuring about 30 boys already identified, will also be held.

AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said that having introduced the junior program FootyWild to South Africa two years ago, the league's next responsibility was to create an ongoing pathway for talented players.

The full article can be viewed here.

For a South African perspective on the trials, the article Hunt for the best Footsie player on, by Sizwe Banzi is worth a read.

For the third year in a row the AIS-AFL Australian Under 17 squad will head off to South Africa (departing tomorrow, Sunday 12th April) for a tour that will include training, sight-seeing, working with the locals and a match against the South Africa Lions.

It's expected that the Lions will be a senior squad similar to that which finished third at last year's International Cup and was ranked fourth in the world behind only Australia, PNG and New Zealand in our 2008 rankings. Jason McCartney is expected to again coach the Africans and a few new talented juniors will be given an opportunity. AFL South Africa Operations Manager Joel Kelly told worldfootynews.com that "Several invitational spots (are) being offered to new ‘yet to be identified talent’ as part of a broader search". The match will be played at Boland Park, Capetown at 3:30pm on Monday 20th April - it has been moved from the better known Newlands due to the sudden transfer to South Africa of Indian's Premier League cricket tournament because of terrorism fears on the sub-continent. Boland Park is described as being in Paarl, "in the beautiful wine district of the Western Cape".

Gold Coast's coach, Guy McKenna, has also been mentioned as making the trip, despite his team underway in the TAC Cup. No doubt his attention will mostly be on Australia's next wave, but given the willingness to sign up two Papua New Guinea players already, surely he will also be very interested in the performance of the younger South African players.

The trip is book-ended by matches against VFL and WAFL sides in Australia. More details follow below.