Geelong College are the first Aussie school to embrace Australian Football's journey into Africa. The school currently has a large party of high school students on tour in South Africa, playing football and netball against local sides and assisting with coaching clinics. This could be the start of an exciting new phase for international footy, since many schools conduct overseas trips to places like South Africa that provide tremendous cultural experiences, but now the schools can include the great Australian game as well.

The popular reality television show "The Lost Tribes" on Australia's Nine Network features a group of Australian families from Sydney and Melbourne thrown across the world to remote places to experience a culture shock in tribal settings. This weekend the screened episode showed the families sharing some of their customs with their host tribes for the first time, with the Melbourne family introducing their hosts, a Zulu tribe in South Africa to Australian Football.

In the biggest employment recruitment operation of international Aussie Rules history, the AFL South Africa are currently seeking community development officers, four to be stationed in the North West Province and two each in the provinces of Kwa Zulu Natal, Gauteng and Western Cape. The positions are advertised as having a minimum monthly salary of 2000 Rand, with applications closing on May 9.

As expected the Australian under 17s squad has handed the South Africans a footy lesson in the first official Aussie Rules clash between the two proud sporting nations. Of course from the Africans' point of view that was exactly what they were there for - to learn more about the game from the cream of Australia's junior footballers. As new AFL South Africa Operations Manager Joel Kelly remarked in his review of the clash, the Aussies' form "was to be expected from a group of young men, many of whom will be at AFL clubs in the next year or two". More importantly the launch throughout the tour of FootyWild, the African equivalent of Auskick, was reportedly a great success and marks the start of what is planned to be a massive acceleration of development across the country. Many thanks to Joel for contributing information and photos for this report.

The much anticipated Aussie Rules debut of Sedgars Park, Potchefstroom, is almost here, as the Australian under 17s head to South Africa for the historic match on April 14th. The international, along with the warm-up trial for the touring squad, will be the first games at the cricket ground and hopefully the oval will come through the matches in good condition. AFL South Africa are also planning to use the day to officially launch "FootyWild", billed as "The New Game That Roars".

The prospect of Australian sport, including both footy and cricket becoming popular in Uganda, a country in East Africa, is a topic explored by this interesting article written by Mark Heath "Australian Sport, raising spirits in a remote East African Village" at Dave's Travel Corner.

In 2006, without a Sherrin handy, Mark apparently introduced Ugandan children from a rural village to the concepts of Australian rules football by way of a tightly packed newspaper strapped with some flexible reeds and it has apparently proven popular. He says he plans to return in future with the real pigskin.

Game three of the 2007 Convicts tour of South Africa saw the touring Aussies lose their first ever match under the Convicts concept, going down by seven points in one of the country's spiritual hearts - Soweto. Although the Australians were hampered by injuries, it sounds clear that the Africans have improved significantly and one must now wonder whether they will threaten the top group at the 2008 International Cup.

The Convicts squad has completed its three matches in South Africa, knocking off the strongest province, North West, in two matches. Early reports suggest their task then proved too difficult in Soweto, going down narrowly to the South African national side. This would be the first loss by a Convicts team - at first glance no cause for excitement amongst the Australian players but surely a good sign for the international growth of Australian Football. Tour leader Anthony Nanfra has sent WFN details of the first two matches (the final match report to follow later), as well as preliminary plans to travel to the US and Canada later in the year.

The next major step in South Africa's rapidly unfolding football journey may well be led by the AFL clubs themselves. After the developmental South African youth team played their final tour match, in Perth last week, the AFL held a dinner at which they unveiled plans for powerhouse clubs West Coast, Fremantle and Collingwood to become heavily involved with fast-tracking the game in South Africa.