After announcing in late 2012 that they would draft Kurt Heatherley as an international rookie at the end of 2012, AFL club Hawthorn this week have said they will also draft NZ international scholarship holder Shem Tatupu at the end of 2013. Both players would then be contracted to the club until the end of 2016.

Tatupu is currently training with the Hawks in Melbourne. He will continue to train with the club during school holidays for 2013 but will finiish his schooling in NZ, unlike Heatherley who has been at school in Melbourne the last two years.

AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan told hawthornfc.com.au "We congratulate Hawthorn on having the initiative to do it, to be the first club to move on this"

"When we introduced the South Pacific into the under-16s championships three years ago we could see there's going to be potential emerge, and these are the first two boys to come through."

More from Fox Sports News below:

Canterbury Cobras reeled in their third consecutive Championship on the weekend to commemorate a weekend of firsts.

Day One saw the Otago Riot participate in their first ever Senior Championship on the back of their appearance at the March 2012 Under 20 NPC in Canterbury.

The inclusion of a fifth team is the first addition to the programme since 2004 when the Waikato Thunder joined the competition adding to the traditional involvement of Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland.

This growth at the top level in terms of representative teams is a huge plus for what AFLNZ have been doing with their High Performance programs. Without a doubt the Board of Governance must ensure that the elite level achievements in terms of growth are underpinned by healthy local competitions in Wellington, Waikato and now Otago, whether of traditional 18 a side football or of a AFL 9’s nature. The dropping away of the competition in Wellington is of particular concern and one that those with any sense of history should address immediately.

Mid Canterbury Eagles have claimed back to back Premierships in the Canterbury AFL (in New Zealand's South Island) after ensuring the game was over by half time.

The Eagles opened up 21-point lead at the first break and by half time had extended their lead to 47-points, with the Christchurch Bulldogs failing to score in the second term.

The Bulldogs battled manfully and could rightfully use as an excuse the fact that four of their players were under 16 with a couple of 18-year olds new to the game. They sadly missed the bigger bodies of Todd Andrews, their absentee captain and young gun Craig Varcoe (collarbone), along with veteran Jason Beck who was nursing a strained calf. Unfortunately, they came up against a determined Eagles outfit that never took their foot off the accelerator to record a massive win.

Final Score: Mid-Canterbury Eagles 16.13 (109) def Christchurch Bulldogs 5.6 (36)
 

The AFL's Saints might be headed for Wellington but up north Auckland has felt the power of another group of Saints.  The Mt Roskill Saints have triumphed over last year’s AAFL Premiers Waitakere Magpies in a close fought encounter for the 2012 title.

Waitakere had faced off against the perennial Auckland Grand Final team, University Blues, in the Preliminary Finals and knocked them out of the race. The Saints squad had been more consistent this year and this reliability, often absent from Saints sides in previous years, was to be to their benefit.
 
With a strong forward line capable of high marks and good kicks, mid-fielders fast and tough at the hard-ball gets, and a rock-solid back line that have simply been outstanding all year, things didn’t need to change at all for Mt Roskill in the Grand Final.
 

The 2012 AFL Oceania Cup in Fiji got underway with the matches proper on Friday after the warm up afforded via the lightning premiership played on Thursday.

With tropical cyclone Evan having smashed Samoa with minimal notice; at least the island nation of Fiji was able to bunker down - as it turned out, after Sundays rest day the AFL Oceania Cup squads and staff were laid low by the force of nature on Monday with scheduled matches postponed. By Tuesday, with debris cleared - the final round robin matches were completed to pave the way for the play-off matches and grand final.

Please note that all scores have now been updated from official sources - including the lightning carnival matches from Thursday.

On behalf of World Footy News and followers of Australian Rules football world wide, our thoughts are with the people of Samoa who have just had their communities and homes devastated by Tropical Cyclone Evan.

We have seen the footage and our hearts go out to the people who have suffered loss at this time.

We also wish to extend our thoughts for the safety of those in Fiji, where the cyclone is said to be tracking now. Obviously the Oceania Cup would be disrupted, but that can be played another time. More importantly, we hope that this potential Category 5 cyclone can change course and spare Fiji the devastation being felt by those in Samoa.

The AFL Oceania Cup in Suva, Fiji is underway. Day 1 saw a lightning cup carnival format to warm up the sides in preparation for Fridays first round of cup matches.

The 2012 AFL Oceania Cup week of events kicks off on Thursday December 13th with a Lightning Carnival across the day; with matches commencing at 10am and wrapping up with a 3.30pm Grand Final followed by the presentations. Friday sees the main competition firing up – with ideally the travel cobwebs shaken off the day before. The official opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday 10am.

The 2012 Youth AFL Oceania Cup will commence this week and once again to be held in Suva, Fiji. As the AFL’s Andrew Cadzow (Development Manager for AFL Asia Pacific) welcome message states "The Oceania Cup will play a vital role in showcasing the many talented players in our great game and more importantly highlight the development and growth of football through Asia Pacific."

This is the fourth year of the tournament, but this year there have been some important structural changes. For the first time both PNG and New Zealand have been placed directly into the South Pacific Cup, whilst players from Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands will battle it out in the hope of being selected in the U16 Oceania Squad to then compete against PNG and NZ in the South Pacific Cup April of next year in Townsville.

On Saturday the Solomon Islands AFL representatives departed for Fiji to compete in the 2012 AFL Oceania Cup. 9 young footballers plus AFL Solomons Job Vulita, with the support of key sponsor QBE Insurance (Head office in Honiara) the Solomon Sharks have been able to expand their representation this year after the success last year of Jave Sarere and Francis Ramo when they competed in an AFL combined team.

This year, the Solomons players will play for the “Solomons All Stars” in the Oceania Cup in Suva against teams from Tonga, Nauru, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The below is courtesy of the SIAFL :