THE Annual Coca Cola AFLPNG Junior National Championships will take place in LAE from the 28th until the 30th of this September. The most talented players will converge at Igam Army Barracks in Lae to compete for the National titles. The four regions represented are Southern Sharks, Northern Thunder, Island Stingrays and the Highland Raiders.

The four NZ Leagues and the stand alone Otago Riot are all preparing feverishly for the National Provincial Championships to be hold on the 24-26th October. We take a look at where each league is at.

The Auckland League recently held their annual Lightning Premiership with the North Shore Tigers defeating the Mt Roskill Saints. This set the Tigers up to repeat the dose in Round One last weekend with a 13.9 (87) to 6.7 (43) victory over Mt Roskill. In the replay of last year’s Grand Final the Waitakere Magpies reversed the result over the University Blues with an 11.9 (75) to 7.9 (51) scoreline. In the final match of Round One last year’s two bottom Clubs squared off with the Manurewa Raiders taking the win over the Takapuna Eagles 9.8 (62) to 6.4 (40). The Reserve Grade saw wins to North Shore, University and Takapuna.

Football continues to develop incrementally in the university dominated city of Dunedin on the South Island of NZ. CEO of AFL New Zealand, Robert Vanstam, visited Dunedin recently to speak with local sporting officials and help put the Otago Riot through their paces at training.

Down at Logan Park every Monday and Wednesday afternoon a group of keen young men are practising unfamiliar skills with a familiar looking ball. They're the Otago Riot, Dunedin's very own Australian Rules Football team and they're part of a quiet sporting revolution developing strong roots across New Zealand.

New Zealand: The 36th Auckland football season since the resumption of play in 1975 kicked into life on Sunday 29th September 2010, despite some of the worst underfoot conditions seen for many years. The usual daily downpours during August combined with pretty much undrained fields at Mountford Park Manurewa to produce a mudfest. Never the less the traditional season opener, the Lightning Premiership, was keenly contested by the six Auckland clubs, the same six who have contested every AAFL Premiership since 1990. The Lightning Premiership was introduced in 1994 as the season opening event when the Premiership was reduced from 15 to 10 rounds.

Graeme Wilson is a highly qualified and experienced diplomat. He holds a Master of Arts degree in French from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Arts degree in international relations from the University of Southern California. He speaks French, Spanish and Bislama. He also runs Auskick in the Solomon Islands.

AFL Fiji is still relatively young, but, the mainstream coverage in the Fiji Times – “Great Talent” continues.

In October 2009, AFL FIJI held a Schools Carnival at Corpus Christi, Suva. Four secondary colleges competed in the 15-a-side competition. Laucala Bay defeated Suva Grammar and received the David Rodan Cup. The carnival also served as a selection process for the the Oceania Cup training squad.

Andrew Cadzow, AFL South Pacific Manager, has been in Fiji again helping to arrange the 2010 instalment of the David Rodan Secondary School AFL competition. It will again be held in October.

So much continues to happen in PNG, with this article focusing on Junior Footy in Port Moresby, AFL International Manager Tony Woods' recent visit and the interest of the Gold Coast Suns in PNG footy.

Vanuatu is a South Pacific island nation to the east of Australia, sitting between Australia and Fiji in the vicinity of New Caledonia. It has a population of around a quarter of a million, and the capital city is Port Vila, situated on the island of Efate.

Australian Football in Vanuatu was alluded to a couple of years ago with some mention of Auskick in the capital – and as it turns out there is still a small but growing community that represents AFL Vanuatu.

Justin Johnson is the president of AFL Vanuatu and can be contacted via justininvanuatu@gmail.com from anyone wishing to get involved. WFN communicated with Justin recently.

Recently Hawthorn Football Club played host to Trent Croad Scholarship holder Kurt Heatherley, 15, and his brother Jason, 18.

Kurt, the first AFL International Scholarship player from New Zealand to be listed with the Club, has been on one of his regular visits to train with the Hawks in Melbourne as part of his commitment to the Club.

For more info on how the boys found their week please read http://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/new...fault.aspx

While the signing of Rugby League star Israel Folau to the AFL's Greater Western Sydney expansion club made plenty of headlines this year, some of his family back in Tonga might also be set to create footy news in future.

Folau's 16 year old second cousins Peni Mahini and Simote Taunga are in the South Pacific squad currently competing at the national under 16s championships, and have caught the eye of talent scouts.

"Mahini's a great athlete and he's really competitive with the way he goes about it," the AFL's national community development manager Dean Warren said. "Simote is a little bit further away from a development point of view but has great athletic ability; his skills are just a little bit off the others at this point in time.

"They've only played less than 10 games but if they stick at it, Peni in particular with a bit of development and a really good program, has the athleticism and the raw ability to do it.

"Whether they take that opportunity is yet to be seen. The AFL needs to continue to provide them with the opportunities and the development pathway to realise that, and hopefully a number of AFL clubs have seen them play now."

For the full story story, read Folau's cousins begin AFL journey on afl.com.au.