Papua New Guinea's Stanis Susuve has been named on an extended bench for the Gold Coast's final pre-season game (before entering the VFL), which is against the Brisbane Lions Reserves this weekend. The match is a curtain raiser to the Round 1 AFL match between Brisbane and the West Coast Eagles.

With the Gold Coast likely to bring in 10 to 20 gun new players at the end of the season, all but their very best players will be under the pump to hold their spots. Susuve looks to have bulked up over the off-season and will be keen to establish himself as a regular in 2010. As an international football pioneer I'm sure all the international footy community wish him well in his quest.

The AFLNZ Under 20 Championships were held for the second time on the weekend of March 13th and 14th in Wellington at Hutt Park, with the Under 20 teams from Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington, as well as the New Zealand Hawks Under 16 team taking part.

The final saw the Canterbury Cobras triumphant, running out 20-point victors over Auckland.

The new facilities at Hutt Park provided the teams with a fantastic surface and amenities, care of Hutt City Council and Stop Out Football Club, and the Wellington AFL will look to discuss further the opportunity to utilize the facility as their new home ground for the upcoming 2010 season commencing in September.

Once again, Hawthorn Football Club provided a presence with both Chris Pelchen, General Manager of Player Personnel and Strategy and Graham Wright, East Coast Recruiting Manager in attendance for the weekend.

The emerging PNG Mosquitoes, playing for the second weekend in a row during the Cairns pre-season tournament, certainly proved that their 10 day camp was of immense benefit. The Young Mosquitoes won three from four, with a crushing win over South Cairns in their final hit out.

With a strong core of senior and junior players already under scholarship at South Queensland clubs, a new and younger Mosquito outfit will be seen in their fourth tilt at the International Cup as they endeavour to go back-to-back in the IC11.

The PNG outfit, made up of 6 senior Mosquito members and a group of talented but raw youngsters all in their teens, improved rapidly over 10 days.

AFL Asia Pacific manager Andrew Cadzow said it was a learning experience for many of the players. "For most of them, even having green grass and a good set-up at Cazalys, they are used to playing on dirt pitches and cricket pitches so it was culturally very different for those younger boys,’’ he said.

"It’s a pretty young side, our best 20 players are still in Brisbane playing, so it was really good for the young boys to see how well they went.’’

PNG Mosquitoes made their first appearance in an Australian club tournament last Saturday, going through the AFL Cairns pre-season lightning tournament at Cazalys Stadium with one win and one loss.

The Mosquitoes, lead by former AFL star Mal Michael in his first appearance for his homeland's national team, came up short against the Port Douglas Crocs, but defeated the North Cairns Tigers in their two appearances. North Cairns will play in the competition's final next weekend, having finished top of their pool, ahead of the Mosquitoes only on percentage.

North Cairns' coach Brett Oakley said in an interview on the AFL Cairns website that his players had taken time to adjust to PNG’s unique brand of football. “All of the players were saying that they were so quick and hard at the football, and it’s hard to compete against them because they play a bit different style of football. They're very talented, that’s for sure.”

The final will see North Cairns take on Centrals Trinity Beach this Saturday at 3pm. PNG will take on South Cairns in the curtain-raiser at 1.30pm. Full scores from the pool rounds follow.

Mt Gravatt mentor David Lake is the new coach of the Papua New Guinea Mosquitoes. Lake, who has taken Mt Gravatt into the AFL Queensland finals series in each of his four years at the club, will oversee the build-up to the International Cup in Melbourne in August 2011.

In ground-breaking news, a senior Oceania Cup will be played every three years in the year prior to the International Cup.

Supplementing this much-awaited regular competition is likely to be an international fixture held in the year after the International Cup. The first senior Oceania Cup will be hosted by Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2010.

The AFLNZ U20 National Provincial Championships are to be played this weekend in Wellington, March 13th and 14th 2010, at Hutt Park. These will comprise the Best U20 players from the Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington provinces with the NZ U16 side, who played at the Oceania U16 Championships in Fiji during December 2009, also involved.

As expected, Papua New Guinea has contributed a large number of nominations (17) to the initial Pacific squad to compete in the AFL NAB Under 16 Championships in western Sydney in July this year. The original squad was named after the Oceania Youth Cup in Fiji in December 2009, but PNG were a late withdrawal. With a very successful junior program including the Coca Cola Pathway, the addition of future PNG Mosquito stars to the team will strengthen it considerably.

The AFL has also confirmed that the squad, variously described as the Oceania, Pacific or Pacific Islands team, will in fact be called the South Pacific, better reflecting its makeup.

The current squad (and likely final numbers in brackets) is made up of:

Papua New Guinea 17 (8), New Zealand 9 (4), Tonga 8 (4), Samoa 6 (4), Nauru 6 (3), Fiji 6 (2) for a total of 52 in the squad, to be trimmed to a final 25.

The South Pacific coach has not been named yet. Former Sydney Swan Michael O'Loughlin will coach the World XVIII, consisting of players from outside the South Pacific zone. More details of those nominations tomorrow.

Today's The Australian newspaper reported that the AFL's Western Bulldogs are pushing hard to take matches for premiership points to New Zealand's capital city Wellington. The deal would see the Bulldogs play two home matches at Wellington's Basin Reserve, possibly as early as next year.

The Dogs currently sell two home games interstate, one to Darwin and the other to Canberra. The idea is to take those games to the New Zealand capital and attempt to build some sort of regular sporting and cultural event for the city around the idea of premiership points being fought over on foreign soil.

Bulldogs' chief executive Campbell Rose outlined the proposal in a direct letter to NZ prime minister John Key, with endorsement from the AFL.

The full story can be read at Bulldogs push for games in New Zealand.

AFLPNG’s Coca Cola Talent Path model has again delivered with six new signings to AFL Clubs under the international recruitment drive.

Richmond, Essendon, and the Brisbane Lions did not let the opportunity slip when attending PNG’s Coca Cola Talent Camp late in 2009, signing players to International Scholarships.

Gideon Simon (Western Highlands) and Nathan Malbak (Morobe) have been snapped up by the Richmond Tigers, Ezra Kautu (West New Britain) has been signed by the Brisbane Lions and Victor Rame (West New Britain) was taken by the Essendon Bombers (pictured below). Also recruited were Brendan Beno (Autonomous Region of Bougainville) who was wooed to the Lions, and Max Lavai (NCD) who was swooped on by the Bombers.

Beno and Kautu had actually been signed a few weeks earlier, but it was not widely publicised.