After the staging of the Coca Cola National Talent Camp in Goroka from the 4th to the 6th of December 2009, the Coca Cola Binatangs Under 16 and Under 14 Touring teams have been selected for the 2010 AFL Queensland Championships.

The Coca Cola National Talent camp brings together 120 of the best AFL playing Kids in the country between the ages of 13 and 18 each year and the 2009 crop lived up to some high expectations.

A real testament of the Coca Cola backed Talent Path Program’s exceptional player development ability was the interest shown by AFL Club Recruitment officers who attended.

The Wellington Australian Football League Grand Final has been played and won by the all conquering Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs on what was a shocking day for football in Wellington. As the well known local song goes “You can’t beat Wellington on a Good Day” but I would beggar to argue that it is a shocking place to play footy on a suburban ground when the weather isn’t kind!

New Zealand’s third place finish at the inaugural Oceania Cup may have made some believe that they had underachieved but AFLNZ CEO, Rob Vanstam, had clearly stated beforehand that the team the NZ Hawks would be represented by would be exceptionally young with many able to return for next years’ tournament. As such there are many positives to spring from their involvement in the tournament.

One of these is that New Zealand have announced, while at the Oceania Cup, the opening of an AFL New Zealand Academy in March 2010. Newly appointed chief of AFL's High Performance, Jason McCartney, was supportive of the initiative. AFL New Zealand has targeted 100 first choice athletes to become part of the academy by the end of 2012 with the hope of preparing suitable candidates for AFL International Scholarships. The new academy will assist AFL clubs with easy access to both monitor development and provide input towards potential stars at a minimum outlay.

Footage has been posted on Youtube of Carlton's international scholarship player Peter Labi. After earlier moving to Queensland to develop his game with Nambour, in 2009 the 17 year old Papuan went on to have a great season for Mt Gravatt in the main AFL Queensland league, and also played five games as a "top up" player for the Brisbane Lions reserves. Indigenous player, Mt Gravatt star and former Brisbane Lions premiership player Darryl White took Peter under his wing, as did the club's coach David Lake, no doubt fast tracking his rise to prominence. Labi moved down to Melbourne in the last few weeks to commence his first AFL pre-season.

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Plenty of goals from the young speedster, and a nice handball at 4:08.

Perennial champions, the University Blues, faced off against the ever improving Waitakere Magpies who are yet to achieve a flag since their formation in 1990.

The Blues, Premiers in the past decade 7 times (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007) had steam-rolled their way into the finals with a crashing win by 112 points over bottom of the table Takapuna Eagles in Round 10 before smashing usually tough competitors, the Mt Roskill Saints, by 181 points in the Second Semi Final to go straight through to the big one.

After the first ever youth Oceania Cup Jason McCartney and scouts from four AFL clubs assisted to select an initial Oceania training squad.

"The standard, ability and attitude of the players was a highlight. No doubt they have great athletic capabilities and a real appetite and appreciation, even respect for this new game of AFL. They will be part of a very competitive World squad for 2010." McCartney said.

The Oceania Training Squad will no doubt contribute heavily to the World team that will compete in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships in Australia next year, something WFN will be hoping to follow up with the AFL in the coming weeks - we expect to see PNG players added, but will other nations feature besides obviously South Africa's young talent? The squad is:

Tonga is the shock winner of the inaugural AFL Oceania Cup for Under 16s. Going into the tournament PNG was favoured but pulled out with visa and flight issues, leaving New Zealand to carry favouritism.

After both Tonga and NZ went through Day One undefeated it looked like their first up clash on the Sunday morning would decide the winner, and it did, but not before more thrills.

In a gripping contest the Tongans defeated the Kiwis by just 6 points, only to be rolled by arch rivals Samoa later in the day. That left the door wide open for New Zealand to march through and claim the 2009 title. But a small matter of Nauru stood in their way, having also worked their way into a chance to snatch top spot on percentage. Bad kicking for goal and a gutsy contest from the smallest nation in the tournament saw the New Zealanders suffer a one point defeat, leaving Tonga top and the youth champions of Oceania (excluding Australia and to be fair, PNG) for 2009. Tonga's exciting victory was capped with an unexpected visit by their Prime Minister. Nauru's win slipped them into second and the Kiwis fell to third.

The Under 16 New Zealand Hawks accounted for both Samoa and Fiji on the first day of the Oceania Cup held in Suva Fiji this weekend. The Hawthorn scouts present would have been very pleased with their recent international scholarship signing, Kurt Heatherley, as he was named best for New Zealand in both games. The following is the Kiwi perspective of the day courtesy of Rob Vanstam, head of AFL New Zealand.

The Hawks' first match against Samoa was played at the Cathedral Gardens grounds right on the sea's edge on Suva's coastline.

A forty to fifty kilometre wind straight down the ground was a huge advantage for the New Zealand team in the first quarter and they went into the first change with a two goal lead. The Samoan team fought back strongly with three goals of their own to take a slight lead into the half time break.

The Hawks could not utilise the breeze as well as they would have liked in the third term and kicked only one goal to level the scores but leaving an up hill struggle in the final term with Samoa having a huge breeze at their advantage.

In the absence of Papua New Guinea (withdrew due to immigration and flight problems), New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga have emerged as the leaders after day one of the two day youth Oceania Cup in Suva, Fiji.

Day 1

NZ 5-3 (33) defeated Samoa 4-3 (27)
Tonga 2-9 (21) defeated Fiji 1-4 (10)
Nauru 4-1 (25) defeated Samoa 3-4 (22)
NZ 8-2 (50) defeated Fiji 2-7 (19)
Tonga 7-6 (48) defeated Nauru 1-3 (9)

A summary and photos of the day follow...

In a very disappointing result Papua New Guinea, red hot favourites for the youth Oceania Cup, have pulled out of the tournament.

Preliminary reports suggest that the withdrawal was a combination of immigration issues and a flight cancellation.

The good news is that scouts from Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton and the Brisbane Lions are in Suva for the tournament, although the loss of PNG and strong winds will no doubt reduce the quality on display.

The change should leave the door wide open for New Zealand to win the inaugural tournament. A new draw has been hastily arranged. Each team with play the other once, with the highest ranked side the winner (i.e. no finals).