The Western Bulldogs have today arrived in Fiji, in readiness for Friday's launch of the AFL Fiji, also to be attended by Port Adelaide's Fijian-born star David Rodan.

The Bulldogs are undertaking a further round of trials of local talent, hoping to recruit a third Fijian rookie to the club.

The new AFL Fiji organisation has already undertaken some scouting and school development clinics, with view to having a team ready for the Oceania junior cup to be hosted in Fiji in December.

For more on developments in Fiji, see Bulldogs to launch AFL from the Fiji Times and Dogs Continue Fiji talent hunt from afl.com.au.

New Zealand’s National Provincial Championships will see not only the four leagues competing for representative honours, but also two matches between Victorian Amateur Under 18's against the New Zealand Under 20's.

The four senior leagues from Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington will compete for national honours for the first time since September 2007. The past three tournaments have seen Auckland victorious.

The teams have a good quality of coaching staff with all involved having a back ground at an international level for the Falcons. Andrew Congalton, New Zealand captain at both the 2005 and 2008 International Cups will be the Auckland coach, whilst his predecessor from the 2002 campaign, John Jackson has the reigns at Wellington. Jim Lucy, with three International Cups under his belt in a coaching and adminstration level ,will target Waikato towards winning their first game at NPC level and new Canterbury coach Jason Ball was a member of the 2002 International Cup team.

Meanwhile Victorian Amateurs have commenced an inaugural competition involving the Under 18 grade and will send a representative team from the age group to play New Zealand Under 20's in two matches over the weekend. Though the Vic Ammos have a long and proud history at U19 level the Under 18’s are a new competition and their depth available to select from should ensure that the New Zealand outfit is very competitive. Teams will compete for the VAFA/AFL New Zealand Cup for what is hoped to be an ongoing association.

AFL Oceania Manager Andrew Cadzow will be in attendance monitoring the development of the sport and lending assistance as required.

For more see NPC to tie in with visiting Vics.

Hawthorn Football Club, home of Kiwi premiership player Trent Croad, in conjunction with AFL New Zealand have established a competition within Secondary Schools in New Zealand, titled the Hawks Cup. Having recently commenced, it is having a massive impact on the development of AFL within New Zealand.

The development of this competition is highly likely to lead to the sanctioning of the sport by New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council. Becoming part secondary sports calendar will allow every secondary school within New Zealand the opportunity to have access to and compete in the Hawks Cup. The Hawthorn Football Club is providing in excess of $50,000 in resources towards and targets participants specifically in years 9 and 10.

This year’s competition will see a number of taster tournaments scheduled over October and November 2009 with teams competing initially in clusters from North Harbour, Waitakere, Auckland, Manukau, Tauranga, Wellington and Porirua. On completion of cluster tournaments, school teams will compete for regional championships including Upper North Island, Lower North Island and Eastern North Island with each regions winner to be awarded the Hawks Cup.

For more on this see Hawks Cup established for Secondary Schools.

Port Adelaide AFL professional, Suva-born David Rodan, and his fiancée, Carla Di Pasquale recently travelled to Suva, Fiji, to promote the code and talk through the aims and objectives of the game they hope will bring the youth of Fiji into Aussie Rules football.

Rodan and Pasquale plan, with the assistance of Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs football clubs, to run clinics at schools around the country, aimed predominantly at 14-15 year old boys. The footy clinics are planned for once a week in schools, taking on up to 90 kids per session.

WFN have previously had a detailed look at 3 of the competitions in NZ - Auckland, Otago and Waikato. Here is a brief synopsis of the Canterbury Australian Football League based in Christchurch on the South Island.

The Regional Junior Football Championships were held last month in the Highlands of PNG. The Highlands are one of the four current “talent” regions in PNG. These are Highlands, Islands, Northern and Southern.

As part of the AFLPNG National Talented Player pathway, local championships are held in each region before the Nationals which will be held in Lae during September. The Nationals in Lae will consist of 27 teams across 4 divisions – Boys under 13s, 15s, and 17s and Girls under 15s.

After having footy’s inclusion bandied around as part of the Pacific Games for the best part of a decade, a competition for the Oceania region is now truly a reality. However, it won’t be an inclusion as an extra sport at this stage in the Pacific Games but will be as a stand-alone Under 16 tournament in the new footy region of Fiji.

The tournament is set for the 12th and 13th December with invites extended to PNG, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga, NZ, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. At this stage, PNG, Fiji, NZ, Tonga and Nauru have confirmed their participation, which is an excellent result.

Though the tournament is nominally at Under 16 level, there is an ability for the countries to play up to 6 older players if signed off by Championship Manager Andrew Cadzow. This appears a sensible modification when the tournament has dual aims - to have both ‘Participation’ and ‘Talent’ outcomes.

It is hoped that from this inaugural tournament an annual opportunity to showcase junior talent in the Pacific will result. It is anticipated that this will grow the game from the grassroots level as well as give talented players the opportunity to be seen and selected via higher representative squads, Academy positions (future) and International Scholarships, not discounting the AFL Drafts.

At the conclusion of the tournament an Oceania Squad will be selected to embark on a training program, and with a game schedule, which is yet to be confirmed.

North Shore Tiger Caleb Stick was featured in an article in his local paper, the North Shore Times as the Auckland AFL season gears up for their season. In a paper that circulates through the populous North Shore of Auckland City, this will assist with recruitment for local Clubs the Takapuna Eagles and the Tigers, and obviously, promotion of the code.

Stick was a member of the all conquering 2005 NZ Falcon’s side and a key member of the Tigers and Auckland inter-league side.

In an article from the NZ Herald, Papatoetoe High School are looking to introduce Aussie Rules into their sports curriculum. This would be great for the nearby Manurewa Raiders club in South Auckland.

worldfootynews.com have recently had the privilege of catching up with Andrew Cadzow, general manager of AFL Oceania.

For those wondering what is happening in the Zone that comes under his influence, we took a look at his diary for the next six months, including a match between an AFL Queensland club and the PNG Mosquitoes, an under 16s Pacific Cup, the official launch of AFL Fiji, and numerous further goings-on in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Canterbury Australian Football League club the Christchurch Bulldogs met the newest kids on the block in the South Island of NZ, the Otago Riot from Dunedin, for a preseason challenge match in Christchurch on August 22nd.

The match was preceded by a Kiwikick session for a group of local kids and hopefully future Bulldogs. With several locals helping to set up the field and wave the flags the scene was set for a great day of footy in the sun.

The game got underway at 2.30pm in warm conditions, with the Bulldogs kicking to the Mt Cook end. After several forward forays the Bulldogs scored the first goal, soccered off the ground by coach Steve Langridge. The Bulldogs' innaccuracy was keeping the Otago boys in the game and they went into the 1/4 time break leading 2.8 (20) to 1.2 (8).

The second quarter was another battle of the halfback lines and scoring shots were few & far between. However the Bulldogs went to the long break with a handy 4 goal lead.

The Dogs needed some strong defensive work from captain Steve Langridge and new pup Matt Crighton or the Otago boys may have been in with a sniff at 3/4 time.

The final quarter started well for the Bulldogs with a couple of quick goals at the clubhouse end. To their credit the Riot boys battled the game out and can hold their heads up and start preparing for their next match against the Canterbury senior team in October.

The final score read Christchurch Bulldogs 11.12 (78) Otago Riot 7.9 (51).

For more, follow this link.