With the AFL season drawing to an end tomorrow, so too have been many regional and suburban leagues and, also, near by international leagues. The 2016 AFL Fiji mens season wrapped up on Saturday with the Raiwaqa Cooparoos taking on the West Coast Eagles at Albert Park in Suva.

The Suva based Cooparoos (Roos) won 14.7.91 to 10.11.71.
Best on ground was the Roos captain Juita Vateitei, who is also a Fiji national volleyball representative who attributes footy as assisting his development in that game too.

The victorious Cooparoos.

St Kilda Sharks spearhead Moana Hope reached the 100 game milestone against Seaford in the Victorian Women's Football League on Sunday.  Hope, who has recently been announced as one of the marquee players for Collingwood in next year's AFL national womens league has New Zealand heritage. Her family and friends rewarded her milestone with a performance of the Haka in the post-match.

See the video below.

Last week New Zealander Kurt Heatherley became the first player to start seriously learning Aussie Rules overseas before coming to Australia to complete his journey.  Unfortunately after his breakthrough match last week for Hawthorn he has been squeezed out of the side.  But below you can see some clips of his jumper presentation (as we showed in a previous story) prior to debut and a post-match interview.

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Ironically the week after AFL South Pacific graduate Kurt Heatherley made his senior AFL debut – a young man from Vanuatu will lead the Sydney Swans onto the field in their crucial match against St Kilda this weekend at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Keep a look out for the Vanuatu flag.

The first week of August saw an important progam held at the Holiday Inn in Suva, Fiji, with the AFL Fiji Staff Conference. In recent months Simon Highfield has joined as AFL Fiji’s new development officer and AFL Fiji have also received support from Australia’s Pacific Sports Partnerships Program. Once again – this December Fiji will be hosting the AFL Oceania Cup. However – last week it was the AFL Fiji staff getting upskilled – along with training from the Fiji Ministry of Health & Medical Services and the Fiji Women’s Crisis centre with an aim to inclusion of awareness messages into the AFL Fiji school and community programs.

The 2016 BSP PNG Games are to be hosted in the West New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea. 22 provinces take part in 24 games – including para-sports and including AFL. Across 4 locations within the provincial capital of Kimbe. As a note, Kimbe Bay is said to host more than 60% of the coral species of the entire Indo-Pacific while Kimbe itself is the third largest port in PNG and said to be the fastest growing city in the South Pacific.

Another great story on footy development work in PNG.

5pm update - Kurt is now named as Emergency for Sundays game and not in the selected 22.

Hawthorn has included midfielder Will Langford, key forward Tim O’Brien and Kiwi defender Kurt Heatherley in an extended squad to face Richmond on Sunday.

All three have been named on the bench in the Hawks’ 25-man squad.

Heatherley continued his push for a senior debut last week racking up 17 disposals, eight marks and five rebound 50s for Box Hill.
Hawthorn will finalise its side tomorrow afternoon ahead of Sunday’s clash at the MCG, which will be Sam Mitchell’s 300th AFL game.
 

Out there, playing somewhere in Australia right now, is a weekend warrior the AFL recruiters have either never seen or missed, a man dreaming of an AFL career. He is ‘The Recruit’ and he will win arguably the biggest prize ever given away on a TV show – a guaranteed place on an AFL list.

THE RECRUIT is a 10-part reality series that follows a group of ‘Recruits’ who live and play together as a team, while at the same time competing against each other, in order to win this life-changing prize.

Season one of THE RECRUIT aired in Australia in 2014 and was one of the breakout hits for Foxtel’s flagship, general entertainment channel, FOX8.   The premiere of that series was one of the highest program launches in subscription television history, and finished as the channel’s most watched series that year.

Season two returns with the legendary Mick Malthouse, leading the search for Australia’s next sporting hero.  Renowned for his record-breaking coaching career, Mick takes on the role of Head Coach.

Mick will be joined by the returning Executive Team comprising of former Hawthorn champion and FOX FOOTY commentator Ben Dixon as Assistant Coach, Port Adelaide’s world class fitness guru Darren Burgess as High Performance Coach; and accomplished sports administrator Leigh Russell as Mind Coach, responsible for the mental strength and wellbeing of the Recruits.

The 2014 series saw the introduction of two international recruits (partway through the series), Irishman Padraig Lucey and American Mark Cisco.  Lucey went on to be listed as an International Rookie with Geelong where he continues to play in their VFL team.