World Footy News

 

With the third AFL Youth Oceania Cup about to swing into full action today, it’s great to see good coverage and respectful coverage of a sport that is moving gradually from novelty value to mainstream.  At least at junior level.

The Fiji Times is today carrying “New Zealand Hawks ready to soar”.

NZ Hawks U16s assistant coach Warwick Kain states

"And the players are from all over New Zealand too, from Otago, Christchurch, Wellington, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland," he said. He said AFL was a rapidly developing sport in NZ and his team will be out to make an impression in the Oceanic Cup.

"The players are selected from high school that compete against each other and then the top 40 players are chosen and the squad is then shortened to 25 players we have come with."

"We have quite a new team and we are aiming to go all the way and win the competition."

Kain also talks of looking forward to meeting the “Flying Fijian”, Nic Naitanui.

The West Coast Eagles, Nic’s home club, are featuring this article, “Naitanui swoops on Fiji”.

West Coast’s Nic Naitanui will this week join Greater Western Sydney’s Israel Folau for a pre-Christmas trip to Fiji.

In their roles as AFL ambassadors, Naitanui and Folau will attend the Youth AFL Ocean Cup to mentor young players from their respective nations.

Naitanui first met Folau when they visited Tonga last year with Karmichael Hunt on a similar mission.

For general interest as well, Naitanui's role model status is also illustrated with his work with East Perth's inaugral multicultural training squad, the 'Bakari Royals'.

The AFL website is carrying a 3 minute video of the Boomerangs early time in Fiji including Andrew McLeod and Chris Johnson having a chat about events.

Mondays Sydney Morning Herald carried this article "Folau, Naitanui to spread the word in Fiji".