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Those followers of the international growth of Australian Football, despite and often in spite of the (lack of) efforts of the AFL; were pleased recently when the AFL announced that in next year’s National Under 16s Championships, a ‘World XVIII’ would participate in Division 2.
It now appears, following a highly successful Oceania Under 16s tournament in Fiji last weekend, that the AFL has decided that Oceania will be represented by a stand alone Under 16 squad with a separate ‘World XVIII’.
Presumably, the World side will be mostly comprising talent from South Africa.
However, there’s potential for talent from junior and school programs through Denmark, Sweden, the UK and Canada, in particular.
The main point, however, is the sudden increase in interest. A video compilation of Carlton’s PNG rookie, Peter Labi, highlights the level of talent here.
This kid looks to be a natural.
Along with this development, we’ve also seen this week North Melbourne rookie list Majak Daw, a Sudanese refugee who has been playing footy for about four years after coming here at the age of 12.
And Brisbane rookie listed Sean Yoshuira, born in Japan ,who came here aged 7.
It all adds a nice little cosmopolitan flavour that is sometimes accused of not existing in the game.
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