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Wolverhampton back for Second Season, Birmingham coming out of Hibernation

  • Friday, March 18 2011 @ 07:26 am ACDT
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The West Midlands of England will again be home to 3 clubs in 2011, with the reformation of the Birmingham Bears for play in the AFL Britain Central & North West Division. The Bears went into recess just before the 2010 season, with the league asking the newly-formed Wolverhampton Wolverines to take over most the Bears' fixtures for the year.

Wolverhampton president Ian Mitchell says 2010 was a challenge for the Wolverines, with most of the players still learning the game. "Last season we played in a social capacity in the C&NW Division of AFL Britain, taking many of Birmingham Bears fixtures that they couldn't fulfil. We lost the majority of our games that we played, it was a steep learning curve as all of the players were new to the game, apart from myself and one or two Australians that we managed to collect on the way. We finally won our last game of last season against the other new club in the area, the Hull Mariners."

This weekend will see the Wolverines take on the Bears in a pre-season friendly, with the following weekend seeing them joined by the Birmingham Uni Sharks for the inaugural 3-team West Midlands Charity Cup, which will raise funds for the Queensland Floods Appeal.

"Off the pitch we secured a sponsorship deal with Australian bar Walkabout, and also won a grant off Mars Refuel that went towards our own kit. We played our home games at Wolverhampton RUFC and they were a great support. We were honoured to be asked to host our division's Grand Final at the end of the season, which saw a great day's footy with us playing a CNW Barbarians side before the Mozzies and Scorpions contested the GF. The evening saw all teams in Walkabout for presentations and celebrations."

This season has so far seen the Wolverines regularly getting 20 players down for pre-season training. Mitchell says, "we had two pre-season fixtures so far against Birmingham Uni Sharks, which ended in two defeats, but many positives to take away from what was one close game and one easy victory for the Sharks."

2011's AFL Britain C&NW season will feature seven clubs, the Wolverines and Bears to be joined by Manchester Mosquitoes, Sheffield Thunder, Huddersfield Rams, Nottingham Scorpions and the Hull Mariners.

Some action from a pre-season match between the Birmingham Uni Sharks and Wolverhampton Wolverines.

The Wolverhampton Wolverines' new jumper design.