World Footy News

We welcome Alex as our first dedicated US reporter for some years to WFN.   Alex is a long time servant of the Nashville Kangaroos and in 2014 begins his 10th season as goal umpire including numerous matches officiating at the US National Championships.  2014 is also his 6th season as host of "USAFL Weekly" live webcast which can be seen on Ustream and the 5th season of his footy blog . 

Recently a number of the USAFL teams gathered for the traditional Australia Day Weekend to celebrate with our Aussie mates.  While some teams gathered at several local establishments for purely social events (the New York Magpies, Boston Demons and Tulsa Buffaloes, among others), other teams took to the streets and the fields for fun. 

Four of the teams, the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids, the Sacramento Suns, Golden Gate Roos and Nashville Kangaroos went for their first games of the year in Metro competition and in the case of the Sacramento Suns and Golden Gate Roos, it was history in the making as well.  

In Nashville the Nashville Kangaroos joined other runners in the annual tradition of the Zoo Run Run to benefit the Nashville Zoo.  For the first time, the course had a Kangaroo twist as the new addition to the park, the Kangaroo Kickabout, was displayed.  

Multiple members of the Kangaroos run the race, which marks their 7th year in participation.  There's always a friendly competition among the Roos to see who is the fastest.  This year, that honor went to Daniell "Whippet" Leipply with a time of 25:41 in the 5K race.  The following day, the Kangaroos family celebrated in style near Vanderbilt University for the full Australian Day celebration.

Our second stop took us to Fort Lauderdale at the Broward County Cricket Stadium for the battle of North vs. South Miami as the first Metro match was played.  Great times were had by all on display as nearly 200 people attending the event. 

The Baton Rouge Tigers began their season with the first practice and Metro match of the year in temperatures in the middle 40s (Farenheit), very abnormal for them in January.

The final stop was out west in San Francisco as the first adult AusBall match between Sacramento and Golden Gate took place.  From the reports from the Suns, it was a very well attended game and successful demonstrations of the sport took place during the weekend.

Please check us out Alex's work online via usaflweeklyreport.com and watch the USAFL Weekly show, Sundays @ 5 pm USA Central Time on UStream.tv.