World Footy News

Article courtesy of South Dublin Swans and ARFLI

South Dublin Swans were the Irish representatives in the second running of the AFL Europe European Champions League held last Saturday March 19th. This very efficiently run tournament organised by AFL Europe and the Amsterdam Devils was held at the impressive Dutch national rugby centre in suburban Amsterdam.  The tournament has grown since last year with 13 men’s teams and 5 women’s teams participating. The calibre of the competition was high with teams being their league’s champions and each team also allowed four Australians on the pitch at any one time in this 9-a-side format. 

The Swans had the earliest start of the day at 10am in their four team group. First up was the Russian representatives, the Lazy Koalas on the show pitch in the facility. This was a good opener for the Swans to find their rhythm and they won comfortably by a margin of 62 to 7 in the 24 minute game. The next game was more difficult against the Zagreb Dockers who featured one of the strongest players playing in Europe, Tomislav Cvetko. Although Cvertko did some damage the Swans won again 24 to 14. The final group game turned into the pool decider for a place in the competition semi-finals. This was against the dominant team in Sweden, Sodermalm. This was a very close encounter with nothing between the teams and goals being traded back and forward. The Swans showed great determination to win this one by the slim margin of 28 to 26.

Having topped the group the Swans had the difficult task to playing reigning Champions League holders, the West London Wildcats in the semi-final. At this stage they had lost full back Peter Ross to injury and others were licking their wounds. Although the Swans opened well, scoring the first goal they could not match the impressive Wildcats who soon took control on the scoreboard and ran out comfortable winners 76 to 6. The Swans didn’t have long to think about that disappointing result as they then played the other beaten semi-finalists, the Hamburg Dockers in the third place playoff. This was a better performance from a tiring Swans team, but they just feel short of another win going down 38 to 23.

The West London Wildcats won the tournament for the second year in a row beating the Manchester Mosquitoes in the Grand Final 43 to 13. In the women’s tournament the GB Swans won the Grand Final beating the Swedish Ravens. Overall it was a great experience for the Swans and it was impressive to see the calibre of club teams from all over Europe. Swans small forward Kevin Brennan was the Swans best and fairest over the competition and got onto the team of the tournament.

Kevin Brennan with his Team of the Tournament jumper

 

Swans team

Original article can be found at http://www.arfli.com/2016/03/21/swans-fourth-at-european-champions-league/?platform=hootsuite