World Footy News

With just one round to be played before the AFL London finals series begins, teams are doing their final jostling. Whilst the Men’s Conference division is still up in the air with multiple teams sharing realistic flag hopes, the Men’s Premier and Women’s Premier divisions see one team each that sits ahead of the rest.

The weekend was again special as “Pride Round” with AFL London stating on their Facebook page that “AFL London and its teams are excited for this week's Pride Round. Ensuring we're a league inclusive and welcoming of all people is very important to us.”

The matches coincided with the Pride in London parade, described by the Pride in London organisers as “Celebration, diversity, activism, a demonstration — whatever it means to you, Pride in London is back and set to be our biggest yet. Lesbian, trans, genderqueer or otherwise; wherever you identify, Pride in London is about the people, for the people. This year we’re celebrating 50 years since the birth of the modern LGBT+ rights movement.” Players from all clubs and AFL London joined the parade as a showing of solidarity and support.

The West London Wildcats remain undefeated in the Men’s Premier division after comprehensively outplaying the Wandsworth Demons by 69 points. It gives the Wildcats seven wins from seven starts and they sit well clear of the Demons and Lions as flag favourites. The final score saw the Wildcats 18 9 117 defeat the Wandsworth Demons 7 6 48.

In the Women’s Premier division, the Wandsworth Demons “SheDees” have won their clash with the South East London Giants by 35 points to also be undefeated after Round 7 and clear premiership favourites ahead of the Wildcats and Lionesses.

The Men’s Conference division – combined for matches with the Premier division, but separate for finals series – has seen the Clapham Demons, Shepherds Bush Raiders and Wimbledon Hawks locked together for much of the year. But the Demons victory against the Raiders sees them consolidate their finals place while the Raiders and Hawks will meet in the final round, with the winner likely to be second favourite come finals time.

The finals will be played across the remaining weekends in July with the AFL London Grand Finals set for 3rd August.