World Footy News

Whilst the AFL Middle East football community had eyes firmly locked on the grand final replay between the Dragons and Bulls, it was another Emirates team that sent a strong message of their own. The Abu Dhabi Falcons fought hard against the Dragons in Round One and followed that up with a comprehensive win against the Dingoes to drive home the message that the Falcons are right there in the finals mix.

In a game of two halves, the Falcons did the damage with a 74 to 21 first half. The second half belonged to the Dingoes as they clawed back some of the deficit to outscore the Falcons after half time. Their effort was even more commendable with just two players on the bench. But the damage had already been done early as the Falcons ran out convincing 43 point victors. So early in the season yet, but the Falcons are on track to stay in the finals battle waiting for one of the top two teams to falter.

The Paris Cockatoos and Toulouse Hawks have enjoyed a big weekend with important victories over their opponents. The Cockerels travelled to Lyon to down the reigning premiers, the ALFA Lions, whilst the Toulouse Hawks were too good for the Bordeaux Bombers at home.

The ALFA Lions have learned quickly what it means to go from the hunter to the hunted. After winning last season’s flag and displaying good form in the pre-season, the Lions have lost both of their opening premiership matches. Losses to both the Cockatoos and the revitalised Toulouse Hawks I the opening round have made the season much harder for the Lions – from here it has to be as close to five wins from five starts as possible to challenge again for back to back honours. A tough task.

Darebin Falcons and Melbourne Uni are the only original clubs to remain in the Victoria's state league competition for women, with final 2018 teams named today. 

The other clubs through a variety of factors have either chosen, or been forced to hand over their licences to VFL/AFL clubs or hand in their licence.  One of these factors has been the massive increase of the licence fee by a factor of around ten times which clubs believed they would not be able to finance in their current state. 

Other factors such as the imposition of a minimum standard of facilities the club must provide should bring great benefits to the development of players, but have also made it impossible for clubs to meet as stand alone community clubs with limited financial resources.

International players in the league such as Irish pair Laura Corrigan-Duryea and Clara Fitzpatrick, and Canadians Kendra Heil and Valerie Moureau will all need to find new clubs if they are to continue at state league level.

AFL Victoria has confirmed the position of the remaining 2017 Swisse Wellness VFL Women’s clubs for the expanded 2018 competition.

In changes from the 2017 structure, Diamond Creek, Eastern Devils and St Kilda Sharks have informed AFL Victoria they will not be continuing in the VFL Women’s competition, while premiers Darebin and Melbourne Uni have committed to the league for next season.

The Australian squad has had some modifications heading into the final week of training before the first international rules test match at the Adelaide Oval on November 12th.

GWS gun Toby Greene broke a toe in an unusual incident while on holiday in the States, and Australian coach Chris Scott decided to pick a handful of new players to take on Ireland. There’s a lot of backline speed to choose from among this group, including North Melbourne veteran Robbie Tarrant and the Melbourne Demons’ Neville Jetta.

Yesterday some of the Essendon football club players including Michael Hartley and Marty Gleeson, who have been travelling in the US, brought their skills to the NBA's Washington Wizards in an indoor cross training session.  Video of the session can be seen below.

  

Just when you think that St Mary’s have been dealt a mortal blow and may miss out on finals, along they come and pinch a win that changes everything. Such was the case in the Round Four action of the NTFL competition in Darwin when the Saints, after three consecutive losses to start the 2017/18 season, downed Waratah convincingly and in the process sauntered back into the top five.

Their win against Waratah was set up with a powerful eight goals to one first half to effectively end the contest. From there the Saints were rarely troubled as they powered away to win by 73 points.

Amongst the highlights was the senior debut of young Maurice Rioli Jr, who in April was playing for the Northern Territory Kickstart Under 15 team. His rapid rise to senior level has tongue wagging about the continuation of the Rioli dynasty, but for now his goal on debut is a fine start.

Hurricane Harvey dropped historic rainfall on the Texas coast in late August in the United States. Many locations reported at least 30 inches (76 cm) of rain. Nederland, east of Houston, recorded 64.58” of rainfall. Pearland, in Houston’s southern suburbs, a reported 9.92” fell in 90 minutes.

The rain definitely affected the Houston Lonestars footy club. No players were directly affected by the effects of Hurricane Harvey, but their families definitely were. Club members worked to help many others in the aftermath. The Lonestars also pitched in financially, raising $10,000 US between several members.

Their August 26th Texas Cup triangular with the Austin Crows and Dallas Magpies was canceled. They did get back into action on September 9 with a sweep of Baton Rouge (seven points) and Nashville (a 26-point win). The Lonestars also fell to Dallas and to the Los Angeles Dragons on September 23, and went 0-2 while hosting the Magpies and Crows on October 7.

Not the name of a new horror flick, but actually a pleasant by-product of the AFL off-season where players often end up visiting remote parts of the country. Sometimes it is for promotional reasons, other times personal. But for Groote Eylandt it barely matters why – to have Geelong superstar, Patrick Dangerfield, visit is a local sensation.

Groote Eylandt is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, about 50 kilometres from the Arnhem Land coast of the Northern Territory. The locals love their footy, and for their Community Football Day at Alyangulu, the Groote Eylandt Football League invited the 2016 Brownlow Medallist to be the guest umpire.

After the BBQ lunch and NGA Cats Clinic, Dangerfield partnered with Bomber Farrell to umpire the local exhibition match between the Groote Eylandt Cats and the Djarrak Hawks. Organised in conjunction with the Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation’s Football Program, the match featured local Groote Eylandt talent playing against the Djarrak team from Galiwinku on Elcho Island – a community and island to the north of the Arnhem Land coast.

Results in the French (CNFA) Australian Rules football competition this weekend have seen the Toulouse based Aviators (formerly Blagnac Aviators) and Paris Cockerels record victories. They are important results for each team, setting the clubs up with a jump on other teams early in the season. The Aviators defeated the Tigers whilst the Cockerels downed the Coyotes.

The Perpignan Tigers hosted the Aviators and both teams fought hard throughout the match. The Aviators, in just their second season, played the brand of football that won them two matches in their maiden season. The Tigers were unlucky in some games last year and one could argue the same on the weekend. They fought the Aviators to the final siren but unluckily went down by three goals.

The Melbourne Demons will certainly be a familiar face in the Northern Territory throughout the 2018 season as both their AFL and AFLW teams increase their combined presence. In the following press release from the AFLNT, the increased Demon visitations are highlighted along with reference to an article from Matt Burgon at the www.afl.com.au website which looks at the Demons working closely with a Northern Territory club at grass roots level.    

AFL Northern Territory (AFLNT) is thrilled with today’s announcements that it will host five AFL games in 2018.

 

The AFL Women’s (AFLW) will be the first to kick off with a pre-season match on Saturday 13th January 2018 at TIO Stadium as part of the Adelaide Crows Women’s team pre-season camp. 

With the release today of the AFL’s JLT Community Series – the pre-season competition – Townsville in North Queensland has landed some big fish to further build the game in the city. By degrees, Townsville is becoming a viable AFL venue, both for matches and increasingly as a destination for local playing talent.

World Footy News reported back in early 2013 that the northern cities of Cairns and Townsville would be locked in a battle to be a destination for an AFL club team or franchise by 2030. See Cairns v Townsville – Which will be the home of an AFL team by 2030?. That argument was on the back of Cairns having hosted AFL premiership matches in 2011 and 2012 (and a number of pre-season matches featuring Geelong, Brisbane, Port Adelaide, Melbourne, St Kilda and North Melbourne in preceding years). At the time, Townsville had just been awarded its first pre-season match between the Gold Coast Suns and North Melbourne.