World Footy News

Round 11 of the 2017 AFL Season kicks off tomorrow night at Adelaide Oval with Port Adelaide hosting Hawthorn.  There are just six matches this round as some teams have their mid season by this weekend.

In addition to the TV networks you can also subscribe to the Watch AFL service that will give you live access to all the matches and more (outside Australia only).  You can access that service by clicking on the link here or the  Watch AFL banner below and paying the subscription fee.

Watch AFL have 25% off a 12 month subscription (so up to this time next year) - details here - ends June 4th (Sunday).

 

 

MATCH	DATE	TIMESLOT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL TIME	GMT
1	1-Jun	Night	Port Adelaide vs. Hawthorn	Adelaide Oval	SA	19:20	09:50
2	2-Jun	Night	Geelong Cats vs. Adelaide Crows	Simonds Stadium	VIC	19:50	09:50
3	3-Jun	Day	Gold Coast SUNS vs. West Coast Eagles	Metricon Stadium	QLD	13:45	03:45
4	3-Jun	Twilight	GWS GIANTS vs. Essendon	Spotless Stadium	NSW	16:35	06:35
5	3-Jun	Night	North Melbourne vs. Richmond	Etihad Stadium	VIC	19:25	09:25
6	4-Jun	Twilight	Fremantle vs. Collingwood	Domain Stadium	WA	14:40	06:40

As revealed in January, Melbourne (and surrounding) schools have been in talks to host an International Cup match in August.  This will happen in the second round of the tournament, known as the 'Schools Round' on August 9th.

Mount Clear College and St Patrick’s College have been successful in their respective bids, which will see matches played in the city as part of the series during August.

AFL’s head of community and international development Grant Williams said for the first time in 2017, the carnival will include a school round, where matches will be played at venues across Victoria.

Several of the matches played out at the London Footy Carnival at the weekend qualified as World Ranking International Matches, namely the GB Bulldogs versus Canada North Stars men’s match and Irish Banshees v Canada Midnight Suns, GB Swans v Irish Banshees and GB Swans v Canada Midnight Suns women’s matches.

As the Rating Gap in the Men’s match was greater than +/- 10.00 there was no subsequent change in Rating Points for either GB Bulldogs or North Stars, Great Britain remaining at 7th Place with 48.38 rating Points and the North Stars debuting provisionally with 40.00 Rating points.

Below is the ranking calculation’s for the three women’s games. With each nation winning one and losing one match  they each lost and gained rating points, the Midnight Suns benefitted the most by gaining more in their win than was lost in the loss against Ireland. The Midnight Suns also joined the fully ranked nations in 5th Place as the Great Britain game was their eighth qualifying International Match. 

The glittering northern sun shone down over Holloways Beach – a northern suburb of Cairns – as the footy community descended on the oval for the annual “Dreamtime By The Sea” match. Played as a part of the nationally recognised Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, local club Cairns City Lions hosts the North Cairns Tigers – two Cairns clubs with strong indigenous connections.

Even the wind offered a conciliatory tone, blowing strongly across the ground to promote unity – both clubs will be united by having no wind advantage!

After a Youth Girls clash between the Lions and Tigers, a Senior Women’s match between the Manunda Hawks and North Cairns Tigers, and a reserve Grade curtain-raiser between Pyramid Power and the Tigers, the teams came together for the acknowledgement of country and a stirring didgeridoo performance by locally renowned musician Gary “Creeky” Creek. Then, the battle was on.

Round 10 of the 2017 AFL Season kicks off tonight at Kardinia Park in Geelong with the Cats hosting Port Adelaide.  Port are coming off a bye week, following their match in China the previous week to that.

In addition to the TV networks you can also subscribe to the Watch AFL service that will give you live access to all the matches and more (outside Australia only).  You can access that service by clicking on the link here or the  Watch AFL banner below and paying the subscription fee.

Watch AFL have 25% off a 12 month subscription (so up to this time next year) - details here - ends June 4th.

 

MATCH	DATE	TIMESLOT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL TIME	GMT
1	25-May	Night	Geelong Cats vs. Port Adelaide	Simonds Stadium	VIC	19:20	09:20
2	26-May	Night	Sydney Swans vs. Hawthorn	SCG	NSW	19:50	09:50
3	27-May	Day	Western Bulldogs vs. St Kilda	Etihad Stadium	VIC	13:45	03:45
4	27-May	Twilight	Melbourne vs. Gold Coast SUNS	TIO Traegar Park	NT	16:05	06:35
5	27-May	Night	Richmond vs. Essendon	MCG	VIC	19:25	09:25
6	27-May	Night	Adelaide Crows vs. Fremantle	Adelaide Oval	SA	19:10	09:40
7	28-May	Early	Collingwood vs. Brisbane Lions	MCG	VIC	13:10	03:10
8	28-May	Day	Carlton vs. North Melbourne	Etihad Stadium	VIC	15:20	05:20
9	28-May	Twilight	West Coast Eagles vs. GWS GIANTS	Domain Stadium	WA	14:40	06:40

Decorated athlete Erin Phillips has re-committed to the Crows for the 2018 AFL Women’s Competition (more below). 

Today's announcement comes days after Phillips attended the USAFL match between the Austin Crows and the Houston Lonestars in Allen, Texas.  It appears that a Twitter invitation to Phillips from the USAFL national champions the Austin Crows ( @austincrows ) lured the Dallas based star out to the game. 

For the record the Austin Crows 4.1 (25) defeated the Houston Lonestars 2.8 (20).

(Photo source: Twitter @austincrows )

In a refreshing change for the AFLCNE competition, last weekend’s round of matches did not have the lopsided cricket score-like results which have been the norm since Round One. Instead, the two matches played saw two competitive hit-outs. Whilst both results were still resounding, there wasn’t the same one-sided nature involved.

A case in point is the clash between the Tyne Tees Tigers and the Sheffield Thunder. Whilst the Tigers would no doubt be delighted with their first win of the season – an 80-point victory – the score-lines show that they didn’t have things completely their own way. The final score of Tyne Tees Tigers 27 19 181 to Sheffield Thunder 13 23 101 was big in margin, but different when viewed by scoring shots. In the end, the Tigers’ accuracy helped them as they recorded 46 scoring shots to Thunder’s 36. The ball would have been fairly whizzing from end to end all day.

In their Round Four match last weekend, the Kingdom Kangaroos won a landmark match for the club when they defeated the Edinburgh Bloods. Since joining the SARFL competition back in 2013 the Kangaroos had managed to jump many hurdles along their journey – but beating the bloods wasn’t one of them.

But after a solid four quarter effort, the Kangaroos prevailed, downing the Bloods by a resounding 45 points – 96 to 51. It marks an historic milestone for the Kingdom Kangaroos as they now know they are capable of beating any other team in the competition. Their win at Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy, also sets them up well in the race for this year’s SARFL finals.

The Paris Cocks (the union of the Paris Cocks Footy club comprising players from both the Cockerels and Cockatoos) has taken out the 2017 Coupe Du Nord in Lyon this weekend. After a premiership season which saw both teams ultimately fall to the mighty ALFA Lions, the Paris crew took solace in adding this piece of silverware to their rather large display cabinet.

The Cocks went through the tournament undefeated, whilst the ALFA Lions and Cergy Pontoise Coyotes nabbed a win each against each other across the three-team round robin draw. The scores from the matches were:

The Wandsworth Demons remain the only undefeated team in the AFL London competition after just two rounds of the 2017 season. After a tight tussle with the North London Lions, the demons held on for a 15-point win. Final scores saw the Wandsworth Demons 10 10 70 defeat the North London Lions 7 13 55.

The West London Wildcats have hit back hard after their first round loss to trounce the Wimbledon Hawks. Their 138-point thrashing of first Round winners, the Hawks, sent a nerve-jangling message to the rest of the competition that the Wildcats are very much the power they always are. Final siren saw the West London Wildcats 25 21 171 defeat the Wimbledon Hawks 5 3 33.

The GB Bulldogs have handed out a big defeat to the AFL Canada men’s team – the North Stars – in the opening men’s match of the London Footy Carnival. The GB Bulldogs 15 19 109 kept the North Stars scoreless. In the opening women’s match between the Canadian Midnight Suns team won their opening match of the tournament kicking 7 7 49 to defeat the London All Stars team 3 3 21.

The event in 2017 boasts four nations being represented – England, Ireland, Wales and Canada – as well as the GB Bulldogs and GB Swans. Clashes between Great Britain and Canada can be traced back to the first match in Toronto in 1993 when Canada won 19 7 121 to 7 7 49. Since that match, the nations have clashed on five other occasions with the results being three wins apiece.

The French city of Bordeaux has been granted the hosting rights for the 2017 Euro Cup. The city last hosted the event in 2013 when Saint-Médard-en-Jalles stadium became the centre of the European Australian Rules football universe. On that occasion, England took the men’s title with a resounding 77 point victory over the French hosts whilst the European Crusaders women’s team downed France by 19 points. This year, the French will be keen to turn one of those defeats into a maiden title.

AFL Europe will be quietly confident that last year’s record amount of teams at a Euro Cup will be broken. Across the men’s and women’s competitions in Umag, Croatia, 22 teams competed. With the continued growth of women’s football, and a useful geographic location within Europe, Bordeaux might yet host the biggest event in the cup’s history in terms of teams.