World Footy News

For the third consecutive season the Dubai Dragons will meet the Multiplex Bulls in the AFL Middle East decider. For the Dragons it is a chance to take their current dynasty to an unprecedented third consecutive flag and vying for five flags in six years. The Bulls have not missed a grand final since they joined the competition for the 2014/15 season and they will be hoping for “third time lucky” when they meet the Dragons at Dubai Sports City on Thursday 9th March.

The final round of matches saw both the Bulls and Dragons do what they had to do to win their final matches. With the home and away matches completed, the Bulls went through the season undefeated with four wins. The Dragons dropped just one game to the Bulls earlier in the season. The Dingoes, Falcons and Kangaroos each finished with a win each. The Doha Kangaroos took the wooden spoon with a narrow percentage deficit.

Great Britain today added 12 more women to their International Cup squad that will play in Melbourne in August. The selections followed the successful camp held in London on the weekend and were announced on the GB Swans Facebook page.

"In association with STA Travel & LWC Drinks Ltd the Great Britain Swans are proud to bring you a new squad announcement. After an exciting selection weekend the Head coach Garth Nevin and assistant coaches Ian Mitchell, Lauren Spark and Chloe Hall are proud to announce 12 more players, who will compete in the AFL International Cup 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, August 2017."

Congratulations to the following players:

North Melbourne Football Club launched their women's team at Arden St yesterday. The team was made up of ten Tasmanian women and the balance made up of players from Melbourne University Womens Football Club (also known as the MUGARS). It is an important step to what the club hopes will eventually be an AFL Women's league team.

One of those Melbourne Uni women was Katie Klatt (#19 in the picture below). Katie has come across to Melbourne in late 2016 after taking part in the AFL's Talent Identification Combine in Sydney and playing in the women's exhibition match in Sydney on the GWS team.  Prior to that Katie played with the Sacramento Suns in the USAFL and also represented the US against Canada at the 49th Parallel Cup.

We welcome Laura Turner (pictured below) as our newest contributor to World Footy News.  Laura is Captain of the GB Swans and England Vixens and an avid women's football fan.

This weekend 29 Women attended the Great Britain Swans Selection Weekend in London vying for the final 12 squad places for IC17. The trialists were put through their paces on Saturday with a variety of skills drills and the obligatory time trial.

The fastest women through the gates were Lisa Wilson, Danni Saulter, Laura Turner and Rose Lewis. On Sunday both teams played a practise match against a London Allstars team. In blustery conditions, not dissimilar to those the girls will expect in Melbourne the Allstars team ran out winners by 5 points.

With a little over 5 months until the tournament kicks off, International Cup teams continue to shape up with more announcements this week.

 The Irish Banshees this week announced the first four women chosen to represent Ireland at IC17.  Ireland were winners in the first women’s International Cup in 2011 and runners up to Canada in 2014.  The first four named are;

 

We welcome new contributor Frederick Shaibani.  We recommend you check out Frederick's Blog Letters from Las Cruces to read more.  The original post for this article can be seen here.  Frederick is a member of the Los Angeles Dragons Football Club. In this article Frederick takes a look at the story of footy in the Pacific nation of Fiji.

One of the most sport-crazed countries in the Pacific, the islands of Fiji have long lacked a presence in Aussie rules football. It’s overshadowed significantly by rugby union, the Fijian national sport, but footy has made some strong gains in recent years.

AFL matches were first televised in Fiji in 2002, and the league saw that there was potential to reach the Fijian population and help establish footy as both a spectator sport and a participation sport. By 2005, the Fiji Daily Post had beat writers covering AFL games, in addition to the much more established sports of rugby union, rugby league, and netball.

Around the same time, a group of Aussie police officers stationed near the Fijian capital of Suva helped get some local athletes involved. The Aussies founded the Fijian Australian Football Association (FAFA) that year, with the goal of keeping it as the national governing body for footy. They attempted to get a national footy team into the 2007 South Pacific Games, which were being held in Fiji, but they couldn’t qualify in time due to a lack of players and funding. The FAFA went on hiatus as they attempted to organize a local competition.

 

Gold Coast SUNS CEO Andrew Travis today welcomed Tourism Australia’s partnership of the SUN’S game against Port Adelaide to be played in Shanghai in May.

Australian Community Football Operations Manager, Andrew Hughes, told EMTV Sports that the 2014 AFL International Cup Champions, the PNG Mosquitoes, are looking forward to defending their International Cup title.

Hughes said, tournaments will be hosted to make selections for top players to form the final squad, which will go into training in preparations from August 5th to the 19th in Melbourne, Australia.

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Irish defender for the Melbourne Demons Laura Duryea was charged by the match review panel with engaging in rough conduct against Ellie Blackburn of the Western Bulldogs, during the fourth quarter of the match at the VU Whitten Oval on Saturday.

Fortunately Laura was able to accept a reprimand with an early guilty plea. After speaking to the umpire who made a report on match-day, and based on the available video evidence and a medical report from the Western Bulldogs Football Club, the incident was assessed as careless conduct with low impact to the head.

The incident was classified as a one-week sanction. As Laura had no applicable record which impacts the penalty (fortunately being sent off in the IC14 grand final does not count against her). Laura's early plea enabled her to accept a reprimand.

The Nauru All Stars have started their two match tour with a big win over the The Zillmere Eagles by 12 goals.  

The young Stars stood out with their speed and agility around the field, which became too much for the Eagles. Young Jeremiah Kam, Niga Haulangi and veteran Timothy Teabuge dominated in defence while Donatello Moses and Yoshi Harris did most of the damage up forward. 

Vice captain Mallinson Batsiua using his strength and experience to dominate the centre clearances.

Yoshi Harris won the All Stars Coach's best on ground while Niga Haulangi awarded Zillmere Eagles vote for best player.

Back in December the initial French squad for this year’s IC17 in Melbourne was announced. But that list has now been trimmed and sorted and the official men’s team from France has been announced.

Coached by Andrew Unsworth (Paris Cockatoos/Cockerels), the squad boasts an even representation across all CNFA clubs. In the selected squad there are players from: Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes (4), ALFA Lions (4), Bordeaux Bombers (4), Paris Cockerels (2), Paris Cockatoos (4), Perpignan Tigers (2), Toulouse Hawks (4), Blagnac Aviators (2). The list of reserves also boasts two Lions, two Hawks, two Bombers and one Tiger player.

The good, old-fashioned local derby appeared in Toulouse on the weekend with a double-header featuring both Toulouse teams facing both Paris teams. In a sense it was a battle of the split teams with the Blagnac Aviators growing from the depth of the Toulouse Hawks and the Paris Cockatoos being brought to life in a similar way from the depth of the Paris Cockerels.

The match of the day finished up with a thriller as the Toulouse Hawks brought back happy memories from not too long ago when they downed the Paris Cockerels. Toulouse had no finals to play for, having long falling out of that race. But they can still have a say in which teams do play finals – and the Cockerels found that out the hard way.