World Footy News

The ASP Perpignan Tigers have let an opportunity to secure a finals berth slip last weekend when they went down to the visiting Paris Cockatoos. The result was a big thumping – Cockatoos 170 d Tigers 45 – which saw the Tigers drop out of the top four. Their percentage has also taken a big hit, meaning they will have to win both of their remaining games.

What hurt more was that the clash was a home game in front of a home crowd – a game they should have looked at winning. Their remaining matches are another home game against the hugely improved ALFA Lions before a clash with the Blagnac Aviators. To play finals, the Tigers must win both and hope that other teams above them falter in the run home.

Casey Fields at Cranbourne was the venue for 2 time AFL International Cup team of the tournament member Irish lady Laura (Corrigan) Duryea to make her professional footy debut. Representing Melbourne, she played the day at full back matching up on the very dangerous English born Sabrina Frederick-Traub.

Frederick-Traub is one of the Lions two marquee players - recruited from Perth - and at age 20 is a rising star of womens footy. Laura has settled in Australia now - making a career as a primary school teacher - that's where my family first came across her in our twin boys prep year. Laura then was relatively new to Australia and familiarising herself with our domestic code of football - now at age 33 she is a footy veteran - although the kicking style still gives a nod back to the Gaelic origins. Each an example of a less common pathway to a new and unexpected destination - playing on each other in the AFLW.

After the fanfare and excitement of the lock out at Princes Park on Friday night followed by strong attendances in Adelaide and out at Whitten Oval at Footscray - the roughly 6,500 attendees at Casey Fields raised the overall attendance for the weekend to 50,000. Granted there was free entry however that doesn't undersell the commitment of time and effort for people to attend and display their support for the AFLW. Alas the weather gods weren't so kind on Sunday afternoon as firstly the wind was blowing to the southern end and as the 1st quarter progressed the heavens opened. Before half time the lightning had driven the players and umpires from the ground - and many of the exposed fans beat a hasty retreat - thus thinning out the crowd for when play resumed.

It took way, way too long for women’s football to finally happen at the highest national level. But happen it did, and a lock-out crowd of spectators descended on Ikon Park (formerly Princes Park – iconic home of the Carlton Blues)to usher in a new era of Australian Rules football in style.

Such was the magnitude of the crowd, that caught organisers off guard, that AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan actually went outside the ground to apologise to members of the estimated 2000 people that could not get into the game. Inside the stadium a crowd estimated at over 25,000 watched an historic but also highly entertaining match of women’s football.

The game had everything – snapped goals, pack marks, brutal tackles, dashing runs. Carlton’s Darcy Vescio scintillated the crown with four outstanding goals. Brianna Davey’s dash out of defence was as telling as her finishing skills, managing a goal along the way. Her 26 disposals set up Carlton’s attacking and left Collingwood players in her wake.

In the season which has already seen NTFL clubs, Wanderers and waratah, celebrate their respective 100th years, the Darwin Buffaloes will celebrate this weekend – the club having come into existence in 1917. The following press release from the AFLNT details the remarkable Darwin Buffaloes achievement. 

This week, in Round 16 of the 2016/17 TIO NTFL season the Darwin Buffaloes Football Club celebrates its 100 year anniversary when it takes on another founding club in the Wanderers, at TIO Stadium at 2.00pm on Saturday. 

 

Festivities for the weekend include a special pre-game ceremony and centenary ball and subsequent naming of the Darwin Buffaloes team of the century on Saturday night.

The eight AFLW clubs last night announced their teams for the first round of their historic competition that will kick off tonight. Melbourne Football Club named Irish woman Laura Duryea (nee Corrigan) on the Interchange bench.

As Laura Corrigan she was the named full back in the World Team at the 2011 International Cup where she was dominant for the tournament champions Ireland and named joint best player of the 2014 International Cup tournament (along with Canada’s Aimee Legault).

That isn’t my line. I heard someone say it recently, and they possibly nabbed it from somewhere else. But the advent of women’s football – Australian Rules football – is very well summed up by that line. It isn’t really an exaggeration either.

Numbers on backs, centre squares, interchange players, countless umpires on the field: all have played a part in refining the game along the way. But women’s football has seen the game grow in a way that is extraordinary, and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. The game has moved along at an impressive rate since the 1850’s when it was first hatched as an alternative for cricket training. But in more than 150 since nothing has shown the next 150 years like the women’s game.

We are pleased to confirm the the AFL Women's matches will be streamed live  and free around the world. Locally in Australia a number of the matches will be shown live on Channel 7 and the rest of the matches streamed live. 

The AFL today told us "Fans can watch AFLW matches live via WATCHAFL, the AFL’s international OTT streaming service and also follow all the action on afl.com.au. Fans will need to log on, but the service is free of charge." 

 

Just six months out from the next International Cup in Melbourne, the GB Bulldogs and Swans have named the first group players to be chosen to represent their nation.  Last year an extended list was detailed for the Bulldogs and that has recently been narrowed.      

Now Coach Dean Thomas has announced the first 12 players locked into the squad, and later will announce the 16 others (and 2 emergencies) to make up the full squad.  A number of Australian based players are expected to be among that 16 along with other UK based players.

Thomas told the AFL England website "I believe the Bulldogs will surprise a lot of onlookers" (the full interview can be seen here).

After the annual winter break in France, the CNFA season gets back under way this weekend with matches scheduled for both Paris and Perpignan. The two matches also get the season reignited with clashes that may well determine the makeup of the finals race.

In what might be the closest match of the round, the fourth placed Perpignan Tigers will host the sixth place Paris Cockatoos – last season’s premiers. Whilst the Tigers have proven themselves to be a formidable opponent on their home turf, thee Cockatoos desperately need the win to stay in touch with the top four. In fact, the Tigers would be the most vulnerable of the top four teams and the Cockatoos know that the Tigers hold their desired position on the ladder.

 

The 2016/17 NTFL season is getting very close to the pointy end as teams now jostle for their finals positions, or at least their best possible finishes. Interestingly, the top two teams are already decided, as are the two bottom teams – though not their actual finishing positions.  Most of the interest, however, will centre on the final positions of the middle four teams.

 

 

The Top Two – Nightcliff still sits atop the ladder with 14 wins for the season. They have only lost one game – to St Mary’s – and play two of the bottom teams in the final two rounds. That sets up a wonderful match next round when they again meet the Saints. The winner of that match will almost certainly go on to claim the minor premiership. Saints have the harder run home (against Tigers, Crocs and Waratah – all likely finalists) but have proved they have the ability to beat all of those opponents. 

Scotland is still in the grip of winter. Animals hibernate or hide in burrows. Footballers do the same in pubs. But the teams from the West Lothian Eagles and the Kingdom Kangaroos made a mockery of the weather and turned on a wonderful opening practice match for the upcoming 2017 season.

Eagles coach, player and frost-bitten founder, Mikey Allen, filed this report, shortly after he could move his hands again.

“Saturday, 28th January 2017, saw the West Lothian Eagles take on the Kingdom Kangaroos. This time the venue was the Roos’ home at Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy. The weather was 1(one) degrees with rain and hail and eventually starting snowing in the 2nd quarter.”

David Rodan was born in Fiji and left with his family to come to Australia when he was just three years old. He has become one of a small band of Fijian descent players in the AFL, a list which includes Alipate Carlile (Formerly with Port Adelaide), Nic Naitanui (WestCoast Eagles), Aaron Hall and Tom Nicholls (both Gold Coast Suns).

But Rodan is arguably the most successful Fijian player to date. A look at his record at AFL level bears this out. He played 185 games in his career over three clubs – starting with Richmond, then Port Adelaide and finishing with Melbourne. Over this time he amassed an impressive array of achievements including back to back Morrish Medals in the TAC Cup with the Calder Cannons (2000/2001), a grand final player with Port Adelaide in 2007, twice representing Australia in International Rules teams in 2008. He kicked 131 goals across his AFL career and polled 15 Brownlow votes, six of those in the 2007 season.