World Footy News

The USAFL tonight announced that the 2017 National Championships will be held in San Diego, California.  This will be the first time since Las Vegas hosted the tournament in 2006 that the Championships will be held on the western side of the nation and the first time in California since 2000. 

As this is written there are some concerns for the venue of this year's tournament, Sarasota, Florida (October 14-16 at the Premier Sports Campus).  Hurricane Matthew is making it's way across the Caribbean Sea towards Florida and could possibly do some serious damage across the state and up the east coast if it lands there.  Fortunately the tournament is not this weekend, but there could be on-going issues into next week that may affect travel and the host facilities. 

In the meantime we hope that all our friends on the US East coast stay safe and dry.

According to Dubai Dingoes boss, Myles Lynch, the Dubai Dingoes are set to enter the new season tomorrow with a new mindset and a desire to rewrite the history books for AFL Middle East’s oldest club. The Pre-Season Cup tournament in Dubai tomorrow is as good a place to start as any.

Myles stated that “off the back of an extremely inconsistent year last year we are once again desperate to secure the silverware for the oldest club in the AFLME and the focus and mission for the year is to bring everyone together as a tight-knit club - as a champion team will beat a team of individual champions every time.”

Back in the 2013/14 season, the Doha Kangaroos were a team on the rise, and rose so far they toppled the Dubai Dragons to take their inaugural AFL Middle East premiership. In fact, the Kangaroos are the only team to have interrupted what might otherwise have been five straight Dragon flags. That in itself shows the magnitude of the Doha Kangaroos performance.

Since then, the Qatar-based Kangaroos have found life a little tougher. A series of injuries, player departures and access to training facilities have conspired to make things harder. But, according to the Kangaroos coach, Pitre Bourdon, things are set to change. “Things are looking up this year and we are hoping to be a more competitive unit this season”.

The Farum Cats have withstood a mighty fight from the Copenhagen Barracudas to take out the 2016 DAFL Grand Final last weekend. In the end the margin was a solid 28 points, but it was a match of changing fortunes.

But for some inaccurate kicking, the ‘Cudas might well have led at quarter time. They had eleven scoring shots to six, but the Cats made the most of their chances to keep scores level at the first break.

Cats 5 1 31 v Barracudas 4 7 31

The Cats opened the game up in the second quarter with a five goal to one performance. After their wasteful first quarter, the ‘Cudas found it hard to regroup enough to hold the Cats, kicking just one goal and four behinds for the quarter while the Cats rattled on five more goals.

In less than a week, the teams of Europe will hit the fields in Lisbon, Portugal for the 2016 Euro Cup. Already players would be jumping out of their skins waiting for that siren to blow and waiting for that first touch of the leather to calm the nerves.

One team that has more excitement than most is the Portuguese l national team. Drawn in Pool C to play matches against Germany, Norway and Scotland as well as positional matches for final event placings, the Portugal team has also released its playing strip for the event.

Footy history in Sweden added a new chapter to its history last weekend when the Norrtälje Dockers club went on to win the club’s first SAFF (Stockholm Australian Football Federation) premiership in just their fifth season. It caps an amazing year for the club which had already broken new ground reaching their first finals series, culminating in the greatest prize of all.

The club was formed in 2012 and according to the club’s own vision “many hours have been put in by many people to build a club that had a vision of becoming Stockholm’s strongest on and off the field.”

The downed the reigning premiers, the Södermalm Blues with a final score 12 12 84 to 7 4 46.

In an era of national drafts, free agents, ground rationalisation, Total Player Payments and salary caps, the question is often asked as to whether some clubs are better off than others – if the league is now operating with a cycle of sorts where all teams will get their chance.

Often the measurement of that question is premierships. It is the ultimate prize and a fair starting point. But on that great day it is debatable whether any of those mechanisms mentioned actually make the difference. Or is it fairer to measure grand final appearances – the two teams that fight all the way through to the final 100 minutes of a season.

One question here is what would be a fair length of a cycle?

With the AFL season drawing to an end tomorrow, so too have been many regional and suburban leagues and, also, near by international leagues. The 2016 AFL Fiji mens season wrapped up on Saturday with the Raiwaqa Cooparoos taking on the West Coast Eagles at Albert Park in Suva.

The Suva based Cooparoos (Roos) won 14.7.91 to 10.11.71.
Best on ground was the Roos captain Juita Vateitei, who is also a Fiji national volleyball representative who attributes footy as assisting his development in that game too.

The victorious Cooparoos.

That one day in October is almost upon us.  The Western Bulldogs (or Footscray for us older folks) will take on the might of the Sydney Swans (once South Melbourne) at the home of footy, the MCG.

If you want to know when you can see the footy on TV in your part of the world, check out the full schedule below.

As always schedules are subject to change at the discretion of the local broadcaster so please check local guides for updates.   At this stage the times for the European coverage are still to be confirmed.

Also of note is that the game will be broadcast by ECONET in Africa after there has been no televised coverage there this year. 

We have confirmation through AFANA that the coverage finish is flexible in the US so that in the event of extra time being required hopefully the coverage will continue.  We cannot confirm that is the case for any other networks however.

The AFL Grand Final is now just a couple of days away. It is the pinnacle of the season and the place of the Holy Grail. But just the other side of that great day comes the real “silly season” as clubs finalise playing lists and adjust their player strategies hoping for the chance to recruit the players that will take them further.

But to recruit also means to delist and clubs are now gnawing away at their lists, making decisions on who goes and who stays. Players near the end of careers, or restricted by injuries, are usually first to go – but so are project players, and many international selections fall into that category.

Photos: Padraig Lucey, Geelong (ARFLI website) and Paddy Brophy, West Coast Eagles (West Coast FC website)

Just four years ago – 2012 – the world was a little different. Barak Obama still sat in the White House, but the British Prime Minister was David Campbell and Julia Gillard was PM in Australia. The film “Argo” won best picture at the Oscars and the music charts were dominated by One Direction, Florence & The Machine, Rihanna, Flo Rida and Carly Rae Jepsen.

The Sydney Swans won the premiership, their fifth including their South Melbourne days, and Essendon’s Jobe Watson won the Brownlow Medal.

The Swans will now attempt to chase their sixth flag in a world that hasn’t dramatically changed much since their last glorious day in the sun in 2012.

Whilst he didn’t defeat eventual winner, Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield, Mason Cox, Collingwood’s American recruit, created his own history on Brownlow Medal night. With his single vote this year, Cox became the first American player to poll a vote in the prestigious award.

Cox polled his vote in Collingwood’s Round 8 clash against the Brisbane Lions. His individual performance of 9 possessions, 3 marks, 11 hit-outs, 4 goals and 2 behinds for the day clearly caught the attention of the match umpires as they awarded him one vote for his efforts.