World Footy News

The following article is from Callum Twomey at the www.afl.com.au website.

THREE clubs are in the race to sign Irish prospect Mark O'Connor, who finished his stint in Australia with an excellent run at the NAB AFL Draft Combine.

Geelong, North Melbourne and Melbourne are understood to be keen to sign the 19-year-old, who travelled to Melbourne from Ireland for last weekend's combine at Etihad Stadium.

O'Connor trialed at five clubs (the three chasing his signature plus Essendon and Carlton) during his two-week stay, but has headed back to Ireland to make a decision on where he wants to start his AFL career. He can be signed as a category B rookie.

The AFL Europe Euro Cup in Lisbon, Portugal, has been completed with the Croatian Knights triumphant in the men’s tournament and the Irish Banshees taking out the women’s crown. The organisers of the event in Portugal did a wonderful job to showcase the best footy that Europe has to offer and congratulations are in order for their tremendous work.

The Croatian Knights won their second AFL Europe Euro Cup, and their first since downing the Netherlands in Milan, Italy, in 2010. They defeated the Irish Warriors, back in the final again for the first time since winning the title in 2012, in an incredible final that was decided in extra time. Scores were locked at 35 all at the final siren, but the Knights went on a 10 minute extra time assault to eventually win the title 53 to 39.

The Darwin-based NTFL competition got under way today in Northern Territory capital. Amid the actual football, the year 2016 is now recognised as the year that a game was played in the Northern Territory. The first match for premiership points was between Wanderers and Waratah in 2017, and they will play their centenary match in Round 15 next year. But both teams made a centenary statement today.

To kick off the new season, Round One presented four hard fought matches. It was a round of upsets, close shaves and huge excitement – great qualities to continue the celebration of 100 years of footy in the Northern Territory.

The Entertainer Dubai Dingoes have kept part one of their 2016/17 season promise by taking out the Pre-Season Cup last night, downing reigning premiers, the Dubai Dragons, and claiming new silverware for the trophy cabinet.

In an interview last week (see Dingoes Hoping To Revamp History) Myles Lynch 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.”

With that first task done, the Dingoes now have the momentum and belief to push further into the season proper and seek to win the AFL Middle East premiership for the first time.

The end of the Australian AFL season sometimes brings despair. For thee seasoned footy fan their run from February to October is finished as their beloved team is done for now. Same goes for local level. Some survive by tuning into the great race at Mount Panorama, the Bathurst 1000 car race. Others struggle through with Spring Racing Carnival, highlighted by the Melbourne Cup, then the cricket season kicks in.

But for some that just isn’t enough.

They want footy. They adore footy. They live and breathe footy. And the solutions are right there if they know where to look. In some cases the new seasons are about to start, competitions which will run through until the next “footy season”. In others, major overseas Aussie Rules tournaments are about to get under way.

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?