World Footy News

One of the last club based tournaments for 2016 will be held this coming weekend, Saturday 17th September, in Newcastle at the club’s new home in Gosforth. It is a chance for some clubs to have a last hitout before the start of the off-season and international representative competitions.

According to Tyne Tees Tigers president, Phil Martin, “The Tyne Cup is a pretty recent one day tournament held up here in the North East. Competing this year are the hosts, Tyne Tees Tigers who currently hold the trophy. The Glasgow Sharks who are the current AFL Scotland champions and the Kingdom Kangaroos who we have a long relationship with which has been cemented by competing for the annual pre-season ‘Bawbag Cup’”.

Alexey Andryushin from the St Petersburg Cats is a keen student of history, and is very aware of how important this weekend’s clash between the Lazy Koalas and the Cats was. “The weather was perfect: no rain and no hot sun either, and the day of this game matched the Moscow City day - today was the 869th anniversary of Moscow (est. 1147).”

The culmination of the first full season of competition between the two cities is certainly an historical event in European footy – maybe not on the same level of the history of the nation’s iconic capital city, but certainly of historical importance in the growth of the Australian national game across Europe.

Finals time has well and truly arrived across all Scandinavian countries. Finland and Norway have seen their finals decided whilst major leagues in both Sweden and Denmark have finished their home and away seasons and now prepare for the biggest matches of the season. Following is a brief overview of each competition to date.

 

 

Norway: After a dominant season, the Oslo East team has taken out the 2016 Kenguru Cup, downing cross town rivals, Oslo West.  The “Beast From The East” had dominated the season and few held out hope the West could produce a monumental upset, but in the end the script was followed to the letter as East played to their potential and took the 2016 crown. Final score was East 77 to West 6. The Ås Battlers finished the season in third place. 

It was a huge day of footy in Frankfurt as the AFLG Premiership (16 per side) and the AFLG Championship (9 per side) were decided. The biggest winners on the day were the Munich Kangaroos downing the Berlin Crocodiles in the premiership decider. The Hamburg Dockers downed the host team, the Frankfurt Redbacks, in the championship decider.

Munich leapt out to a handy 37 point lead by half time in the premiership decider – leading 62 to 25. Whilst they were the dominant side, the Crocs were still a mathematical chance of turning things around in the second half. But an even better second half from the Kangaroos – 77 to 2 – saw them power away to take the 2016 AFLG Premiership.

A new footy force is rumbling to life between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The new West Lothian Eagles are gathering the necessary interest and support to build a new Scottish powerhouse, and if enthusiasm counts for anything, Mikey Allan will make it happen.

In a recent chat with Mikey he revealed, “I had moved to West Lothian last October and decided to try and start a training group. I was asked if there was a team and I said there wasn't which resulted in only 1 guy showing up to training. [But] the team is currently seven weeks old and we are attracting more every week - nine at our last session.”

The battle for Russian footy supremacy will be played out this weekend in Moscow when the local team, the Lazy Koalas, take on their now permanent nemesis, the St Petersburg Cats. The first challenge of the year saw the Koalas down the Cats, but the return bout in St Petersburg saw an historic first ever win for the Cats.

Now the game returns to Moscow, giving the Koalas the home ground advantage, but they know full well that the Cats learned a great deal about winning last start and will be ravenous for another taste of victory, no matter where the venue.

The Prague Dragons from the Czech Republic will host this weekend’s final round of the Central European Australian Football league competition featuring teams from Croatia, Austria and of course the Dragons as the Czech representative.

The initiative sees six Croatian teams lock horns with the Dragons and also the Styrian Downunderdogs from Austria. The Zaprude Giants, Zagreb Hawks, Ploce Eagles, Velika Gorika Bombers, Zagreb Cvjetno Dockers and Sesvete Blues are the Croatian teams involved.

The 2016 finals are finally here and the first match of the week kicks off in Perth on Thursday night with the Eagles hosting the Western Bulldogs at Subiaco Oval. 

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. 

 

GAME	DATE	TIMESLOT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL TIME	GMT	NETWORK
EF2	8/09/2016	Night	West Coast Eagles vs. Western Bulldogs	Domain Stadium	WA	18:10	10:10	SEVEN
QF2	9/09/2016	Night	Geelong Cats vs. Hawthorn	MCG	VIC	19:50	09:50	SEVEN
QF1	10/09/2016	Day	Sydney Swans vs. GWS GIANTS	ANZ Stadium	NSW	15:20	05:20	SEVEN
EF1	10/09/2016	Night	Adelaide Crows vs. North Melbourne	Adelaide Oval	SA	19:10	09:40	SEVEN

AFL Canada today announced their 30 man squad that will represent their nation at the 2017 AFL International Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

The team staff will be again be led by Head Coach Cody Royle who was at the helm for the 2015 Parallel Cup and assistant coach for the Northwind at IC14.

Staff	Club
Head Coach - Cody Royle	Broadview Hawks
Asst Coach - Adam Kelly	Burnaby Eagles
Asst Coach - Dane Rolfe	Calgary Kangaroos
Team Manager - Brad Heidebrecht	Edmonton AFC
Runner - Philippe Jacques Zaor	Ottawa Swans

 

As previously reported, a key initiative for Japanese football is underway with the touring Japan University Warriors visiting Australia.

The Japan University Warriors team is touring Melbourne and played the first of two tour matches against the Keysborough FC Thirds on Sunday at Keysborough Reserve.

The game turned out to be a thriller with the Warriors victorious by just one point.

Japan Warriors 2.2 5.5 7.5 11.5(71)
Keysborough Thirds 3.5 4.7 9.9. 10.10 (70)

Goal Kickers for the Warriors: K.Nakagawa 3 , T.Karaki 2 , J.Fujita , Y.Yamaji , J.Ito , R.Tokutake , H.Otake , S.Mukodaka

Former Sydney Swans ruckman, Mike Pyke, will be the subject of this week’s episode of the Foxtel television show “Open Mike” hosted by veteran football journalist Mike Sheahan.

The show will feature an in depth interview with the Canadian code-hopper who played 110 games for the Sydney Swans between 2009 and 2015, including being a member of the Sydney Swans 2012 premiership team. The 200cm former Swan also kicked 48 goals in his career with the club and stands as one of the best international recruits for any AFL club. His success has set the platform for others to come to Australia and try their luck.

The inaugural international match between the new Colombian team the Bogotá Bulldogs and the Santiago Saints from Chile has been played on the weekend with victory going to the Bulldogs. The final score saw the ‘Dogs down the Saints 94 to 48 to be the first winners of “The Andes Cup”.

Teams were applauded for their effort playing in Bogotá, a city which sits at an altitude of over 8,000 feet above sea level – testing the aerobic capacity of all players. As the Bulldogs proudly state, their team plays and trains at an altitude of over 2600 metres above sea level, which is the equivalent of playing at the summit of Mt Kosciusko – Australia’s highest peak.