World Footy News

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.

Just at the moment all I want is a set of footy cards. Not those big, burly blokes that usually grace the cards. I want a set of women’s league cards. They probably already exist, but I imagine that there will be more of them made featuring more players and available in more places when the national women’s league gets underway next year.

In the past I have found that cards have been a great giveaway for kids. They help to generate excitement as kids are maybe lucky enough to stumble across a card of their hero.

After last night’s match at the Whitten Oval, where the Western Bulldogs downed the Melbourne Demons in an historic first victory, the footy world was rewarded with a collection of “marquee” players, young guns of the future and old hands steadying the ships. That these players were our most elite women showed just how far the game of Australian Rules football had come in recent times and was a vision through a crystal ball of what will come.

 

The success this year of Essendon player Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti has prompted media calls to scour the Northern Territory for more talent, almost as if it is an unmined vein of rich talent. But history has already proved that the Northern Territory has already produced outstanding talent on a regular basis for 100 years. Some of that talent has graced the lists of VFL/AFL clubs, whilst others have excelled in other state leagues or just remained local heroes in Darwin or Alice Springs.                                                                                                                           

The following media release from the AFLNT announces the final “TEAM OF THE CENTURY” to help celebrate and honour 100 years of Northern Territory football.

The Mt Isa football community is in shock and a state of grieving after a young footballer died last week after having collapsed in a match the previous weekend. The young man from the Lake Nash All Stars team (a community just 17 kilometres from the Northern Territory/Queensland border on the Territory side and roughly 375 kilometres by road from Mt Isa) collapsed after being taken from the ground.

The All Stars team travels each match day from Alpurrurulam (the correct name of the community) on a round trip of around 750 kilometres for opportunity to play.

According to the local North West Star newspaper, in an article by Samantha Walton:

The 2016 AFL Norway season is close to wrapping up with the Oslo East team leading the pack as premiership favourites. East last won the title in 2014, with the Ås Battlers taking the honours in 2015. It marks a big turnaround for East after missing the final altogether in 2015, with Oslo West reaching their first ever Kenguru Cup Grand Final.

Throughout the 2016 season, East have been the dominant side, both on the field with an impressive array of victories, and off the field with strong numbers which have been responsible for turning the club’s fortunes around.

The next player of African descent will hit the turf this weekend in the final home and away round for 2016 when Richmond’s Mabior Chol debuts. A product of the Brisbane Lions Academy originally, Chol was snared by the Tigers with pick 30 in last year’s Rookie Draft. Along with Reuben William (Brisbane) and Gach Nyuon (Essendon), Chol was the third rookie from Sudan to be selected in that same draft.

They joined Majak Daw (North Melbourne) and Aliir Aliir (Sydney) as players from Sudan to be on AFL team lists. With Chol’s selection, only Essendon’s Gach Nyuon is yet to make his senior debut.

The Finland Australian Football League (FAFL) Grand Final will be played this weekend when last year's champions, the Helsinki Heatseekers, take on the Turku Dockers for the 2016 title. The match, to be played at Talin-Urheilupuisto in Helsinki, will see the two best performed Finnish teams battle it out in what could be a surprise result.

The Heatseekers go into the match as short-priced favourites, largely on the back of their last meeting back in June when they downed the Dockers by 95 points in Paimio - final scores seeing the Heatseekers 134 to the Dockers 39. The game started evenly, but the Heatseekers kicked six unanswered goals in the second term and never looked back. It was a powerful performance, but doesn't tell the whole story.