World Footy News

The final round of the AFLCNE home and away competition was played last weekend with final places determined ready for next weekend’s finals series. Once again, thee Manchester Mozzies have taken out the minor premiership with an undefeated season to date, downing their nearest rivals – the Nottingham Scorpions – in the final round.

After a brave showing, and a huge learning curve throughout 2016, the Merseyside Saints took bottom place but have a chance to fight for higher honours during the finals series. Their heavy loss to the Huddersfield Rams assured a finish that was not unexpected, but it has been a year of excitement to offset disappointment in their first season. The Rams are now able to pursue bigger game during the finals and are on a roll now.

The AFL today announced VU Whitten Oval will host the final AFL Women’s Exhibition Match on Saturday, September 3 at 7.20pm.

The match will be broadcast live in Australia on the Seven Network and Telstra via the AFL Live App and PLUS7 applications including Telstra TV, Apple TV, mobile and web.

The Hampson-Hardeman Cup will be the first night match ever hosted by the VU Whitten Oval.

The best female players in Australia will represent Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs in primetime on the AFL’s bye weekend between Round 23 and the Toyota AFL Finals Series.

A new team in France is taking to the air with the new Toulouse-based Blagnac Aviators set to make an impact in the CNFA as early as next season (later this year) if they get their way. Whilst the 2015/16 season has not long finished, the Aviators have been spending their time wisely throughout the year to grow something special for themselves and their supporters, their city and French footy in general.

Blagnac is a suburb of Toulouse city, just five kilometres from the Toulouse CBD and home to the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, hence the aviation reference in the team’s moniker.

Rob Aziza is one of the club’s co-founders and is excited at the development of the Blagnac Aviators to date and what the immediate and longer term future holds for the fledgling club.

The first ever AFL National Combine In Russia has been deemed a great success by co-organiser, Slava Belov, president and founder of the St Petersburg Cats. Designed to attract more athletes in the two key AFL cities of St Petersburg and Moscow, the event saw prospective players from a variety of sporting backgrounds (basketball, soccer) try their hand at Australian Rules football.

According to Slava, “it went well, six blokes showed up in every city. We expected 10 at least, so in terms of numbers it's a bit of a disappointment, but five of the six of those participants in St Petersburg went to the [club] training yesterday, so it's a very good result overall.”

“The disciplines were the 20m run, shuttle run, push-ups, kicking 10m/30m, marking 10m/30m and the horizontal standing jump.”

Territory football fans will be able to see four more AFL matches on home turf following a new deal between the NT Government and AFL to stage two premiership matches in each of the 2017 and 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership seasons.

Chief Minister Adam Giles announced the agreement during Saturday’s clash between the Melbourne Demons and Fremantle Dockers at TIO Stadium in Darwin.

Mr Giles said the Territory Government was pleased to continue its partnership with the AFL and Melbourne, which will be the “home” club for all Territory matches.

“Melbourne has embraced the Territory through its support of community football, indigenous development and investment attraction,” Mr Giles said.
“AFL matches in Darwin and Alice Springs showcase the Territory to footy fans around the world.

A group of us were chatting online after training this week about each player’s multicultural heritage. The club is Pyramid Power in Cairns – my team – and we are a club already renowned for having a 92% indigenous playing list. Most of our players are aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by heritage. When you have that kind of background there mustn’t be much else in terms of diverse backgrounds.

Wrong!

A closer look unveiled Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Irish, English, Welsh, Scottish, Sierra Leone, Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Samoan, South Sea Islander (by description, but uncertain of which islands) and Papua New Guinean. And these diverse origins didn’t come from the 8% of non-indigenous players. Such is the cultural diversity amongst indigenous and non-indigenous Australians – multiculturalism lives across all humanity.

The AFL Players’ Association has established its inaugural Multicultural Players’ Advisory Board to better understand the needs and issues affecting the current 122 players with multicultural backgrounds.

Made up of players from each state, the Board had its first official meeting last week and has since appointed Collingwood’s Mason Cox (USA) to lead the group as Chair.

I have just finished ready a new book by author Nick Richardson which looks at an amazing football match played at Queens in London in 1916 where two teams of Australian soldiers faced off against each other prior to their journey to the Western Front. Six of those players never came back, paying the ultimate sacrifice.

Players such as South Melbourne superstar Bruce Sloss and Collingwood captain Dan Minogue and Essendon player Bill Sewart and other well known VFL players of the era played for the Third Australian Divisional Team. Sloss was captain. Playing for the Australian Training Units Team were Essendon player Clyde Donaldson, Collingwood’s Harry Kerley and South Melbourne’s George Bower.

The following media release from the AFLNT details the upcoming clash in Darwin this weekend between the Melbourne Demons, part of their agreement to play matches in the Northern Territory, and the Fremantle Dockers.

 

 

The game is sure to be exciting and attract a strong local crowd. The Demons are still in the mix mathematically for finals action and a win in Darwin may see them just two games out of the eight. The Dockers have endured a horrid season but are determined to turn their season around and a win in Darwin could be the catalyst for change.

Majak Daw may have kicked open the door for future Sudanese players, and others from a variety of African countries, but this year has seen first Aliir Aliir debut for the Sydney Swans and now this weekend, the AFL’s showcase 2016 Toyota AFL Multicultural Round, Brisbane Lions rookie, Reuben William, will debut.

William was one of three Sudanese born players to be rookie listed at last year’s draft along with Gach Nyuon (Essendon) and Mabior Chol (Richmond). But William is the first of the three to be upgraded from the rookie list and be selected for his first senior match.

Jason Johannisen was interviewed today after the Melbourne launch of the Multicultural Round. Jason told us of his Multicultural Ambassador role, that goal to win the game on the weekend, responds to questions about Lin Jong being seen at Collingwood and about spending time in South Africa. You can hear the audio below.

PNG players Hapeo Bobogi and Kelly Kaugla yesterday represented Queensland in the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships Division Two – Round Two matches played today at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast.

Bobogi and Kaugla were selected for Queensland after playing well for the South Pacific in the Qld state championships held in April.  Since then they have played with the squad against Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns Academy teams in the build up to this tournament.

Queensland went down to NSW/ACT by 23 points.  They will play again on Saturday at Southport AFC 10am against the Northern Territory Thunder.