World Footy News

The new 2016 ARFLI (Australian Rules Football Ireland) is underway with round two of the series of round robin carnivals having been played at Cork, home of the Leeside Lions. The revised format has been designed to ease some of the travel burden and associated costs for clubs. Each carnival will also feature a women’s clash with local and/or travelling teams involved.

The concept will see each team play two matches of two twenty minute halves, which constitutes two rounds of the season. So after two carnivals (four rounds), the Leeside Lions are the only undefeated team and lead the way so far. For a full view of the 2016 ARFLI fixtures, go to: http://www.arfli.com/2016/04/04/2016-...announced/

The opening carnival was hosted by the South Dublin Swans at Bushy Park, Tenenure. The Lions won both of their clashes, as did the Belfast Redbacks.

 

Last week saw the  commencement of the new AFL Norway season with the first round of the Kenguru Cup being played at Voldslokka Stadion in Oslo. The following article from the Oslo Crows website details the opening round.

 Oslo’s Eastside squad proved it will be the team to beat in Kenguru Cup 2016 after scoring strong wins in a high quality round one under sunny skies at Voldslokka.

 

Playing with a mixture of new and old faces, the East shrugged off an indifferent start against Oslo West in the first game to run out convincing winners 61 to 18.

The new FAFL season got under way on the weekend with the first two rounds of the season played out across a three game round robin style format, amended and adapted for the new season. After a season in 2015 where factors impacted a consistent draw, the new measures allow for a better level of round by round action.

The three Finnish teams this year are the Helsinki Heatseekers, Turku Dockers and the Vaasa Wombats. The opening rounds were held in the nation’s capital, Helsinki.

Whilst the Helsinki Heatseekers are the current title holders, the Turku Dockers have already proven they are back with a vengeance, winning both of their matches on the weekend. In a promising sign, the Vaasa Wombats have struggled for numbers for a couple of seasons, but it is heartening to see them play both games and pushed the Heatseekers in their match.

Footy in Russia is no longer a one horse race. The domination of the Lazy Koalas (albeit a brief domination) has ended and Moscow is now being challenged as the Russian powerhouse of Australian Rules footy with the St Petersburg Cats winning their latest match.

The Cats were the home team this time around, having gone down to the Lazy Koalas in Moscow a few weeks ago. The lazy Koalas have been up and about as a club for a couple of seasons, but it is only this year where the St Petersburg cats have entered into a regular competition.

It is roughly 650 kilometres between the two Russian cities (very roughly the same distance from London to Edinburgh, a little more than Los Angeles to San Francisco and a little less than Melbourne to Adelaide). Due to the distance, regular tournaments are problematic, but becoming more frequent – and desired.

Like any brand new club starting from scratch, the AFLCNE’s newest club, the Merseyside Saints, have had a tough initiation into the “big league”. They knew there would be tough days at the office, but they would also have had confidence that time, patience and belief would help alleviate any one-sided scorelines.

By going down to the Sheffield Thunder last start by 49 points, they continued a positive trend from negative results. Hammered mercilessly by the Wolverines early in the season by 289 points, then by the Mozzies by 265 points, the scoreline against the Tyne Tees Tigers receded to a 108 point loss, and now 49 points to Thunder.

Granted the scorelines are relative to the opposition played, but that doesn’t change the fact that the deficits are headed in the correct direction and is a positive sign of growth for the fledgling club. There will be more tough days, but each game has been a learning experience and the Merseyside Saints are learning at a rapid rate.

The AFL today announced the details of the 2017 AFL International Cup to be held in Melbourne. Joining the 2014 champions PNG at the sixth iteration of the International Cup will hopefully be at least 20 mens teams. The women's competiton is expected to grow from the five nations that competed in 2014.

PNG are the most successful nation at the International Cup winning the competition in 2008 and 2014 as well as finishing runner up in 2002, 2005 and 2011 in the men's division.  Ireland (2008) and Canada (2011) have each won the women's competition in the first two cup's that had female teams competing.

 

The full announcement from the AFL follows

The Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round gets underway Friday night with the Sydney Swans hosting an unbeaten North Melbourne at the SCG. 

If you want to know when you can see the footy on TV in your part of the world, check out the schedule below. As always schedules are subject to change at the discretion of the local broadcaster so please check local guides for updates.

If you are interested in the US TV ratings then checkout this great piece written by Brian Barrish revealing the ratings numbers for FS1 and FS2 coverage.

GAME	DATE	T'SLOT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL	GMT	HOST
1	27-May	Night	Sydney Swans vs. North Melbourne	SCG	NSW	19:50	09:50	SEVEN
2	28-May	Day	Brisbane Lions vs. Hawthorn	The Gabba	QLD	13:45	03:45	SEVEN
3	28-May	Day	Melbourne vs. Port Adelaide	Traeger Park	NT	13:40	04:10	FOX
4	28-May	Twilight	St Kilda vs. Fremantle	Docklands	VIC	16:35	06:35	FOX
5	28-May	Night	Essendon vs. Richmond	MCG	VIC	19:25	09:25	SEVEN
6	28-May	Night	Adelaide Crows vs. GWS GIANTS	Adelaide Oval	SA	19:10	09:40	FOX
7	29-May	Early	Carlton vs. Geelong Cats	Docklands	VIC	13:10	03:10	FOX
8	29-May	Day	Collingwood vs. Western Bulldogs	MCG	VIC	15:20	05:20	SEVEN
9	29-May	Twilight	West Coast Eagles vs. GC SUNS	Subiaco	WA	14:40	06:40	FOX

In the most exciting game of the round, and possibly the season to date, the Wimbledon Hawks have drawn with the London Swans in their Round 4 match last weekend. In a match that was important to both – for Hawks to consolidate their place in the top four, and for the Swans to get their first win of the year – the draw didn’t exactly deliver either, yet both teams gained something, such is the way of drawn matches.

The result sees the Swans still on the bottom of the ladder and the Hawks still in fourth place, but both have the advantage of half a game in hand later in the season if things get closer. The draw also highlighted the luck of the Swans, going down by just 3 points to Putney last weekend. In both games one extra straight kick could have changed their fortunes.

 

This weekend sees the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round played across the nation. Features of the weekend include the wearing by AFL clubs of indigenous design jumpers at all matches and a host of activities across the nation at all venues. The Northern Territory is a major part of the events with their annual clash in Alice Springs featuring the Melbourne demons and the Port Adelaide Power. The following press release from the AFL outlines the Alice Springs event.

 

AFLNT is pleased to announce the Northern Territory Minister for Sport and Recreation, The Hon. Nathan Barrett MLA, will be hosting a free barbecue lunch for all football fans at TIO Traegar Park this Friday 27 May following an AFL Super Clinic in the Red Centre.

 

(Picture: Sir Doug Nicholls - www.afl.com.au )

Our friends at The Footy Almanac (in particular Marius Cuming, Phil Dimitriadis and John Harms) are seeking to crowdfund restoration of the grave of Tom Wills, one of the fathers of Australian Football.  Read on for more details as originally published at www.footyalmanac.com.au. 

Australia’s first sporting legend and the father of Australian football lies in a crumbling grave in a Melbourne cemetery.

With a largely unknown but extraordinary life story, Tom Wills deserves a final resting place in better condition.

With the blessing of the Wills family, The Footy Almanac is now raising funds to renovate the gravesite of our first cricketing hero who also gave Australians our own spectacular game.

The project will cost about $15,000 and with millions of AFL supporters and cricket lovers, the Australian public should be able to do the right thing by this man and restore his gravesite to its former glory.

With the Toulouse Hawks forfeiting their final round match against the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes, the Coyotes have finished the home and away rounds of the CNFA (French) Australian Football season. Sitting on 25 points after all but one match of Round 9 have been completed, the Coyotes cannot be knocked from the spot regardless of the result of the final match between the Paris Cockatoos and the Strasbourg Kangourous.

It is a huge result for the Coyotes, meaning they will contest their semi-final against the Toulouse hawks. Whether by win or forfeit, the highest the Cockatoos can finish is third due to a lesser percentage than the Cockerels, meaning they will contest the other semi-final against the Paris Cockerels in a Paris derby.

Justin Trudeau's favourite Aussie expat Myk Aussie joined host Gabriel Morency this week on the Fantasy Sports cable TV Network. Myk previews AFL Round 9 and gives his best bets and picks for Round 9. He also gives the Canadian Nationals a plug and expects big things from the East team (currently 2-0 after Day 1).

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If you are in North America look out for Myk on your TV or on UStream with Gabriel on Friday nights.