World Footy News

Well! How About That?? Saturday 28th May. Channel Seven News at 6.00pm broadcast across Australia a news clip featuring AFL Sweden and players from Bromma Vikings and Solna Axemen.

Presented by Sevens Sports presenter Mark Soderstrom just about half an hour or so before the Adelaide Crows versus GWS Giants match at Adelaide Oval was certainly a surprise, although, I must say a pleasant one.

One can only hazard a guess at what prompted the Seven News team to run the clip and from where it was sourced, but it is great to see international footy getting a showing on mainstream television in Australia, brief though it might have been.

 

The St Kilda website has reported today (Saints to court the Kiwi market again that the Saints attentions have not been lost from New Zealand with a new deal to play up to 2 games in Auckland in 2018. Club chief operating officer Ameet Bains told Melbourne sports radio station SEN that St Kila “..see an opportunity to reinvigorate what we started doing in New Zealand.”

(Photo:James Crombie - INPHO) 

Round 11 gets underway Friday night with North Melbourne hosting Richmond at Blundstone Arena in Hobart. 

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.

 

 

GAME	DATE	TIMESLOT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL TIME	GMT	NETWORK
1	3-Jun	Night	North Melbourne vs. Richmond	Blundstone Arena	TAS	19:50	09:50	SEVEN
2	4-Jun	Day	Hawthorn vs. Melbourne	MCG	VIC	13:45	03:45	SEVEN
3	4-Jun	Day	Carlton vs. Brisbane Lions	Etihad Stadium	VIC	14:10	04:10	FOX
4	4-Jun	Twilight	Geelong Cats vs. GWS GIANTS	Simonds Stadium	VIC	16:35	06:35	FOX
5	4-Jun	Night	Fremantle vs. Essendon	Domain Stadium	WA	17:40	09:40	SEVEN
6	4-Jun	Night	Gold Coast SUNS vs. Sydney Swans	Metricon Stadium	QLD	19:25	09:25	FOX
7	5-Jun	Early	Collingwood vs. Port Adelaide	MCG	VIC	13:10	03:10	FOX
8	5-Jun	Day	Western Bulldogs vs. West Coast Eagles	Etihad Stadium	VIC	15:20	05:20	SEVEN
9	5-Jun	Twilight	Adelaide Crows vs. St Kilda	Adelaide Oval	SA	16:10	06:40	FOX

The AFLG’s initial tournament of the 2016 season, the 9’s format, is two thirds complete with the Round 6 matches played last week in Dresden. The format, introduced last season, sees two Hamburg teams (Swans and Pirates) as well as the Frankfurt Redbacks, Munich Kangaroos, Berlin Crocs, Rheinland Lions, Freiberg Taipans, Stuttgart Emus and Dresden Wolves battle out the honours over 10 rounds of 9’s format, with a Grand Final on September 10th.

The 9’s home and away format finishes with Round 7 and Round 8 played concurrently in both Munich for southern German teams and in Hamburg for northern teams. After that the 16’s competition will commence with a four team competition over four rounds between July and September featuring the Munich Kangaroos, Hamburg Dockers, Berlin Crocs and Rheinland Lions.

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