World Footy News

 

As the world pauses to commemorate the 101st ANZAC Day, and also the recognition of the 98th anniversary of the battle of Villers-Bretonneaux – a village on the battlefields of The Somme where Australian and allied troops held back the advancing German forces during World War One – the 8th annual AFL Europe ANZAC Cup will be played on the fields where so many gave their lives in battle.

 

The following article comes from the website off French Australian Rules football team, the Paris Cockerels. Writer, Francois Daniels, has given his own account of why this particular football match is so special to him as well as all others involved. He tells a great tale of the emotional connection to a simple game and the courage of the soldiers that fought for freedom.

 

 

ANZAC Round (Round 5) gets underway on Friday night with Adelaide travelling to Melbourne to take on the reigning Premiers Hawthorn at the MCG. All match start times have been pushed back 5 minutes this week to accommodate  pre-match Observance Ceremonies prior to each match.

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.

 CCTV5 in China will take the live broadcast of Port Adelaide vs Geelong from Adelaide Oval on Saturday evening.  And for those in the US looking to watch American Mason Cox should he debut for Collingwood on ANZAC Day you can see that match on Fox Sports 2 Live at 1am EDT. 

 

GAME	DATE	TIMESLOT	MATCH	VENUE	LOCAL	GMT	HOST
1	22-Apr	Night	Hawthorn vs. Adelaide	MCG	19:50	09:50	SEVEN
2	23-Apr	Day	Sydney vs. West Coast	SCG	13:45	03:45	FOX
3	23-Apr	Twilight	Gold Coast vs. North Melbourne	Metricon Stadium	16:35	06:35	FOX
4	23-Apr	Night	Port Adelaide vs. Geelong	Adelaide Oval	19:15	09:45	SEVEN
5	23-Apr	Night	Western Bulldogs vs. Brisbane	Etihad Stadium	19:25	09:25	FOX
6	24-Apr	Early	St Kilda vs. GWS	Etihad Stadium	13:10	03:10	FOX
7	24-Apr	Twilight	Fremantle vs. Carlton	Domain Stadium	14:15	06:15	FOX
8	24-Apr	Night	Melbourne vs. Richmond	MCG	19:10	09:10	SEVEN
9	25-Apr	Day	Collingwood vs. Essendon	MCG	15:20	05:20	SEVEN

The 2016 Southern California Australian Football league will kick-off this weekend in Los Angeles.  This year's league will feature two teams split from the LA Dragons team the Dragons Black (South Bay Outlaws) and Dragons Blue (Beachside Sharks), two teams split from the OC Bombers (OC White and OC Black) as well as Riverside and San Diego.

Footy in southern California will be heating up but has been simmering away for weeks.  San Diego has had three rounds of co-ed footy in February. And the men's National team the USA Revolution held their first camp of the year in L.A a few weeks ago with a number of local prospects attending hoping to win a spot and others providing an opposition squad of Aussie All-comers at the camp.  Beyond this the obligatory pre-season sessions have all teams primed for a big start.

SCAFL SCHEDULE:
Sunday – 24th April
Metro Season (Week 1) Location - Harbor Sports Center 1221 N Figueroa Pl, Wilmington, CA 90744
09:30am – Riverside Saints v LA Black (Outlaws)
11:00am – LA Blue (Sharks) v Orange County Jets
12:30pm – Orange County B52’s v San Diego Lions
 

There will be no repeat of the scenes in 2010 when Collingwood and St Kilda played out a draw in the first Grand Final that year.  Players collapsed and fans scrambled as everyone realised they would all be back to do it again the following week. 

Footy clubs around the world also realised that the grand final party they had just held, would be back on the following week.  For many clubs their best fundraising activity of the year - holding a live grand final viewing party - could be done all over again.  Other benefits for overseas viewers (beyond the benefits of having one more game televised live) were that they would be a chance to get a ticket if they wanted to make a late dash to watch the replay in person.

The story gained great media coverage around the world too, enhancing the image of the tough physical game that would come back and do it all again the following week.

But this will not happen again it seems.  The AFL announced on Tuesday it would no longer use a replay for any drawn match in the Toyota AFL Grand Final.

 

The Western Crows, captained by Jared Court, entered their last and the final match of the AFLNZ premiership season with the title already assured following the loss earlier in the day by the Southern Saints. The Crows were able to finish in style with a 24 point victory over the Northern Suns.

The 9 round competition brought together (via a draft) the best available talent in New Zealand. The 4 premier sides were initially based around captain and coach.
Western Crows: Coach Rob Malone; Captain Jared Court
Southern Saints: Coach Andrew Congalton; Captain Michael Boyce
Central Giants: Coach Shannon Wall; Captain David Rattenbury
Northern Suns: Coach Chris Mundell; Captain James Kusel.

 

The following article from the AFLNT (AFL Northern Territory) details the selection of the top 100 footballers from this often underrated footballing goldmine. The AFL has been graced over the years by names such as Rioli, Long and Burgoyne – all heralding from the Northern Territory.

 

Following months of robust discussion and committee debate, we are pleased to announce the top 100 footballers for the Northern Territory Government AFLNT Team of the Century.

 

The list includes NT football identities that established their careers on the national stage and also pays respect to the local men who made their name in the Territory.

 

Featuring in the Top 100 is Michael Long, winner of two AFL Premierships with the Essendon Football Club, a Norm Smith Medallist and Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee. Long heralds from local club St Mary’s where he was also a two-time premiership player.

BC Footy is thrilled to announce Burnaby lakes will host the Canadian nationals this year on May 21-22.

The innaugural installment of the tournament will feature men's and women's teams from across Canada competing for national bragging rights.  The Canadian Nationals will be a competition between provinces rather than clubs.  

Selection trials have already been carried out across Canada to determine selection of the men's and women's teams.  British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Atlantic will be the competing teams - with the Atlantic team being made up of players from Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

 

Croatian international, Josip Habljak playing at Sturt SANFL dominated the ruck against West Adelaide reserves with a 31 hit-outs perfomance in a side that lost 18-8 (116) to 10-19 (79).

Champion Data stats for the game records 17 clearances from his hit-outs and his opposite number recording 12 clearances from 21 hit-outs.

The "Pain Train" also had 3 Kicks, 7 handballs, for 10 disposals, 1 contested mark and 1 uncontested mark. He had 9 contested possessions and 2 uncontested possessions and he managed to kick one behind and record two score assists. 

Portland is one of those teams that we haven't heard too much about. This year in the USAFL the Steelheads move from third to second division and are looking to maintain momemtum.

 

Portland's womens team, the Sockeyes currently have 9 members and are looking for some external competition. Both the men and the women play in a four team metro league. They manage about a 9 game season with three 18-a-side games against the Seattle Grizzlies.

The first hitout for the Portland Steelheads and Sockeyes on a Wednesday evening at Duniway Park saw a small but enthusiastic turnout. The location was conveniently across the freeway from downtown Portland but the weather threatened downpour as it did, if only moderately.

The games are done and dusted at the 2016 AFL London Pre-Season Cup, and the warning bells would already be ringing for AFL London teams as the powerhouse West London Wildcats won the Men’s title. The GB Swans took the honours on the day in the Women’s draw and the Wandsworth Demons were triumphant in the Supers (Over 35’s) competition.

One of the very interesting features of the event was the appearance of the Northern Storm representative team from the AFLCNE (Central & Northern England). Whilst the team went down to the Putney Magpies, London Swans and Wimbledon Hawks in their three pool games, the squad did their league proud playing in what is often regarded the strongest competition for Australian Rules football outside of Australia and being very competitive.

With the completion of Round 7 in the CNFA competition in France, results have effectively seen a separation between the top four teams and the bottom four. Barring something quite miraculous in the remaining two rounds, the Toulouse Hawks, Paris Cockerels, Paris Cockatoos and Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes appear destined to fight out the finals series in June.

Results so far in Round 7, split across last weekend and this weekend, have seen:

Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes 105 d Bordeaux Bombers 62
Paris Cockatoos 158 d ALFA Lions 47
Toulouse Hawks 176 d Perpignan Tigers 13
Paris Cockerels 154 d Strasbourg Kangourous 31

At the recent National Diversity Championships in Townsville, I was allowed access to the Northern Territory Kickstart teams coach’s bench during their Preliminary Final against the Victoria/Tasmania team. It was a match of two well performed teams, and the winner would go on to play the Western Australia juggernaut in the Grand Final. There was a lot riding on the match, but their coaches were generous in letting me have a close up view of what happens inside that inner sanctum of coaching.

Northern Territory coach, Shannon Motlop, knows a thing or two (or three) about footy. After a 54 game career at the North Melbourne Kangaroos, including an AFL premiership in 1999 with them, he went on to be recruited by the Melbourne Demons as a replacement for Troy Broadbridge who tragically died in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Stints playing and coaching across country Victoria added to his repertoire of practice.