World Footy News

Footy in tropical North Queensland has been growing solidly now for many years and AFL Cairns will welcome their newest addition, and most compelling piece of recent evidence of that growth, on the weekend when they see the Pyramid Power club run out in a reserve grade match for the first time.

One of the best measures of growth is the ability of a code to not only sustain numbers, but tap new player markets and increase participation in the game. AFL Cairns has worked hard to ensure that junior growth has translated into growth at the senior club levels as well. Pyramid Power is a club that has followed that model as it moves from the sphere of junior football to the ranks of senior adult football.

The club commenced in 2005, almost as a phoenix of past district clubs the Babinda Magpies and the Centrals Aloomba Bulldogs. By the 1980’s both of those entities had vanished leaving a football void in the vast areas south of Cairns from Gordonvale to Innisfail, west to the Atherton Tablelands and east to the aboriginal community of Yarrabah.

 

In excerpts from the media release from the AFL, the push has already begun to attract the biggest and best crowd possible for the annual AFL Premiership Match in the Tropical North Queensland city. The match this year will be a highlight of the Round 17 fixture, being played in Cairns on Saturday 16th July.  Already this match is shaping as a super contest. After the first round of the 2016 AFL season, the Bulldogs sit atop the ladder after hammering Fremantle, whilst the Suns are third after doing the same to Essendon. Whilst things will change, both clubs seem set for bigger and better seasons…and a tropical battle could be a highlight of the season.

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

In Cairns with player Roarke Smith to help launch tickets going on sale, Western Bulldogs CEO David Stevenson said the club was looking forward to hosting a match at Cazalys Stadium for a third consecutive year.

 

 

“The Club is proud to return to Cairns for the third consecutive year to showcase AFL football in North Queensland.

The 2016 National Diversity Championships get under way at Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville next Sunday 3rd April. The tournament will again feature both the U15 Kickstart and the U15 All Nations Cup. Each year the event attracts the best indigenous and multicultural talent from across Australia, with all players vying to impress on their journey towards AFL stardom.

Past players that have come through this important component of the AFL talent pathway over the years include current players Steve May (Gold Coast Suns), Curtly Hampton (Adelaide), Callum Ah Chee (Gold Coast), Jade Gresham (St Kilda), Jay Kennedy-Harris (Melbourne), Karl Amon (Port Adelaide), Jarman Impey (Port Adelaide), Jake Long (Essendon) and a host of others across the AFL.

AFL Queensland Regional Manager, Kathleen Newman, stated in 2013 when Townsville last hosted the event that “there is every chance spectators will see the next Cyril Rioli, Lewis Jetta, or Chris Yarran, running around.”

The AFL’s US Combine is back in 2016 and back in LA. After the 2015 Combine was held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida, the venue for previous Combines in Los Angeles will again host athletes from around the US. The Combine will be held in just under a month from April 24-27.

This year's video promoting the Combine to US athletes can be seen below and has been updated with clips of Combine graduates Jason Holmes (2015 AFL debut) at St Kilda and Mason Cox (2016 NAB Cup footage) at Collingwood.

The AFL will be hoping to unearth some more crossover talent and a number of clubs will be present to identify suitable recruits. We know the Gold Coast Suns are on the lookout for a big American so would expect them to be keen participants.

Croatian international Josip Habljak played his first game for Sturt in the SANFL on Easter Monday and following are his raw stats from that game. He played in the reserves team which lost to the West Torrens-Woodville Eagles 16-11 (107) to 7-7 (49).

Champion Data records he had 3 kicks, 5 effective handballs, for a total of 8 disposals and 1 contested mark. 3 contested possessions and 6 uncontested possessions, and he also had a hand in the ruck duties for his team with 7 hit-outs. Josip had only one free kick paid against him (one Sturt player had 6 frees against), but more importantly for Josip he also scored one goal and recorded one score assist.

Just a week after the Perpignan Tigers took out the Coupe Du Sud for the best team in southern France, the Paris Cockerels have won the inaugural Coupe Du Nord to be crowned the best team in northern France.

The southern tournament has been a part of the CNFA landscape since first held in Perpignan in 2009. But in a bold move to create even more competitive opportunities for clubs, players and supporters, the Coupe Du Nord was started this year to be a co-tournament with the Coupe Du Sud, allowing a healthy north/south rivalry to be developed further with bragging rights for the best teams in both the north and south of France.

In a tournament which had a number of positives for all teams, the contesting teams were the Paris Cockerels, hosts the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes, the ALFA Lions from Lyon and new team the Brittany Griffins featuring as part of the “All Stars” team which also included some Cockerels and Coyotes players.

It has been two weeks since the Dubai Dragons completed their fourth premiership win in five years. Most of the time has been spent either celebrating, recovering or returning to a balance of home and work life minus the demands of footy.

The Dragons won the grand final against the BM Bulls in comprehensive fashion despite the Bulls being first out of the blocks within seconds of the first bounce. The final scores saw a 72 point victory:

Dubai Dragons 16 10 106 d BM Bulls 5 4 34

A match report written by local Sport 360 writer Jay Asser can be found at the following link: http://sport360.com/article/regional-...ive-years/

 

The following article by Ben Lisson at the ABC News website explores the TAC Cup team the Western Jets and their desire to recognise the cultural diversity of the players coming through their ranks. The role of the AFL Multicultural Program is to promote the game of Australian Rules football within diverse communities across the nation, and to promote the opportunities for diverse cultural and ethnic groups to embrace the game. This story clearly shows one of the success stories, of many.

 

The cultural make-up of Australia's youth is changing, and the AFL wants to make the most of it.

Weeks out from the start of the AFL season, the league carved up the country for an academy zone system.

 

Its aim was simple: to provide an elite pathway for the best Indigenous and multi-cultural talent.

In this terrific story from The Guardian, written by Jonathan Drennan in Behind The Lines, the remarkable journey of Englishman Sam Willatt from experimenting with Australian Rules football in England to lining up in a VFL team in Australia is chronicled. Sam’s journey hasn’t has the fanfare of many AFL Irish, Sudanese or American recruits, yet is no less remarkable.

The Brit Who Went From Aussie Rules Novice To The Verge Of An AFL Career 

 

Sam Willatt arrived in Melbourne in November after graduating from university. The 21-year-old from Peterborough slept on a friend’s sofa, managed to find part-time work as a lifeguard and also started training with an Australian Rules team after playing in England. That fairly well trodden path deviated radically after he was recruited into the Footscray Bulldogs VFL side, partnered to the AFL’s top flight Western Bulldogs side. In layman’s terms, this is the equivalent of an Australian playing Sunday League football in Melbourne, flying to London and getting picked up by West Ham’s reserves.

Port Adelaide's Chinese International recruit, Chen Shaoliang has suffered a serious injury during training with the Port Adelaide Magpies this week.

The 23-year old Team China captain, damaged the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while being tackled at his second only training session with the Magpies.
"While the injury will sideline Chen for 12 months," said Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas, "Chen will remain in Adelaide and he will be immersed in our club for the next two years."

The 2016 AFL season kicks off tonight in Melbourne with Carlton and Richmond doing battle at the MCG. 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	SD/HD
1	Thursday March 24	Night	Richmond vs. Carlton	MCG	VIC	19:20	08:20	SEVEN	SD
2	Saturday March 26	Day	Melbourne vs. GWS GIANTS	MCG	VIC	13:40	02:40	FOX	HD
3	Saturday March 26	Twilight	Gold Coast SUNS vs. Essendon	Metricon Stadium	QLD	15:35	05:35	FOX	HD
4	Saturday March 26	Night	Sydney Swans vs. Collingwood	SCG	NSW	19:25	08:25	SEVEN	SD
5	Saturday March 26	Night	North Melbourne vs. Adelaide Crows	Etihad Stadium	VIC	19:25	08:25	FOX	HD
6	Sunday March 27	Early	Western Bulldogs vs. Fremantle	Etihad Stadium	VIC	13:10	02:10	FOX	HD
7	Sunday March 27	Day	Port Adelaide vs. St Kilda	Adelaide Oval	SA	14:50	04:20	SEVEN	SD
8	Sunday March 27	Twilight	West Coast Eagles vs. Brisbane Lions	Domain Stadium	WA	16:40	08:40	FOX	HD
9	Monday March 28	Day	Geelong Cats vs. Hawthorn	MCG	VIC	15:20	04:20	SEVEN	SD

Article courtesy of South Dublin Swans and ARFLI

South Dublin Swans were the Irish representatives in the second running of the AFL Europe European Champions League held last Saturday March 19th. This very efficiently run tournament organised by AFL Europe and the Amsterdam Devils was held at the impressive Dutch national rugby centre in suburban Amsterdam.  The tournament has grown since last year with 13 men’s teams and 5 women’s teams participating. The calibre of the competition was high with teams being their league’s champions and each team also allowed four Australians on the pitch at any one time in this 9-a-side format. 

The Swans had the earliest start of the day at 10am in their four team group. First up was the Russian representatives, the Lazy Koalas on the show pitch in the facility. This was a good opener for the Swans to find their rhythm and they won comfortably by a margin of 62 to 7 in the 24 minute game. The next game was more difficult against the Zagreb Dockers who featured one of the strongest players playing in Europe, Tomislav Cvetko. Although Cvertko did some damage the Swans won again 24 to 14. The final group game turned into the pool decider for a place in the competition semi-finals. This was against the dominant team in Sweden, Sodermalm. This was a very close encounter with nothing between the teams and goals being traded back and forward. The Swans showed great determination to win this one by the slim margin of 28 to 26.