World Footy News

Women Debut In South China AFL

South China Australian Rules Football League (SCAFL) welcomed their first female players in the recent Round#2 tournament in Macau on the weekend.

Played at the Macau International School two ladies played for the first time in this competition, one as a guest and the other very likely to become a regular player.

The first of the two ladies playing on the day was Jess Cole from Melbourne Australia, (more of her story later).

As the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. Such is the case with the NTFL season. Despite Southern Districts dominating the home and away season, their Preliminary Final loss to St Mary’s will see the Saints and Wanderers play off in their third consecutive Grand Final.

Over the three seasons other teams have peaked, only to drop off at the business end of the season. The 2015/16 season saw a rejuvenated Darwin Buffaloes, a rampant young Nightcliff Tigers and the Crocs throw their hats into the ring to change the status quo and kick off their own dynasty. But at the end the perennial Saints and the fast finishing Eagles kept the balance the same.

In 2014 St Mary’s won by 21 points. In 2015 it was Wanderers turning the tables to down the Saints by 34 points. This latest rivalry will be decided as a “best of three” on Saturday night at TIO Stadium as the best performed teams of the past three years meet again.

With the NAB Challenge coming to a close this weekend, most teams chose to use the hit-outs as a chance to play closer to full strength teams. As a result less international players were on show across the weekend’s matches.

Richmond’s Sudanese rookie Mabior Chol gathered another five possessions with his 87% game time in the team’s torrid encounter with Port Adelaide. Chol enjoyed his NAB Challenge, exciting Tiger fans and showing enough skill to suggest a useful AFL career is ahead of him. He still has much to learn but the signs are promising and his efforts to date will see him debut sooner rather than later.

Zach Tuohy (pictured) was his usual assured self in the Carlton defence against the Sydney Swans. His 24 possessions at an 83% disposal efficiency, including 6 rebounds from the defensive 50, showed he will again be a key part of the Blues’ defence this season.

The Paris Cockerels surge to the CNFA finals continued on the weekend with a massive win against the visiting Perpignan Tigers. The win sees the Cockerels sitting just slightly adrift of the Toulouse Hawks and level with their club "brothers" the Paris Cockatoos. With just three rounds left to play in the CNFA season the Cockerels flexed their muscle and sent shivers through the rest of the league as they signalled their intent to go "back to back" and take this year's flag.

The final score saw the Paris Cockerels 198 d Perpignan Tigers 11

For the Tigers, the loss was harsh. But they are still sitting in fifth place and have a chance of eking out another win to challenge for finals. Failing that, the Tigers are still enjoying their best season yet despite the weekend's result.

Power Park in Gordonvale, Far North Queensland, always reverberates to the sounds of kids squealing, shouting and laughing whenever training or matches are taking place. Being one of the most picturesque football grounds in Australia with Walsh’s Pyramid towering behind the southern goal posts, watching over the town like some benevolent parent, it’s as if the kids are trying to impress and the majestic “mountain” smiles down on their happiness.

That’s on a normal day.

But when, as happened last Sunday, you add in a legend of AFL football, Adam Goodes, those squeals of delight find a higher octave – a louder and more raucous level of happiness, fun and joy.

(Picture: Adam Goodes with Power fans)

The Dubai Dragons have further etched their name into the history books of the AFL Middle East, downing the BM Bulls for the second year running to win the premiership.

The remarkable win sees the Dragons with four titles in the past five seasons, broken only by the Doha Kangaroos win against the Dragons in 2013/14. This if the fourt flag for the Dubai Dragons after winning back to back titles in 2011/12 and 2012/13 and now going back to back again with titles in 2014/15 and now 2015/16.

For the BM Bulls it is a tough pill to swallow, going down in consecutive grand finals, but they are sure to bounce back strongly next season based on their incredible growth and success in just two seasons.

Full match report to follow.

Week 4 of the 2016 NAB Challenge starts Thursday night (Melbourne time) when the Richmond host Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. Footy returns to the city in the final round with 5 matches at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, two matches at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast and two matches at Domain Stadium in Perth.

 

 

The international schedule can be seen below.  Please check local guides as all telecasts are subject to change.

2015 presented some serious challenges to AFL Vanuatu - more specifically, the weather - with Cyclone Pam ravaging the archipelago some 53 weeks ago. With ni-Vanuatu leaders such as Kilip Andrew (drawing on his experiences playing footy in Australia with Olinda-Ferny Creek and taking on an AFL Development officer role in 2016) and Robin Jacob (who in early 2015 took the highly uncommon path of sitting the AFL coaching course at Etihad stadium in Feb) able to lead from the front the season was resurrected and with guidance from a new committee headed by president David Beauchamp; now AFL Vanuatu is preparing for a very busy 2016.

New programs include:
• New Senior competition with new teams
• New Pikinini kik program
• New School competition for Under 12 and Under 15 teams, involving Schools from Port Vila and all of Efate.

With just five matches played over the course of the third weekend of NAB Challenge games there was less international talent on show. Maybe the tempo went up a notch, or opposition teams had put their homework into the internationals, but overall it was a quieter output across the board.

The washout of the Mackay match between the Lions and the Saints robbed fans of seeing the likes of Pearce Hanley (Brisbane) and Jason Holmes (St Kilda). A massive 200mm of rain, courtesy of ex-Tropical Cyclone Winston, fell leading up to the game forcing the AFL to abandon the match.

Perhaps the North Melbourne coaches had already put homework into Collingwood’s Mason Cox. After an impressive debut, Cox was quieter this weekend, though hardly inactive. He still managed to hurl his massive frame about Collingwood’s forward zone to collect five possessions, a couple of marks, four hitouts and five tackles to give the Kangaroos’ defenders enough anxious moments.

The Toulouse Hawks recorded a powerful 59 point win over the Bordeaux Bombers in their Round Six match in Bordeaux. Backing up from a solid win against the Paris Cockatoos last start, their win against Bordeaux sees the hawks take top spot on 16 points, two points ahead of the now second placed Cockatoos.

The Hawks downed the Bombers 126 – 67, giving them a share of premiership favouritism whilst consigning the Bombers to a prolonged battle to avoid the wooden spoon.

In the other match for the round, The Paris Cockatoos handed the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes a hiding which saw the Coyotes fall from top spot. The Cockatoos defeated the Coyotes 106 to 10 and laid claim on second place, at least until next weekend.

In a fairy tale of sorts, with eerie similarities to last season’s finals race, Wanderers have continued their charge through the second half of the NTFL season with a strong win over minor premiers Southern Districts Crocs to be the first team into this season’s grand final.

Built on the back of a remarkable run of games since the mid-season break, Wanderers now get to rest their weary bodies as the Crocs take on St Mary’s in next weekend’s Preliminary Final. When play resumed in January after the festive season break, Wanderers were a distinct chance of missing finals, whilst Southern Districts and St Mary’s appeared destined to fight out the grand final. Now one of them will miss out – a surprise in itself.

Wanderers were not shy about their intentions and hit the Crocs hard in the first quarter to take a handy two goal lead. From there they extended the lead at every break, though perhaps their final quarter was the best. Whilst kicking just three themselves, Wanderers held Crocs goalless for the quarter, totally snuffing out and hope of a Croc revival.