World Footy News

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.

The North Queensland city of Mackay is ready for their inaugural AFL NAB Challenge match with a sell-out crowd predicted to watch the Brisbane Lions take on St Kilda. The game will be played at the Harrup Park Country Club. General Manager of Harrup Park, Michael Jones, is quoted on the AFL Mackay website as saying “this is the first AFL NAB Challenge match for the region and there is real buzz and excitement around it.”

Mackay scored the game after northern neighbour, Townsville, had hosted NAB Challenge games featuring the Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast Suns, North Melbourne and Geelong in recent years. Combined with the regular AFL premiership matches in Cairns of recent seasons, Townsville had been a source of big league AFL matches for North Queenslanders. This year Mackay takes over the role and has the entire city excited.

(Picture: St Kilda's David Armitage, formerly from Mackay - St Kilda FC)

Week 3 of the 2016 NAB Challenge starts tomorrow night when the West Coast Eagles take on the Gold Coast SUNS at HBF Arena in Joondalup, Western Australia.

This week sees regional and suburban football grounds host pre-season matches for the last time before the fourth and final week of the 2016 NAB Challenge sees matches staged at metropolitan venues to maximise team preparations ahead of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

The first of the 2016 Women’s Exhibition Series matches will occur on Sunday March 6 at Highgate Recreation Reserve in Craigieburn when the Western Bulldogs play Melbourne at 5:10pm EDT. The match will be broadcast live on Crocmedia via www.afl.com.au and is a non-ticketed event, meaning fans can stay in the venue following the NAB Challenge match or gain FREE entry at the conclusion of that match.

Some of the international rookies or players of international origin on AFL team lists took to the field again over the weekend as the NAB Challenge matches continued. Once again there was a mixture of early excitement, breakout games and missed opportunities.

Perhaps the biggest mover was Collingwood’s Mason Cox who played his best game for the Magpies in their clash with Geelong. In what might yet be a breakout performance for the American recruit, Cox amassed seven quality possessions which yielded two goals as well as four marks, most of which were solid contested grabs. The performance has many people suggesting that Cox could well line up in Round One for the ‘Pies.

The Carlton/Essendon game saw a show of Irish talent across both teams. Zach Tuohy was amongst Carlton’s best, picking up a cool 18 possessions off half back and driving his team inside the forward 50 on many occasions. His Irish teammate, Ciaran Byrne, was also heavily involved across his limited game time with a handy nine possessions, but possibly more valuable was his constant defensive pressure whenever near the ball.

The Lyon based ALFA Lions in the French CNFA competition have taken a step towards leaving the cellar and avoiding this year’s wooden spoon. In the process they have made the battle for the wooden spoon just as exciting as the battles for finals spots.

Their weekend victory over the Strasbourg Kangourous might yet be a valuable result as the Lions still have winnable games between now and the end of the home and away draw.

The final score saw the ALFA Lions 120 defeat the Strasbourg Kangourous 73.

There are four rounds remaining, but with the nature of the draw the teams still locked in the battle for the wooden spoon have different amounts of games left.

Anyone believing that the Nightcliff Tigers’ great form leading up to the finals would come unstuck as they simply made up the numbers was shocked on Saturday when they downed the Darwin Buffaloes in the NTFL Elimination Final.

The Tigers won four of their last five home and away games to finish with a wet sail. But many felt that the Darwin Buffaloes’ time had come after some years in a football wilderness and their progression deeper into the finals would come at the expense of Nightcliff.

The 2016 AFL Asia season got underway in Yangon City, Myanmar.

After a hard fought game with scores tied at half time the visiting Jakarta Bintangs out lasted the hosts the Myanmar Fighting Cocks by a score of 63-53 yesterday in the inaugural Cocks Plate Contest, held on the “Hen House” pitch at Star City.

Despite a raucous crowd chanting tai kyet – or “Fighting cocks!” – for most of the game, the home team faltered in the fourth quarter, giving way in their own end to allow three goals in the last 15 minutes.

The Jakarta team started fast and scored in the opening minute after Myanmar’s All-Asia ruckman Conor Smith was outjumped by a much smaller, local Indonesian player. But the Cocks battled back with two goals from the ageless wonder Julian Clark, whose sticky hands enabled him to mark two kicks. At halftime, the sides were level, 5-3-33 to 5-3-33.

The following is a snippet from the AFL Japan website.

AFL Scholarship Player Shoki Mukotaka from Senshu Powers Club flew from Narita Airport on 25th February to Melbourne to practice and train with Box Hill North Football Club. He will 'live' and train at the club for three weeks until 18th March.

The scholarship program also has the players homestay with members of the club so as to experience life in Australia.

"In Australia stay is homestay in the house of team-mate, has become a program that also experience life in Australia."

The AFL Japan Scholarship has run for a number of years now and several Samurai players previously participated in the Scholarship.

Genki Tanaka being one such scholarship holder who spent a season in Melbourne playing at Box Hill North also studying English and acquiring AFL qualifications and accreditations in coaching and umpiring.

Sohei Yoshida also spent five weeks at Box Hill North prior to the 2014 International Cup.