World Footy News

It had been ten years since the Darwin Buffaloes had beaten St Mary’s. In between the Buffaloes had experienced some lean times whilst the Saints continued to set the bar high year in year out. To make this weekend’s round interesting, Saints sat in second place, needing to keep winning to have a chance at the minor premiership and a great position for the finals. The Buffaloes were on a horror streak of four consecutive losses. Their finals ambitions were unravelling fast.

The four goal to one first quarter was the difference in the end as the Buffaloes jumper early to make a stand and held that advantage for most of the game, running out 16 point winners but more importantly securing third place again and playing the bottom three sides in the run to the finals. The Buffaloes now have a say in their destiny.

Final Score: Darwin Buffaloes 14 15 99 d St Mary’s Saints 12 11 83

Whether or not Cairns Muslim kids ever take up Australian Rules footy is a question that can’t yet be answered one way or the other. It’s too early. But one certainty is that the chances of them giving the game a go have grown after the AFL Diversity unit, in conjunction with AFL Cairns Juniors, Footys4all, Ross Faulkner and the Pyramid Power junior club met with the Cairns Muslim community on the weekend.

With donated giveaways for the kids and time to chat with parents and interested parties, AFL Cairns made great strides in connecting with the local Islamic community. With the tremendous support of the Mosque’s Imaam Abdul Aziz the community and the football code came together. The first seeds were planted for Muslim kids to perhaps pursue our indigenous game.

The third instalment if the Fitzpatrick Cup Australian Rules football tournament was played this weekend at the University Of Birmingham fields. The tournament commenced in 2013 with the University College Cork (UCC) winning the inaugural event against Oxford University. The event was won in 2015 by University Of Birmingham and this time they had the task of defending their title.

(Picture: 2015 Winners University Of Birmingham defend title – Courtesy AFL England)

The teams this year consisted of University Of Birmingham, Oxford University (the oldest Australian Rules club in Europe), their arch rivals Cambridge University, two teams entered by University College Cork (UCC) and for the first time a team from the National University Of Ireland, equally known as Maynooth University.

Last year the AFLCNE (Central & Northern England) announced that the 2016 season would see the creation of a new representative team. The new entity would be designed as an 18 per side team, preparing the AFLCNE players for 18 a side formats, particularly at representative level.

The new team has announced that it will be called the Northern Storm.

According to the AFLCNE website, “the Central and Northern England League will be forming a League representative side with a view to playing 18 a-side games as opposed to the leagues 9s format. The aim behind this is to give our top British talent more experience of the 18s game and help them to prepare for national team selection and hopefully playing for the British Bulldogs.

We are reproducing Matt Zurbo’s training manual for those that are challenged by small numbers out on the footy track. This series first appeared in The Footy Almanac.

The following article from Ben Guthrie at the www.afl.com.au website looks at the hopes of another Irish talent and their quest to reach the highest levels of AFL football in Australia as the drive to find the finest women’s talent gathers speed.

 

SINEAD O'Mahony hopes she can follow in the footsteps of fellow Irish products Tadgh Kennelly and Jim Stynes and become a trailblazer for the national women's AFL competition.

 

The 26-year-old primary school teacher, a 2015 Gaelic Athletic Association Dublin County team member, recently moved to Australia and turned her attention to tackling a new sport.

 

 

O'Mahony will join around 140 other players trying out in the inaugural female football national talent search at the Whitten Oval in Melbourne's west. 

The tour of South Africa by the School Sport Australia Under 15's squad has come to an end with a domination across three games against the South African Lions. But the scores are secondary to the developmental value of the tour as the players shred their skills with their South African counterparts as well as giving assistance and advice to young kids at clinics across the country.

The team won their first match of the series, played in Johannesburg, downing the South African Lions 20 11 131 to 5 4 34. The report of that part of the itinerary can be found here: Sawubona! – South Africa Welcomes School Sport Australia

The second game of the series was played at Rustenburg, to the west of Pretoria. Once again the schoolboys team was too strong, though the South Africans certainly learned from the opening game, closing the gap and going down by just 55 points. The final score in Game 2: School Sport Australia 16 18 114 d South African Lions 9 5 59.

The AFL and Australia Post today announced its Multicultural Program will expand to 18 player ambassadors in 2016 and for the first time will include two female players.

Female footballers Sabrina Frederick-Traub and Darcy Vescio will be joined in promoting some of the many diverse backgrounds in Australia’s Game by Brisbane Lions Vice Captain Dayne Zorko, Geelong’s Tom Hawkins, Fremantle’s Tendai Mzundu, Gold Coast SUNS players Adam Saad and Tom Nicholls, Sydney Swan Aliir Aliir and Western Bulldogs player Jason Johannisen.

The new additions in 2016 join existing Australia Post AFL Multicultural Player Ambassadors David Zaharakis (Essendon), Stephen Coniglio (GWS GIANTS), Paul Puopolo (Hawthorn), Shem Tatupu (Hawthorn), Alipate Carlile (Port Adelaide), Jimmy Toumpas (Port Adelaide), Bachar Houli (Richmond), Nic Naitanui (West Coast) and Lin Jong (Western Bulldogs).

A number of hopefuls from Fiji, PNG, Tonga, Nauru, South Africa, NZ and even Denmark have been part of the AFL's International Scholarship scheme over the past eight years without the ultimate success of playing in the AFL.  Now there are just two Kiwi's at St Kilda holding that torch of what seems to be a fading light for international development.

The signing of an International Scholarship player is usually heralded with a feature article on the AFL club's website, perhaps an article on the AFL website and even sometimes some local press in the home town or country. But when their time is up they seem to quietly disappear. 

The latest to 'disappear' from AFL clubs are Siope Ngata who was a scholarship holder at Hawthorn and Giovanni Mountain-Silbery who was a scholarship holder at St Kilda.

Last year Wanderers pulled off the fairy-tale finish that clubs dream of. From sitting outside the top five to premiers in just a matter of weeks was a remarkable footy story. But lightning rarely strikes the same place twice, and as the NTFL season went to the recent summer break, Wanderers again sat outside the top five and had to rely on another barnstorming finish to see finals action.

Last week they took out the second placed St Mary’s, squeaking home by just three points. This weekend they took yet another step towards the unlikely when they brought down the relentless Nightcliff Tigers by just two points. The pair of post-break wins has Wanderers right back in the action, but more importantly they are back in form. They are also back into the top five, leapfrogging both the Tiwi Bombers and Darwin Buffaloes.

Final Score: Wanderers Eagles 15 7 97 d Nightcliff Tigers 14 11 95

If enthusiasm is one of the criteria on which success is based then the new Croatian footy team, the Ploče Eagles, is in great hands. A chat with the fledgling club’s president, Johnny Roncevic, tells the story so far, but also tells a story of a larrikin who may have exactly what it takes to bring together another successful Croatian footy team.

The town of Ploče is not large – approximately ten thousand people – but it important as port on the Adriatic, or Dalmatian Coast, and is used heavily as a port for the neighbouring nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reference to a port adds to the irony of a president of a new club who is from Fremantle in Australia.