World Footy News

With the Northern Territory Football League just three rounds away, the jostling for top five positions took some interesting turns on the weekend. Along the way, the Tiwi Bombers may have surrendered their chances, the Darwin Buffaloes tried to do the same, Nightcliff announced they are back in the race with fangs at the ready and Southern Districts effectively secured the minor premiership.

The Nightcliff Tigers’ form in recent weeks has seen three wins from their last five outings and they now sit just a game out of the top five and a realistic chance of stealing a finals berth. The team they would most likely dislodge would be their victims from last weekend, Darwin Buffaloes. The Tigers and Buffaloes fought out a tight first half before Nightcliff kicked seven goals to two in the second half to score a vital win, and inflict a damaging loss on the Buffaloes. For the Buffaloes to hold a finals berth, after just one win in their past six matches, they need to beat both Tiwi and Waratah in the next two rounds before meeting the powerhouse Crocs in the final round. It can be done but the Buffaloes cannot make a mistake from here on. Nightcliff, on the other hand, are playing with a devil-may-care attitude that is dangerous and they would love to sneak into finals action.

Final Score: Nightcliff Tigers 13 13 91 d Darwin Buffaloes 8 10 58

The inaugural Northern Storm football teams for the upcoming clashes against the England Dragonslayers and the AFL London tournament have been announced on the AFLCNE website.  This is the first occasion where an 18 per side format has been used for the selections.

 

The following AFLCNE players have been nominated and selected to represent the Central and Northern England Australian Football League  with  The Northern Storm in April 2016.  For the game against the England Dragonslayers,  as the higher tier of representation the national team had first choice of available AFLCNE players.

 

The Northern Storm Inaugural Squad

 

Game Vs England April 2nd at Huddersfield.

Recently it has emerged via social media that the dates for the AFL International Cup 2017 had been set. Today the AFL confirmed that these dates are proposed dates only and at this stage have not been locked in.

The dates were proposed by the AFL and sent to affiliates for feedback, and at this stage there has been no feedback opposed to these dates.

So again, this is not yet 100% confirmed, but it looks likely that IC17 will take place from Saturday August 5 to Sunday August 20, 2017 (inclusive) in Melbourne. 

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).