World Footy News

The International Cup should segregate. The women and men should play the next iteration of the International Cup separately. Just two years after the last International Cup was held, I firmly believe that the women’s International Cup should be played in 2016.

Why?

It is because 2017 will be year zero for the AFL Women’s National league. Because 2016 will be the time for the best women in footy to audition for the (assumed) historic draft that will fill the first teams of the league. And a women’s international tournament will allow the best women footballers from Oceania, North America and Europe to show their wares in Melbourne before the talent scouts from the new teams.

The end of Round 9 signalled the middle of the season. With nine rounds down and nine to go and many fascinating scenarios which could play out in the second half of the season, this is shaping as another exciting run to the finals. In a season which has already become known for its evenness and close results, three teams share top spot on wins, and just a game separates fourth place from seventh.

The weekend results did not yield any very close games, yet those results have made for a very close competition.

The Tiwi Bombers hosted the Waratah Warriors at their Wurrumiyanga home on Bathurst Island. Bad kicking is deemed bad football, and the Bombers all but handed Waratah a “Get Out Of Jail” card, kicking 19 behinds. But they were good enough to overcome a half time deficit to record a much needed 23 point win.

The 2015 AFL Under 15 Oceania Cup is tonight gearing up after the arrival of competing teams. Being again held in Fiji, the action gets underway tomorrow at Furnivale Park in Toorak (Suva). Once again the opening day is a lightning premiership format.

This years tournament sees 4 teams playing. Tonga, Fiji and Nauru have full squads while the 4th side is the Pacific All Stars. The tournament will wind up on Thursday with finals after lunch followed after presentations by an exhibition match between the Fiji U/14s and the U/14 Australian Wanderers.

The usual venue at Albert Park in Suva is under construction works which is why the alternate venue is being used.

The off-season certainly hasn’t been a quiet time for the AFLCNE (AFL Central & Northern England) committee as they continue to redevelop 2016 representative opportunities for league players. Additionally, the league has redeveloped their own home and away draw to accommodate their eighth team in 2016, the Merseyside Saints from Liverpool.

The following information from the AFLCNE website outlines the changes.

“In 2016 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.”

The second annual Champions League tournament will be held on March 19th next year, once again in Amsterdam and organised jointly by AFL Europe and the Amsterdam Devils club. The tournament goes into a second edition after the success of the inaugural event last year, in a competition which pits the premiership teams of European member nation leagues against each other to determine the best club, as opposed to nation, in Europe.

Last year the title was taken out by the West London Wildcats when they downed German team the Rheinland Lions. Ten clubs attended the event in 2015 with the others being the Belfast Redbacks (3rd), Amsterdam Devils (4th), Toulouse Hawks, Edinburgh Bloods, Malmo Redeyes, Solna Axemen, Manchester Mosquitoes and Zagreb Hawks.

The event is governed by certain rules regarding eligibility of players. This includes no more than four Australians on the field at any given time (passports used if necessary to determine this), but arranged mutually between clubs on an honour system. Players must have been registered to play during the 2016 season or have played for the club in 2015. The competition will follow the Euro Cup format and be nine players per side on field, with squads of up to 16.

Who will go where?

Essendon has joined the ranks of clubs keen to introduce a women's team in 2017, with the Bombers announcing they will bid for a licence when the competition begins.

The AFL continues to push forward with its plan to introduce a full-scale women's competition within two years and the Bombers are among the clubs who will ask to field a side.

The club hosted more than 80 of Victoria's best female footballers at its Tullamarine base on Tuesday evening as part of AFL Victoria's Women's Academy training program.

The club's legendary four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy addressed the group of players, while current coaches Mark Harvey, Mark Neeld, Guy McKenna and Hayden Skipworth were also involved in the session.

The AFL national and rookie drafts have been and gone – so what’s going on with this December 2nd draft? Well – for starters it’s conducted by AFL New Zealand. Tomorrow evening, 7pm Wednesday December 2nd, will see the draft take place live via social media. The draft can be followed on twitter (#AFLNZPremiership).

The draft is to allocate players to one of 4 competing teams in the 2016 AFL New Zealand Premiership. Captains have already been announced for the Northern Suns (James Kusel), Western Crows (Jared Court), Central Giants (David Rattenbury) and Southern Saints (Michael Boyce).

According to AFLNZ 106 players have signed on from regions spanning Northland to Otago. A further 30 players are planned to be added to the list subsequently to finalise the squads. The draft will involve the first 7 rounds of selections with 48 players across those selections to be added to the squads currently only including captains. The remainder of selections will take place in January after the completion of provincial matches.

The Darwin Buffaloes had played in three games prior to this weekend where the result was decided by less than a kick. Wanderers Eagles had played in five. The two teams were separated by just two points last time they met, with the Buffaloes stealing the result. All the ingredients were there for an absolutely scorching game, given that Wanderers has lost their last match by a point after the siren last weekend to Nightcliff and Buffaloes snatched a last gasp four point win over the Crocs.

But Wanderers didn’t want to play that game. They had too much at stake, needing to get on the winning side of the leger and secure their place in the five. Their first half was impressive as they pressured the Buffaloes relentlessly to open up a huge 41 point lead at half time, keeping Buffaloes to just a goal for the half.

The AFL’s Rookie Draft held yesterday provided the final formality for two young Irish talents as they made their way onto the lists of both Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans. Conor Glass and Colin O’Riordin were both signed by their respective clubs back in October after the 2015 season was completed. The Rookie Draft was the final stage of their selection process.

Conor Glass is from Maghera in Northern Ireland and has been signed as an International Category B Rookie after his eye-catching displays of Gaelic Football as captain of the Derry youth team. Hawthorn have been tracking Glass for some time, assisting him to come to the club to meet the players and get a feel off the heartland of AFL footy in Melbourne. The Hawks used their final pick in the draft, pick 62 in the fourth round, to complete his recruitment process.

 

Essendon Football Club has used the 2015 Rookie Draft to secure Tiwi island product, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. Another Northern Territory talent, Ryan Nyhuis, has also been snaffled by the Fremantle Dockers. The selections complete a wonderful week for Northern Territory talent after Richmond selected Territorian, Daniel Rioli, at the national draft on Tuesday.

 

 

McDonald-Tipungwuti was recruited to the Essendon VFL team back in 2013 after previously being a part of the Gippsland Power team for a couple of seasons. He was also a part of the successful NT Thunder NEAFL team in 2012 and also played the 2011/12 season with his brother Ephrem and cousins Adam and Albert at the Tiwi Bombers, the NTFL team located in the town of Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island.

In a remarkable AFL Rookie Draft held today, four players from Sudan made it on to the AFL lists of clubs for 2016. The AFL may never be in a better position to market the game in African countries after Gach Nyuon (Essendon), Rueben William (Brisbane) and Mabior Chol (Richmond) were added to club lists. Additionally, Majak Daw, arguably the highest profile Sudanese player so far, was re-rookied by North Melbourne as expected.

Essendon had been tracking the journey of Gach Nyuon (pictured left) for some time and it was little surprise that they called him as their first selection (fourth overall) this morning. Essendon has only recruit Matthew Leuenberger and young gun Joe Daniher that stand over 200 centimetres, so Nyuon will address the height issue, especially if a key ruckman is injured during the season. Nyuon is a raw talent but is super-exciting and highly athletic. His form with the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup saw him the premier ruckman of the competition and this continued for Vic Country and eventual All-Australian U18 selection.