World Footy News

USAFL Nationals Day 1 Streaming Schedules are below.   All schedules are subject to change and some years the match schedules can stretch out during the day.  Click on the  icon next to each match to watch via Youtube.  All times and days are local Austin, TX times (the first 9am match Saturday is at 1am in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday).

Date	Division	Pool	Field	Match	Watch
Sat 09:00	Women's		Women's	San Francisco vs New York
Sat 10:00	Division I	Pool B	Cooper's	Orange County vs Denver
Sat 11:00	Division III	Pool A	Field 4	Tulsa vs Ohio Valley
Sat 12:00	Division I	Pool A	Cooper's	Los Angeles vs Calgary
Sat 14:00	Division III	Pool B	Field 4	Portland vs Des Moines
Sat 15:00	Division I	Pool B	Cooper's	New York vs Denver
Sat 16:00	Women's		Women's	Denver vs Sacramento
Sat 17:00	Division II	Pool A	Field 2	Columbus vs Sacramento

The love of the game in Russia is slowly growing, largely through the efforts of late of two of their newest clubs – the Saint Petersburg Cats and the Lazy Koalas in Moscow. After many years of work by Roger Scott and his crew to get a foothold in Moscow, a new breed has grabbed the game by the throat and is lovingly steering it to bigger and better places.

Whilst the national team has yet to reappear at the Euro Cup since their debut international appearance in 2011, the game is far from finished in Russia. During this season the teams from Moscow and St Petersburg have found the resources to compete on a reasonably regular basis – considering distance, opportunity and personnel need to be available at the same time every time to make an event happen.

Alexey Andryushin from the Saint Petersburg Cats, one of the new clubs in the nation, forming in 2014, was happy to give an overview of the 2015 season in Russia – especially from the viewpoint of the Cats as they continue thee long road to stability and success.

With a simple tweet Mike Pyke literally and figuratively hangs up his boots after a successful (surprisingly so) career at the Sydney Swans that was highlighted by a most solid outing in the 2012 premiership win against the pre-three-peat Hawthorn Hawks. From a 25 year old taking as big a personal sporting gamble as several more high profile 'code hoppers' - but with far less fanfare or fortune - Pyke has carved out a 6 year career that more than justified his personal journey and also the leap of faith of his club and coaches. And also highlighted the need the system to retain the means by which the sporting narrative can throw up such pleasant surprises rather than militarily fit to a formularised predictability.

The AFLCNE will welcome a new team to their playing fields for the 2016 in a move which will bring the competition back to eight teams and bring the city of Liverpool back into the Australian Rules football scene.

The recent AGM for the league saw a unanimous decision to allow the fledgling Merseyside Saints to take their place in the competition next year. A message from the AFLCNE on their Twitter account said “following today's AGM it gives us great pleasure to welcome [the] Merseyside Saints into the AFLCNE. See you on the field!”

Will Sykes is co-founder of the club and club president. In a short interview, Will laid out the situation for the club in terms of how people feel about the decision. He also looked at the demographics of this newest team from a Liverpool base and what will ensure future longer term success.

 

The Hong Kong Dragons have won the Asian Champs tournament in Bangkok, Thailand. Final scores: HK Dragons 4 11 35 d Malaysian Warriors 2 3 15. Congratulastions to the Dragons. More details to follow.

 

The Port Adelaide website has released a story outlining the role the club has had in the development of the game in Asia, particularly with the China Reds team. The article below showcases their involvement ahead of the Asian Championships which begin tomorrow in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

(Picture: Zhang Hao, Russell Ebert, Chen Shao Ling – Port Adelaide FC)

 

THE China Reds will take part in the AFL Asian Championships in Bangkok this weekend with the help of Port Adelaide as part of the club’s push into Asia.

 

With money raised from the 2014 Port Adelaide ANZAC Day fundraising auction, 11 local Chinese players have been given the opportunity to make the trip to Thailand.

Each year at the AFL Europe Axios Euro Cup one team seems to have its moment in the sun – a year where they reach a new height which surprises some but thrills many. In 2014, Wales finished fifth when they surprised England in their playoff. In 2013 the story was host nation France reaching the final. Norway had the European footy world talking when they won the Euro Plate in their debut year.

The “feel good” story from the 2015 event in Umag, Croatia, could well be Austria. Their seventh placing overall was their best performance ever at a Euro Cup. Michael Jud, captain of the Austrian Avalanche national team has been through the lows in the past, but was delighted to talk about this high.

“Before the Euro Cup we didn't know how to feel about it, because our year was not the best one when it comes to training and games because we had to cancel a lot of sessions due to heavy rain. Furthermore, quite a lot people were almost fully booked with working, studying and becoming fathers.”

The USAFL Nationals are set to get underway in Austin Texas this weekend.  USAFL matches have been underway since early in the year but for most clubs all those games are the warm-up for this tournament.  This year 36 men's teams and 9 women's teams from all over the US will battle it out in warm conditions at Onion Creek Soccer complex in Austin.

The Austin Crows will be favourites in their own backyard to take the title as they did here two years ago, their most likely rival in the final is set to be the reigning champions the New York Magpies.  Don't be surprised though if Austin's neighbours in the Dallas Magpies can work some magic to make it an all Texas affair in the final.  In the Women's Division the Denver Lady Bulldogs are looking to go 6 in a row but will face stiff competition from the other four teams in their division.

Read on for all the details on the schedule of events, the pools, my predictions and the USAFL Weekly Report show schedule for the Nationals. 

Following in the wake of fellow AFL listed countrymen, Majak Daw at North Melbourne and Aliir Aliir at the Sydney Swans, two more Sudanese footballers have set their sights firmly on succeeding at the highest level. Their results at the recent AFL Draft Combine prove conclusively that they will give everything they have to give and more.

Mabior Chol and Gach Nyuon (pictured) are both very similar in many ways. Both were born in Sudan and both saw their families flee their home countries and spend time in camps elsewhere. Gach’s family spent time in refugee camps in both Kenya and Ethiopia before his journey brought him to Melbourne as a seven year old.

Mabior’s family also fled, via Egypt. Leaving the war in Sudan as a two year old, violence saw his family leave Egypt when he was eight for Brisbane.

The Northern Territory Top End summer footy season roared back into life last weekend with four Premier league matches to kick off 2015. The NTFL (Northern Territory Football League) got off to a flyer with a triple header at TIO Stadium in Darwin, with the showcase of the round being the traditional Grand Final rematch from the previous season – Wanderers against St Mary’s.

The feature match was a thriller, and treated the crowd to an exciting come from behind win to last year’s premiers – Wanderers. The St Mary’s crew skipped out to a five point lead by quarter time, despite only having three scoring shots to eight. The adage of bad kicking being bad football was on display as Wanderers squandered opportunities whilst the Saints made the most of theirs kicking three straight to Wanderers one goal seven behinds.

The 2015 Euro Cup is now but a memory and the players, officials, supporters and families have started the journeys home. In another year from now we will start again, somewhere. But now we have a chance to look at how each nation performed at the event.

 

Denmark:

As close to faultless as a team could get. Won their Pool B matches against Austria and the Peace team by huge margins, then mauled the host team, Croatia, in the semi-final stage. Gave England a decent headstart in the final before powering home and away by 21 points. Little more could have gone right to make this two years of Danish dominance.

 

The women’s team fell only at the final hurdle, proving too good for Norway, Croatia and France, However, they went down heavily in the final to England suggesting a gulf between their own best and the best women in Europe.

 

The Danish men’s footy team has etched themselves into the history books by becoming just the third team to win back to back titles after England (2008/09) and Ireland (2011/12). The Danes were terrific in taking out the title in Umag. The women’s title was taken by the England Vixens, defeating the Danish girls in their final.

 

In a tough final, heavily effected by strong winds, the England team raced to an early lead before the Denmark team charged back into the game, eventually running out comfortable winners by 21 points.

 

 

Host nation Croatia held on in a thriller against Ireland for the third place battle. Germany finished in fifth place, taking out the Euro Bowl by defeating the team from France in another thriller by just three points. The Netherlands defeated the European Crusaders in the battle for ninth place to be the winners of the Euro Plate.