World Footy News

 

As the AFL season in Australia moves into the trade and pre-draft stages, two more young Irish prospects have announced themselves at the current  NAB AFL Draft Combine. At the end of last season AFL clubs willingly added Irish talent to their 2015 lists with Conor McKenna going to Essendon, Sean Hurley to Fremantle, Padraig Lucey to Geelong, Cian Hanley to Brisbane and Paddy Brophy to West Coast.

 

Whilst the North American experiment is in a state of limbo with Eric Wallace being delisted by North Melbourne and the possibility of Mike Pyke retiring, the Irish contingent continues to blossom. The following article from www.afl.com.au introduces the progress of two more Irish candidates.

 

 

IRISH prospects Darragh Joyce and Colin O'Riordan have created plenty of interest at the NAB AFL Draft Combine, with the teenagers considered strong chances to earn international rookie contracts

After the trauma and tragedy of Cyclone Pam earlier this year - for AFL Vanuatu the footy has helped provide a focus to return to normality. The season reaches its conclusion this weekend and that in itself is a victory given the starting point. Along with the AFL Vanuatu decider - this week has also seen AFL Vanuatu again playing host to a contingent from Adelaide's Concordia College.

The reality is that the best prepared and performed team on any given day, at any given event, will take home the titles. The talent and determination in the team list will go a long way to deciding events as will the collective desire to focus for the sustained periods required and get the job done.

But can past performance be used as a guide to how the teams will go at this year’s Euro Cup in Umag, Croatia. This is far from an exacting science, but it does make an interesting exercise to see what journeys each nation has been on in the preceding years.

Following is a team by team analysis of past performance as a guide to how they might perform at this year’s Euro Cup.

For many less enlightened footy followers the Australian Rules footy season “came to an end” last weekend when the mighty Hawthorn defeated West Coast for the 2015 AFL Premiership. Across the world other competitions at senior, junior, men’s and women’s level have completed their 2015 campaigns.

But where one competition ends, there are now plenty of other competitions ready to take over as Australian Rules football continues to grow stronger as an all year round sporting behemoth.

Kicking off this weekend is the Axios Euro Cup in Croatia where the best teams across Europe take to the fields to assert their dominance as the best in Europe. This year’s questions will look at whether Denmark, champions in 2014, can go back to back in Croatia or if the host nation can take out the title. With twelve men’s and six women’s teams on show, the event will be a cracker.

Copenhagen Australian Football tell us "there is a lot of effort put in the video (below) and we believe it does a good job of representing footy in Europe and in Copenhagen." We agree, encourage you to watch and enjoy.

 [youtube:vI7uRtiBvkE]

Hawthorn today had some good news for New Zealander and International Rookie Kurt Heatherley. The news came along with some not so good news for Sam Grimley, Alex Woodward and James Hardisty who were all delisted (the club says they will look to redraft Woodward if not taken by another club).

But the news for Heatherley was good with the club announcing he has been upgraded to the senior list for the 2016 season. Heatherley was discovered as an elite multi-sport junior in NZ (where he also represented NZ in junior footy) and signed to an International Scholarship by Hawthorn. After relocating to Melbourne for school he has played school footy, TAC Cup and for the past two years with Box Hill Hawks in the VFL. All this while being taught the game at Hawthorn who have decided he is now ready to graduate to the big time.

With a little less than 24 hours before boarding a flight from Israel to get to Croatia and, specifically Umag, the manager of the new Peace Team was happy to have a short conversation and give details about the newest national team entering the Euro Cup for 2015’s tournament.

Yonatan Belik, as manager, is in arguably the best position to detail the rise of the team, as well as answering a few questions about the past, present and future and an assessment of the team’s chances in Umag.

The first question looked at the national makeup of the squad, in particular the unique criteria or otherwise relating to selection. According to Yonatan, “The Peace Team Lions are made up of two major nationalities - Israeli and Palestinian - who represent their communities in a 50/50 balance within the team. All Israelis are Jews from birth, whilst the Palestinians are made up of Christians and Muslims."

 

Hawthorn’s superstar, Cyril Rioli, more than deserved his Norm Smith Medal last weekend when Hawthorn defeated the West Coast team for the 2015 AFL Premiership. His electrifying skills, especially during the first half when the victory had to be set up, thrilled the crowd. No person at the game would deny his influence, and Rioli now sits in the history books alongside other legends of the game.

 

 

But two of those legends are his uncles and they all hail from the same islands to the north of Darwin in the Northern Territory. Cyril and his uncles, Maurice Rioli and Michael Long, not only share a heritage, a home and a culture – they also share a unique place in VFL/AFL history as Norm Smith Medal winners, adjudged best on ground in a AFL Grand Final.

With the Axios Euro Cup for 2015 now just days away interest is turning to the teams that will compete this year. Whilst there is much excitement over how the host team, Croatia, will go, whether or not Denmark can defend its title or whether the Irish or English teams will bounce back, one team which has fostered much interest is the Peace Team.

Simon Fink has been working to put together this team and is one of the people responsible for seeing the team materialise at this year’s event.

According to Simon, “The current Peace Team is comprised of Israeli's and Palestinians living in and around Jerusalem. The composition is 50/50. We have Muslims, Jews and Christians playing together.”

Hawthorn are 2015 AFL Premiers, recording their third consecutive Premiership with a 46 point win against the West Coast Eagles.

The Eagles scored the first goal through a free kick to Luke Shoey and hopes of a competitive Grand Final were alive. But a steady and accurate Hawthorn gradually built a 5.0 to 1.5 lead by quarter time with Cyril Rioli, Sam Mitchell and Isaac Smith leading the way for the Hawks.

The second quarter saw the Hawks drawing further away lead by inspirational captain Luke Hodge, but a late goal to Josh Hill and another after the siren to Elliot Yeo at half time pulled the lead back to 31 points and kept the game alive...barely.

North Melbourne’s young Sudanese ruckman, Majak Daw, has taken out the 2015 Grand Final Sprint, an event which has traditionally been a part of the half time entertainment since the late 1970’s. Whilst North Melbourne bowed out of the finals race last weekend, losing to West Coast, Daw has given the club something to cheer about.

After loping through the heats held earlier in the day, Majak Daw started the race well behind early leader, Charlie Cameron from the Adelaide Crows. But once the athletic and muscular Daw got his rhythm he raced past the leader and cruised home to an easy win.

Daw becomes the first Australian Rules footballer born overseas to win the event. Born in Sudan, his family fled with Majak in tow to escape the civil war in their country. After living for three years in Egypt, the family moved to Australia where Majak found his way to Australian Rules football and the Kangaroos.