World Footy News

The Sydney Swans tonight announced they have signed Irishman Colin O’Riordan as an International Category B rookie.

O’Riordan, who turns 20 next week, is an exciting prospect who hails from Irish county Tipperary.

The 187cm talented junior was recently named Gaelic football’s young player of the year and he’s also an All-Ireland minor winner in both hurling and football and has twice earned All-Ireland honours.

Irishman Tadhg Kennelly is a favourite son of the club in modern times and along the way they have also had Brendan Murphy, Chris McKaigue and Tommy Walsh come to the club from the Emerald Isle.

Kennelly oversaw the talent combine in Ireland late last year that was the first step in getting O'Riordan into the AFL system, but all clubs have the chance to both be at the combine here as well as see O'Riordan at the combine in Melbourne.  With Internationals the draft does not come into play in terms of who gets to sign them, it is first to sign them can then officially take them in the national draft.

Meanwhile in Fiji it’s been a big Fiji Day and AFL Fiji joined in the party by holding a Fiji Day Cup Under 15s competition at the FNU Nasinu Campus in Suva. 8 boys teams and girls from 6 schools also participating. Many of the kids have been participating in Bula Kick programs, as well as in conjunction with the Fiji National Sports Commission/Ministry of Health running the Tailevu Wellness program. The Fiji Day Cup is an important stepping stone for new and young AFL Fiji talent with the possibility of national representation in the Oceania Cup up for grabs.

Less than a year ago the B M Bulls had not played their first competitive match. They were about a week away from the 2014 AFL Middle East Pre-Season Cup and were a complete unknown quality to everyone. History says that the Bulls went on to record enough wins on the day to reach the Grand Final against the Dubai Dragons.

Back then it was the Dragons team which prevailed, but the signs were clear from their first competitive day that the Bulls would not take long to develop into a competitive unit.

Today that view was vindicated when the BM Bulls reversed last year’s result and have defeated the Dubai Dragons in the 2015 AFL Middle East Pre-Season Cup.

It’s all happening in Papau New Guinea this weekend – from Gary Ablett at Boroko (Port Moresby) to the AFL Lae mens and womens grand finals.

In Port Moresby, AFL PNG is holding a Niukick Gala Day at the AFL Oval at the Bisini Grounds in Boroko. AFL Gold Coast Suns captain Gary Ablett Jnr will be joined by former NBL basketball star Jason Smith. Running this morning 9AM to noon, locals are invited to learn to kick, mark & take a spekky from the best AFL player of our time.

In Lae, the second largest city in PNG and capital of Morobe Province, the action takes place at Eriku Oval today (Saturday 10th October).

 

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.

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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.