World Footy News

The Toulouse Hawks have got their new season off to a positive start with victory in the French Cup (Coupe De France) over the weekend. After missing out on the 2014/15 season Grand Final earlier this year, the Hawks have reset their compass for the new season and this first up win is very handy for their preparation.

The tournament was held in Toulouse and contested by six French teams: the Hawks, Bordeaux Bombers, AFLA Lions, Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes, Perpignan Tigers and a combined Paris Cockerels/Firesharks Montpellier team, bringing last year’s Grand Finalists together as one.

Toulouse went through their four matches undefeated on the day in a resounding result and a pre-emptive message to the rest of the competition for the rest of the season. But they were not the only team to take great heart from the day. The fast-improving AFLA Lions from Lyon, unlucky to miss last year’s CNFA finals, won two of their matches on the day, as did the Perpignan Tigers who took a win from the day.

The Northern Territory’s own NEAFL team, the NT Thunder, qualified for this year’s Grand Final last weekend setting up a home event against the Aspley Hornets to decide the NEAFL premiership for 2015. Territorians have spent the week preparing TIO Stadium in Darwin ready for the match, aware that it will be a national showcase for the venue.

The Thunder enjoyed a strong season, finishing second on the home and away ladder behind the UWS Giants. Last weekend they won their Preliminary Final against Sydney University by 70 points to reach the big day. This will be the third time in a Grand Final for the Thunder after having won the inaugural NEAFL flag in 2011 by defeating Brisbane club Morningside, then being beaten in the 2012 final by the Brisbane Lions.

Their opponent, the Aspley Hornets, have been perennial finalists also. Last year they won the flag by defeating the Sydney Swans by just two points. In 2013 they went down to the Brisbane Lions. Both the Hornets and the Thunder have been regular finalists since 2011.

The second week of the 2015 Finals series kicks off in Melbourne Friday night with Hawthorn hosting the Adelaide Crows in the Second Semi Final at the MCG.  Saturday night in Sydney the Swans host North Melbourne at Homebush Stadium. Once again viewers around the world can access matches live or delayed on a number of TV networks or stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au. 

The broadcast schedule for this Finals Week 2 can be seen below.  .

 

The lifeblood of future Australian Rules football competitions world-wide is and will increasingly be the development of junior pathways. Ultimately, it will not be enough for the game to grow simply through ex-pat Australians overseas and local converts. To prosper, rather than stagnate or fall away, the leagues and clubs need the infusion of youth as its supply line.

Already there are increasing signs worldwide of Auskick clinics or similar growing across Europe, the USA, across Asia, Oceania and even in Chile, South America, across African countries and the Middle East. Almost everywhere the game is played junior programs of one sort or another are appearing to develop the next generation of players.

One more recent example has been the development of a junior program in Sweden at the Södermalm Blues club in suburban Stockholm. A recent chat with Jonas Raninen, Södermalm Vice President and Junior Team Manager, unearthed the background and logistics of their program, including potential for further growth and a vision for the future.

It is just possible that Australian Rules footy in Iceland saw our game in the most dramatically beautiful country on earth. With its amazing mix of sub-Arctic, volcanic, coastal, mountain and beautifully rural scenery combined with charming cities and people, our game was given an incredible backdrop.

But, sadly, beauty isn’t enough to sustain sport, especially a sport with a lower profile than others, and the game in Iceland is in a state of decline after having made significant steps in recent years. The reality of life is that people need to work to live and this fact impacts on all teams at some point. In a country like Iceland where the game was very fragile due to the “newness” of the game and relatively low numbers, a few personnel moves can mean the difference between maintaining the code or seeing it fall away.

In chatting recently to Sölvi Sigmarsson, General manager of AFL Iceland and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Akureyri in the north of the country, near the Arctic Circle (see story – Footy Beneath the Arctic Circle – Akureyri, Iceland) he is honest in his appraisal of the game in Iceland.

Tijs Lejeune is a Year 12 student in Canberra. For his English subject he was asked to write a paper which reflected his area of sporting or community interest – in this case his desire to learn more about the multicultural and international aspects of Australian Rules football - recognise a challenge faced by the code in its growth and look at possible solutions.

 

Tijs’ use of the metaphor of the extinct Dodo on Mauritius is a powerful metaphor for the negative growth of our game if suitable care is not taken. Whilst Tijs expresses some views which are not necessarily endorsed by World Footy News or the broader AFL, it is a very interesting take on a possible future of our great game.

 

 

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, but I look at how the dodo became extinct and worryingly I see some similarities with the AFL. Factors like: undisturbed for so long on the island of Mauritius, no natural predators for so long, restricted to a small inhabitable area and the inability to escape when danger confronted it.

Elephants play footy at Wanneroo AFC, Perth, WA. in effort to promote and develop Aussie Footy Internationally.

Earlier this year in July two Laotian Australian Rules footballers played an invitational match for Wanneroo Amateur Football Club in Perth, Western Australia.

Story following courtesy of AFL Asia.

Years of planning and fundraising has finally paid off for two Aussie Rules clubs thousands of kilometers and oceans apart. Through the efforts of Wanneroo Amateur FC legend and current Laos Elephants President Steve Chapman, two Laos Elephants have been given the trip of a lifetime and in doing so, creating a strong bond between the two clubs.

After playing in Wanneroo’s 2010 Premiership, “Chappy” ventured off into a remote mine site in Laos and has not looked back, being a key driver of the Laos Elephants successful local development program.

In a season many people at Essendon would rather forget, there were a few little gems here and there which lifted spirits and gave a pointer to a far better future. One of those was the initial form of young 19 year old Irish recruit, Conor McKenna. After being recruited late in 2015 as an international Category B Rookie, few had many high expectations regarding his debut season.

But the youngster got a taste of the “big league” back in the NAB Challenge matches pre-season. He had some touches, but is best remembered for his dual 50 metre penalty infringements which gifted St Kilda a goal. An inauspicious start, to be sure, but as his season progressed, so did his game sense, contribution and impact on his adopted game.

The Carlton Football Club has signed US basketballer Matt Korcheck as a Category B International Rookie.

Korcheck, who stands at 6”10 (208cm) and weighs 105kg, caught the eye of recruiters at a Florida screening camp in April this year. He was later invited to train with the Blues and spent three weeks at Ikon Park in August.

The 23-year old, who previously played Division 1 College Basketball for the Arizona Wildcats, hasn’t played much ‘Aussie Rules’ but Carlton’s GM List Management Stephen Silvagni says Korcheck has shown great potential.

The footy season is nearly at an end, or in some cases finished, for most of the competitions across Scandinavian countries. Whilst the Norway final of the Kenguru Cup was completed earlier this month, the season in Finland finished on the weekend and the codes in Stockholm, Sweden and in Denmark come to an end in the next week or two.

NORWAY
As previously reported by World Footy News, the Norwegian season came to a close with the completion of the 2015 Kenguru Cup Ås Battlers Take Norway’s Kenguru Cup Crown. The Ås Battlers defeated the Oslo West team by just just three points to take their second flag in three years. The Battlers had to overcome the fact that the Oslo West team had dominated the competitive rounds of the Kenguru Cup, but come finals time it was the better team on the day. It was a true changing of the guard for the Norwegian teams with Oslo East, the most dominant club in recent seasons, missing the grand final and allowing the Oslo West team their first ever grand final appearance.

Last month saw the “Battle Of Three Armies”, to borrow from Peter Jackson, when teams from Austria and Germany met in Prague, Czech Republic, for a tournament. It is the first such event between the three teams and marks another innovative approach to footy competition across European clubs.

The AFL Europe website stated that, “the 8th of August saw an Inaugural 3 Cities Tournament hosted by the Czech Lions in Prague. Taking part were the Dresden Wolves, from Dresden, Germany and the Styrian DownUnder Dogs from Graz, Austria. The three game round robin tournament saw the Lions take out the top prize, the DownUnder Dogs come in second and the Wolves third.”