World Footy News

Just when everything in the ARFLI competition was going to script – all teams try hard but the undefeated Belfast Redbacks would cruise to premiership glory – the South Dublin Swans have come along and changed the landscape in two afternoons.

Not having bothered to read the script, the Swans got out to an early advantage against the Redbacks and held their nerve to pull away and set up a home final and a legitimate share of premiership favouritism. They followed this with a comprehensive semi-final win against the Galway Magpies

According to the ARFLI website, “Saturday last saw the Belfast Redbacks host the South Dublin Swans at the Cherryvale Sports Grounds adjacent to the Ulster rugby venue Ravenhill. The Redbacks have led the league all season and went into the final home and away game undefeated. In contrast the Swans have dropped points including losing at home to the Redbacks.”

In the tenth anniversary year of the Scottish Australian Rules Football League (SARFL) the Grand Final saw reigning champions Edinburgh Bloods take on minor premiers Glasgow Sharks on the afternoon of 31st August. Each side had won on the other’s home ground during the regular season so this game at Linlithgow Rugby Club promised to provide a fitting climax.

Edinburgh began the game in impressive style, their experienced midfield dominating the first quarter as they quickly moved into a strong lead, kicking eight goals to lead 53-1 at the opening break. Glasgow came out much more strongly after the break, tightening up in the back line and midfield to take the second quarter by four goals to three and promise that a comeback could be on its way. Half time score: Edinburgh 11.7.73 Glasgow 4.3.27.

 

Saturday was supposed to see the AFL Fiji inaugural Women's grand final as well as the Men's preliminary final contested; Unfortunately heavy rain across the weekend has seen the AFL Fiji finals schedule disrupted due to the closure of the grounds at USP (University of South Pacific) in Suva. Fiji Times reports that the matches scheduled will be played at some point in the future - with confirmation required of time and venue. The latest information from AFL Fiji is that both mens and womens grand finals will be held this week - Saturday August 29th - which presumably will see the mens preliminary final held in the morning and the grand final that afternoon. A tough ask no doubt and certainly will reinforce the benefit of the team winning through from the semis.

15-year old German exchange student Tomas von Rudno Restrero made local footy headlines in Melbourne's northern suburbs recently, being profiled on the website of the Northern Football League after completing a season with the Mill Park Stallions under 16s side.

Tomas had never seen Australian rules football before arriving in Melbourne earlier this year, but jumped onboard with Mill Park to give the sport a go and ended up playing the full season.

WFN hopes that his enthusiasm can connect to a local club back in Germany when he returns home - from the interview it seems he doesn't yet know of the existence of the Hamburg Dockers, located close by his home town of Stade (but maybe we can fill him in).

The full interview is available on the NFL website.

Women’s footy is probably the fastest growing segment of our great game – and perhaps not just in Australia. The last two AFL International Cup tournaments have included a Women’s division and last year included debutant sides Fiji and Tonga. With momentum growing towards a hoped for 2017 debut Women’s AFL league, the timing couldn’t be much better for the finale of the inaugural AFL Fiji Women’s competition that tomorrow sees the Royal Eagles line up against Qio Vula. It is also the Men’s preliminary final day.

Friday night footy at the MCG kicks off Round 21 with Hawthorn hosting Port Adelaide. 

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 debut of Jason Holmes will not be shown on television anywhere outside Australia other than the Middle East on TV.  So to catch that action viewers in the US and elsewhere will need to stream the telecast via subscription to Watchafl.com.au.

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

 

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan spoke for around 30 mins today at Australia's National Press Club in Canberra, the nation's capital.  His focus was on the AFL's signing of an historic $2.508 billion 6 year media rights deal, and the four key beneficiaries to be fans, grass roots community football in Australia, the AFL clubs and (perhaps not by chance) lastly the players - which is not to say they will be anything but richly rewarded, but the AFL knows the AFL Players Association will be coming at them hard over the next 12 months.

But at the conclusion of Gillon's speech a remarkable thing happened.  To be honest, as Chief Editor of worldfootynews.com and knowing how difficult it has been to obtain statements of vision for international football from the highest ranks of the AFL over the past decade, it was like we had plants in the audience - to my knowledge we did not!

Areas touched on included the International Cup and expansion into China, India and New Zealand.  In all, not much detail, but in some ways exciting signs of possible commitment at the highest levels.

 

Following on from yesterday’s lucrative broadcast deals for the AFL, Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan announced at the National Press Club in Canberra a potential scheme to help develop and grow the game of Australian Rules football further. By looking towards a more focused development of multicultural and indigenous communities, McLachlan can visualise an idea where all existing AFL clubs buy into a “zoning” program to develop their own markets.

 

Similar in some ways to the zoning of Victoria in days gone by, just on a national scale, the idea certainly may have ramifications for the further tapping of indigenous talent across the country. It may also be a huge step towards the genuine development of player talent across a spread of multicultural communities nationwide which might see greater numbers of players from all over the world embrace the game. What might start small may one day grow into an enormous pool of future talent.

 

 

The following article is from the ABC News website and details McLachlan’s vision which, if funding and his own drive have anything to do with it, may take off in some form in the very near future.

The 2015 Brit Cup was held last weekend at Huddersfield, with the local Rams team hosting the event for the first time. In an event that was dominated for many years by London based clubs (West London Wildcats and Wandsworth Demons) the event has now see a shift in focus to the Central and Northern England region with the Rams making it four or the last five victors being AFLCNE clubs.

The Huddersfield Rams 2015 victory follows on from the Nottingham Scorpions wins in 2011 and 2014 and a combined Wolverhampton/Birmingham/University of Birmingham team in 2013.

In a statement from the Huddersfield Rams, “Rams won the [Brit Cup] competition. After some very good games played the Huddersfield Rams emerged victorious not losing a game all day, showing that they are the best all-British team in the country. In the Women's competition the Irish Kookaburras [defeated] an England/Scotland All-Stars team.”