World Footy News

Friday night footy at the MCG kicks off Round 22 with Geelong hosting Collingwood.  The Cats battling for a place in the finals. 

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. 

US viewers will be pleased that the Sydney vs St Kilda match is to be shown live (assuming Jason Holmes is selected again for St Kilda this week) on FOX Soccer Plus. 

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

Australian football has undergone steady and at times impressive growth around the world over the last decade or so. This is mostly but not entirely started by expatriate Australians who sow some seeds and then either tend to them or have enthusiastic locals continue the experiment.

But another important player in this is the Australian Football League. For some countries their contact has been negligible, but for most it has been useful and at times a strong source of encouragement, funds or other support. And every three years the AFL’s contribution is at its most visible in the form of the International Cup. Given their importance as the catalyst with most potential to drive rapid growth it’s always good to try to understand the role the AFL sees for itself, who the main people are and how they fit into the larger AFL administrative body itself. This is our first update on that front for several years.

Grant Williams and the AFL international structure

With many changes in recent years worldfootynews.com thought it timely to catch up with a key figure in Grant Williams, AFL General Manager Community Football Operations. Grant is pictured far left with AFL colleague Pete Romaniw (right) and former AFL Asia interim President Grant Keys (centre). We started by asking him where he fits into the international scene and where he’d like to see it go.

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.