World Footy News

The 2015 AFL Multicultural Round is almost upon us and footy supporters are in for a feast of entertainment, events, promotions and raising of awareness for the diversity of people that make up our great game.

For the past few weeks the AFL’s Diversity unit has been putting in place the organisation of events, media opportunities and social media saturation to ensure that the widest possible amplification of the round is achieved. Volunteers all over the nation, Multicultural Community Ambassadors and other staff, have been visiting schools with clinics, presentations and the like to spread the word through communities, schools and a wide variety of cultural groups.

The AFL is pleased to announce the 2015 Toyota AFL Multicultural Round, celebrating ‘Many Cultures, One Game’ will take place in Round 19 of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.  

Multicultural Round highlights the contribution multicultural communities have made to the game’s history and welcomes new communities to embrace Australian Football as fans, players, umpires or administrators.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said he is proud to announce a record number of activities will take place in Round 19 to mark the Toyota AFL Multicultural Round.

“With 27 per cent of Australians born overseas and around 200 languages spoken every day in Australian homes, the AFL is committed to reflecting Australia’s growing cultural diversity. 

To celebrate this weekend’s upcoming Multicultural Round Port Adelaide will wear a Chinese-inspired guernsey against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday at Etihad Stadium.

The Power will wear a variation of its V-lined black guernsey. The guernsey will feature both the Chinese and Australian national flags on the front underneath the AFL logo and the respective player’s name in Chinese characters on the back above the number.

Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas said the Multicultural Round guernsey was another sign of the club’s commitment to China.

In one of the upsets of the season in many ways, the North London Lions ended the Grand Final dreams of the Wandsworth Demons and earned the right to challenge the West London Wildcats for the 2015 AFL London premiership.

Many believed that the Demons were a certainty with a more consistent season and having served up challenges to the Wildcats during the season. But the excellent recent form of the Lions saw them hold on in a thrilling Preliminary Final by a single goal.

On face value the West London Wildcats deserve premiership favouritism after an excellent home and away season with just one defeat. The down side on that ledger is that the defeat was to the hands on the North London Lions back in Round 10. On that day the Lions held sway over the Wildcats by 10 points. Earlier in the season the Wildcats won, but hardly convincingly, by 15 points.

In a hard fought match in damp conditions under lights the US Revolution prevailed over the Canadian Northwind by 16 points.  After a close first quarter the US pulled away in the second as the big men up forward began to dominate. 

The Northwind tried valiantly in the third to bridge the gap but poor kicking and a solid US defence did not allow them to make up much ground.  The push from Canada continued into the final quarter but when they finally goaled to put them within ten points with five minutes to go the clock was always going to beat them.  Mike Murphy kicked a late goal just before the siren for the US to seal the result.

USA Revolution 6.9.45
Canada North Wind  3.11.29

The Manchester Mosquitoes have gone back to back by taking out the 2015 AFLCNE premiership by downing Sheffield Thunder. This means that Manchester now boast four flags from five grand finals in the past 6 years, placing their run amongst the most successful of teams across Europe.

Final Scores: Manchester Mosquitoes 18 13 121 d Sheffield Thunder 10 14 74.

The final 47 point margin suggests a comfortable result that was all one way, but conditions saw a game which was buried effectively by quarter time and from there Sheffield spent the afternoon doing all they could to bridge the gap – which they did manage to do, just not enough to change the result.

Whilst English crowds pack Edgbaston in Birmingham to wildly cheer their cricketers on to a likely Ashes triumph, there are other sporting events to suit footy tastes as finals matches will be played in London and Sheffield to decide the 2015 premierships in the AFLCNE (Central & Northern England) competitions and grand finalists in the AFL London battle.

Up in Sheffield it will be the local team, Sheffield Thunder, hosting the minor premiers, the Manchester Mosquitoes. With one win apiece this season in their battles with each other, both sides have claims to this year’s flag. However, it will take an absolutely mighty effort from the Thunder to bring down the Manchester juggernaut which is aiming for a fourth flag in five grand finals over the past six seasons. But this is finals footy, with the season’s two best teams in combat. Nothing is a given.

AFL Europe is pleased to announce Megan Hession has been appointed CEO.

An experienced sports administrator, Megan will be based in London and will oversee the 21-member nation’s individual competitions while continuing to promote the game and oversee its development in Europe.

Originally from the United States, Megan arrives in London with a wealth of experience. After working for more than a decade in financial trading technology in New York and London, Megan started a sports management company in Europe that expanded to Dubai and New York. Her work focused on EPL player welfare and the organisation of high-performance training camps and sports event management in the Middle East.

Megan is no stranger to the AFL after organising Port Adelaide’s last two pre-season training camps in Dubai.

Megan said she was thrilled to be starting the role.

With a little over a week until the AFL’s Multicultural Round gets under way it is timely to have a look back at the genesis of our game and the part that players with strong and diverse ethnic backgrounds have played.

 

Whilst some might consider the “multicultural” aspect of the game a relatively new phenomenon, the fact is that the game’s past is garnered with a multicultural smorgasboard.

 

 

One of the first names that comes to mind is “Jezza” in the 60’s and 70’s. Carlton’s Alex Jesaulenko, of both Ukrainian and Austrian descent, became one of the better known surnames of his era. The commentary surrounding his famous mark in the 1970 grand final over Graeme Jenkins from Collingwood became part of folklore. Mike Williamson excitedly called “Jesaulenko, you beauty!” immortalising the mark and also a multicultural surname in one breath.

The USAFL, in conjunction with AFL Canada, will be streaming all four Parallel Cup matches live on YouTube.  Both days’ coverage will begin at 5:45pm ET, with Brian Barrish and Denis Ryan leading the commentary team for the weekend.  There will also be live updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Live Stream: Full schedule and YouTube links on USAFL.com

Twitter: @USAFL1997 and @AFL_TEAMCANADA

Facebook: USAFL and AFL CANADA

ST KILDA MEDIA RELEASE

THE rapid improvement of St Kilda’s international rookie Jason Holmes has resulted in a one-year contract extension for the 2016 season.

Until recently, the American-born Holmes had never heard of Australian football let alone played it but after completing his career as a college basketballer, tried his hand at an AFL combine.

The Saints selected him with pick 36 at the 2014 Rookie Draft and immediately set upon fast-tracking his development through the club’s VFL affiliate Sandringham.