World Footy News

AFL Japan extends invitation to footy clubs from around the world to contest the Japan Cup.

The Japan Cup has been held every two years since around 2001 and this year will be contested on October 10th 2015.

Originally called the Sugadaira Cup because it was held in Sugadaira, Nagano Prefecture.

Getting to the business end of the season of the VFL.  Shem Tatupu and Conor McKenna's efforts up forward and Mason Cox's ruckwork were the standout performances among the Internationals in the VFL this week.

 

Friday night footy in Adelaide kicks off Round 19 with Adelaide hosting Richmond. 

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. Details of free passes for viewers outside Australia for this round only can be found here.

The broadcast schedule for this round can be seen below.

 

To help celebrate the 2015 AFL Multicultural Round, WatchAFL (the AFL’s official global streaming service) are offering all people outside of Australia with the opportunity to watch ALL Round 19 Matches for FREE (August 7-9) either Live or On Demand. 

Multicultural Round FREE passes will be available at  http://watchafl.afl.com.au  from Wednesday 5th August. 

 

 

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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.