World Footy News

Yes, there are the vagaries of week to week player availability. Yes there are geographic and meteorological concerns from time to time and, yes, there are a number of reasons why a top team can lose to the bottom team on a given weekend.

But nothing can take away the remarkable efforts of the Tyne Tees Tigers to record their first victory of the season, bringing down previously undefeated top team Sheffield Thunder in the process. In a tremendous show of belief and commitment, the Tigers trounced the now deposed league leaders as much through combined belief as any other factor.

 

They may not yet be finished either. The Tigers cannot make the finals, but their next four matches are against potential finalists. They are in a position to create havoc for the Rams, Bears, Scorpions and Wolverines in coming weeks as they jostle for finals spots. 

Last year an historic football match took place in Kenya, with a team representing the host nation to play a visiting team from neighbouring Tanzania. The story from that initial match was published on World Footy News as Buffalo soldiers: Kenyans beat Tanzanians in historic match and followed the incredible work of Tom Purcell  who after a huge effort brought together two East African nations to play an international Australian Rules football match in suburban Nairobi.

 

Now it is the turn of the Tanzanian team to host their own piece of history with an Australian Rules football match on the home soil. In a first for the game, Tanzania will become an Australian Rules football nation as our game spreads its tentacles farther and wider.

 

 

The following story by Conor Walsh for the AFL’s  own website (www.afl.com ) looks at the upcoming match and further details the work of Tom Purcell and the work of the Zimele program.

Geelong's Steven Motlop has been working to bring a group of refugees together as a football team. This fascinating account of his dream was recently aired on Channel 7 news.

The Channel Seven news story looked behind the scenes of the football world where new immigrants and refugees are slowly but surely taking up the game at junior and senior levels, with the assistance of players like Motlop.

As reported by Nick McCallum on the Channel Seven story, the Geelong star has brought his skills along to train a group of refugees, some aboriginal students going to school in Geelong and some helpful locals to develop a team.

 

There are only five rounds remaining before the AFLCNE finals series begins, so the serious josting for positions and respect from opponents is certainly hotting up. Sometimes that takes the form of a team exerting their dominance over another along the way. On other occasions it is the self-belief that grows from pushing a better team and knowing that come finals time the gap might just be narrower again.

Such might be the case is last weekend’s clash between the Sheffield Thunder and Huddersfield Rams. The scoreboard says that the Thunder won comfortably enough in the end, a 21 point margin: Sheffield 17 20 122 d Huddersfield 14 17 101. But last time they met in round four it was a 23 point margin. The message is that less than four goals have separated the teams twice this season. Thunder can read that they have the Ram’s measure. The Rams can look at the margins and build their counter-attack. Such is the fun of footy.

The following extract from an article by John Tuxworth in The Canberra Times looks briefly at the journey and rise of Aliir Aliir, the second Sudanese footballer to reach the list of an AFL club.

To read to full John Tuxworth story, go to: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/afl/sydney-swans/from-refugee-camp-to-sharing-locker-room-with-adam-goodes-for-aliir-aliir-20150613-ghn6ci.html

When Aliir Aliir was growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp, he wouldn't have dreamed he'd eventually have a lockerroom beside the great Adam Goodes.

 

The Sudanese 20-year-old took another step toward his AFL dream with a strong display for the Sydney Swans reserves in a 14.17 (101) to 5.6 (36) NEAFL win over Eastlake at Manuka Oval on Saturday. 

In a round of upsets and spine-tingling finishes, the Putney Magpies have got off their dreaded “duck” and recorded a valuable and heartening victory against the Wimbledon Hawks. At home to the Hawks, the Magpies needed to register a first win of the season and did so in fine style to win the match 12 14 86 to 7 11 53.

In another upset, the North London Lions, sitting in third place and playing at home, were expected by many to defeat the inconsistent London Swans. But the Swans team had not read the script presumably and came away from the outing with a 10 5 65 to 6.10 46 win against the Lions.

In the match of the round, first were playing second with the Wandsworth Demons taking on the West London Wildcats at home. Whilst the Wildcats started the season with some massive wins, the Demons have stayed close behind. That could not be better illustrated than the weekend result which saw the Wildcats hang on by a whisker against the Demons for a one point win. Final scores saw the Wildcats 10 13 73 edge out the Demons 10 12 72.

 

Thursday night footy in Adelaide kicks off Round 12 with the Crows hosting the reigning Premiers, Hawthorn. 

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 round can be seen below.

 

In a huge result for French football, the Montpellier Firesharks have defeated the favourites, and winner of the last two CNFA premierships, the Toulouse Hawks, to book an historic berth in the 2014/15 Grand Final. They will meet the Paris Cockerels team which defeated the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes in the other semi final.

Whilst the Paris team have a chance to write their own history, it is the Firesharks team which is the talk of the town, reaching their first ever national level Grand-Final. It is an incredible result for a club that during its early years played in the lesser Development Cup competitions and sometimes not at all. To have progressed as a club to challenge for this year's national title is a huge tribute to the people who have kept believing and developing the club based in Montpellier. The city, is located between two other French cities with Australian Rules football heritage, Toulouse and Marseille, close to the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France.

The match was a battle of the south, but it is the Firesharks that will now represent that part of the country in the season's finale.

When Howard Kennedy surveyed the damage on his Woopen Creek property he decided nothing could be fixed there and then, so took himself into Cairns shortly afterwards to watch a footy match.

His decision set in motion six decades of Australian Rules football in the sugar growing communities to the south of Cairns, namely Babinda, Aloomba and Gordonvale. Today the game is growing strongly across the district again with the rise of the Pyramid Power club in Gordonvale.

Cairns based author and Pyramid Power junior coach, Wesley Hull, has traced this history in his new book: Kennedy’s Legacy – The History of the Pyramid Power Australian Football and Sporting Club.

From the days of Howard and Ailsa Kennedy rounding up kids, jerseys, boots and players each match day, through the early days of the Aloomba-Gordonvale club and famous pioneers of the game in Jack Holt and Des Trannore, the book looks at the growth of the Australian game in a part of the country where hard work was needed to establish support to grow and thrive.

Whilst the West London Wildcats have been merrily locking down top spot on the AFL London ladder, the Wandsworth Demons have been keeping pace in second position. Their Round Five match saw them send a message of their own, putting away the Wimbledon Hawks by 53 points. Whilst the Demons went down to the Wildcats in their only loss to date (by just 17 points in Round 1), their other form has been consistent.

In other matches, the North London Lions went down bravely to the Wildcats by just 15 points, keeping the Wildcats to their lowest score of the season. The London Swans also kept their finals chances intact with a solid 35 point win over the Putney Magpies.

The Round 5 results for the Premiership Competition:

Wandsworth Demons: 9.10.64 def. Wimbledon Hawks: 1.5.11
West London Wildcats 10.9.69 def. North London Lions 8.6.54
London Swans 13.14.92 def. Putney Magpies 9.3.57

Behind the scenes in the world of Australian Rules football there are people who volunteer their services in all manner of ways, whether that be on or off the field. In this article, written for the AFL Diversity team on the www.afl.com website, I look at what a year as a multicultural ambassador looks like. 

It is hoped that the story might inspire others to consider taking on this ambassadorial role in the future to help develop our great game further and reach out to people and communities across the nation.

The New Year arrives with the tingling sensations of a new footy season. But somehow, this year was even more…tingly. With the first ball being bounced in anger in April, something more exciting preceded it. Would I be successful in my bid to be a Multicultural Community Ambassador for the AFL in 2015ω

 

A flurry of emails and letters in the mail heralds the news. I have been successful. For at least a year I have a chance to play a role for the AFL in spreading the message of a multicultural future for the game. So, was that the biggest challenge overω Selectionω Far from it. Now the hard work would begin.

The Vietnam Swans’ ambition to be considered amongst the AFL Asia elite took a big step forward last Saturday 30th May in Manila, winning their first ever Manila International Cup in a clean sweep and moving to the top of the AFL Asia ladder.

Read the full article on afl-asia.com here