World Footy News

The 2015 AFL US Combine in Brandton, Florida has wrapped up after three days of testing the tallest crop of American athletes so far.  Well mostly American.  The tallest John Crnogorac is from Sydney.  He would not be an international rookie as such if listed by an AFL club but a Category B Rookie (and not the first basketballer to be speculatively listed as such by an AFL club).  Crnogorac also would come with some Aussie rules knowledge (even as an NRL fan) and without the need to adjust to life in Australia. He has been playing college basketball in the US.

Jalen Carethers would seem to be the obvious choice for the AFL clubs that attended the Combine to select to come to the Australian draft Combine in October, or even earlier ala Mason Cox in 2014.  If for no other reason than his surname Daquan Holiday could be another selected to make the trip.

 

 

 Picture from @BradAmes14 on Twitter

 All eyes on Kiwi Kurt Heatherley on Sunday with Brian Lake going down in Hawthorn’s Saturday night loss to Pt Adelaide. He was named in the best players for Box Hill as they defeated Coburg by 20 points, and may have been in the Hawthorn selectors minds to be upgraded to the senior list for a chance to play against North Melbourne on Saturday. 

Alex Benjamin from USAFL Weekly Report wraps up the USAFL ANZAC Round matches from this past weekend.

Cincinatti Metro postponed

The Cincinnati Dockers, the Louisville Kings and the Indianapolis Giants were set for a Metro tripleheader last weekend but the tournament was postponed because of a major severe tornado threat and nearly 4 inches of rain had deluged Point Pleasant Park in Cincinnati. These games will be rescheduled at a later date.

Odisha became the latest state to embrace footy as they welcomed ARFAI officials to hold an introductory training session at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) campus in Bhubaneshwar.

The Australian High Commission in India deserve a special note of thanks for sanctioning the Direct Aid Program (DAP) grant for the joint venture between ARFAI and KISS. Under this project, ARFAI officials will train senior students at KISS to be footy coaches, who will in turn help in training at least 1500 children by the end of this calendar year.

 

The following is a press release from the Essendon Football Club looking at the upcoming 20th anniversary of the events which led to the changes of AFL racial vilification laws and the Michael Long inspired “The Long Walk”.

 

The Long Walk Launch

Twenty years on from their history changing moment on the MCG, Michael Long and Damian Monkhorst were reunited at the famous ground to launch this year’s The Long Walk.

The theme of this year’s The Long Walk is ‘Together’, and it was fitting that Long and Monkhorst shared their memories of the 1995 ANZAC Day Clash and the AFL’s vilification policy which was born out of the fallout. 

 

“This was a game changer in that moment for the positive and the right things that we see now. You see so many different cultures playing this great game and I don’t think we realise how much that moment changed our great game,” Long said.

Here in tropical North Queensland “rampant mozzies” might mean disease carrying insects, but across central England it might equally mean the powerhouse Aussie Rules team from Manchester. Such was the case in Round Two action last weekend as AFLCNE teams gathered in combat on the footy fields and commemorated combat with pre-match recognition of ANZAC Day.

 

The round was hosted by both Sheffield and Huddersfield. The Thunder played the visiting Tyne Tees Tigers and also hosted the second match between the Birmingham Bears and Manchester Mosquitoes. The Huddersfield Rams played host to the visiting Wolverhampton Wolverines. The Nottingham Scorpions had the bye.

 

 

Thunder started their season in fine style after the first round bye, downing a spirited Tigers by 97 points. The Mozzies put the Bears to the sword to the tune of 59 points, enhancing their premiership prospects further, whilst in Huddersfield the Rams were too good for the Wolverines on the day, home by 63 points.

 

AFL Round 5 kicks off with the blockbuster clash of Carlton vs Collingwood at the MCG in Melbourne, Friday night.

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.

 

 

The brand new season for AFL London got under way last weekend with two huge magnets dominating the program. The Premiership League kicked off with a grand-final replay between the West London Wildcats and the Wandsworth Demons. Equally exciting was the first women’s match in the AFL London competition when the South East London Giants took on the North London Lions.

 

The following reports from the AFL London website give the details of the weekend’s matches.

 

Round 1 Premiership Results:

Round 1 saw some great games of footy in the sunshine here in London, including the huge grand final rematch between the Wildcats and the Demons. Results were:

 

Wildcats 12.7.79 def Demons 9.8.62

Swans  6.6.42 def by Lions 15.14.104

Hawks 15.15.105 def Magpies 4.6.30

The recent allegation of racial vilification aimed at Richmond footballer Bachar Houli is a worrying sign. Whilst the journalist involved has apologised and does not recall having labelled Houli as a "terrorist", the mere fact that there might be a perceived vilifying link is disturbing on so many levels.

Whilst the ramifications go all the way to the rights of all people to a life without threats, bullying, stereotyping and fear, there is also a lesser argument that football codes, in this case Australian Rules football, will be damaged as a brand by the actions of a small minority.

This incident come just over a week after Western Bulldogs player, Lin Jong, was the target of racial slurs. His lineage is both East Timorese and Taiwanese. Richmond's Chief Executive, Brendon Gale stated to the AFL's website that ""Lin Jong is a fine young player and we should be celebrating the diversity he brings to our game."

Likewise, Bachar Houli's contribution to the game in terms of the development of multicultural markets for our game should be applauded and widely recognised. Racial slurs, whether in jest, without thought or deliberately targeted have absolutely no place in our game, or any sport, and all that can be done needs to be so stamp out racial slurs.

This article courtesy of Michael Douglas from the Greater Glasgow Giants.

The Greater Glasgow Giants made their competitive debut at the 2015 Haggis Cup, an annual invitational tournament held in Scotland every April. This year’s event took place in Edinburgh and, with experience levels ranging from 20 years to a few weeks, the Giants’ squad started the tournament excited to develop and get vital game time ahead of the 2015 season starting in May.

They faced a daunting task in the opening match as the Huddersfield Rams had brought a squad full of experience and littered with England internationals. The game went to the wire with the Rams coming out on top by 2 points, the Giants got off to a slow start but came back strong in the 2nd half finding themselves unlucky not to snatch victory late on as they had the chances!

 

Australian Rules football has slowly and surely spread its influence to all corners of the world. Many times it is expats going abroad from Australian to other countries, but many other overseas seeds were planted by service men and women in many locations.

 

There are famous accounts of impromptu matches suddenly erupting on some of the world’s most famous battle fields. The match being played on ANZAC Day in the French town of Villers-Bretonneaux, on the Somme, celebrates wartime accounts of matches played on the site of the Australian War Memorial.

 

Often the seeds of our sport, planted in wartime, burst into flower in the future.

 

Ben Guthrie from www.afl.com reports that Australian and New Zealand troops stationed and serving in Afghanistan will be playing an ANZAC Day footy match.