World Footy News

In an announcement released by AFL Europe, the Champions League event for 2015 will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at a venue to be advised at a later date.  The dates for this event will be March 21st and March 22nd.

 

According to AFL Europe General Manager Ben MacCormack, “It’s with great pleasure that we announce the details for the inaugural AFL Europe Champions League – 2015 – Amsterdam. Following a number of years with the majority of our major events being held in the UK and Ireland we are pleased the Amsterdam Devils have taken on the challenge to co-host the Champions League with AFL Europe. It’s a great chance for them to further develop the sport in a market with huge potential.”

 

 

 

Ryan Davidson from afl.com.au reports that former Collingwood player, Marty Clarke, has returned home to Northern Ireland after finishing his career with the AFL club. But now a new challenge confronts him. The following is Ryan’s story.

 

Former Collingwood defender Marty Clarke has revealed he was diagnosed with a rare energy-sapping disease as he fought to save his AFL career in the second half of 2014.

 

 

The 27-year-old is happily back home in Northern Ireland adapting to the cold northern hemisphere winter, but he's also adapting to living day to day with Addison's disease.

Hot on the heels of his performances at the International Cup and his appearances on the reality TV show "The Recruit", Padraig Lucey found himself snapped up by the the Geelong Cats as a Rookie B list player.

As reported in a previous article on this site, "not only has he been a contestant on the FOX 8 television show The Recruit, he has also come from a successful International Cup performance for Ireland. In his five games, Padraig booted 14 goals, including impressive bags of five against highly fancied Nauru and a huge six goals against France. He also featured amongst the best players for Ireland in many matches.

According to the Herald Sun article by Adam Baldwin, “Geelong’s ruck crisis is set to see it turn to an Irishman who was last week delisted from a reality television series.

The Herald Sun can reveal Padraig Lucey — a part-time pool lifeguard from County Kerry — will join the Cats on a two-year deal."

India appears to be one of Australian football's hot spots at the moment, with a growing organisational structure, interest from AFL clubs and grass roots support coming from Australia.  One such example is a recent trip organised by the Bendigo Netball and Football League.  Bendigo is a regional city in Victoria with a strong Aussie Rules culture.  Thanks to Mikey Dynon (a Bendigo local who was involved with India at IC14) for bringing the trip to our attention and to the original author of the report, Bruce Claridge.

Indian Trip Report.

After many months of planning, promotion and anticipation the first BFNL India Trip departed from Tullamarine Airport at 11:30 am on Wednesday November 5th, 2014.

The team's main goal was to prepare the way for future annual trips by connecting with key people in Kolkata who would open doors of opportunity for teams to follow.

The initial team of Bruce and Jan Claridge, Paul Byrne, Connor Byrne, Justin Abrams and Ben and Toni West formed a unified group with a clear mission and the initial expectations of the group were far exceeded as the week together unfolded.

Key Points: 

The West Coast Eagles had been watching young Irish product, Paddy Brophy, since his match for the European Legion in 2013. In October this year the club selected Brophy to be a Rookie B List player, and the first international selected by the club in this manner.

According to the club’s website “he has worked hard on his skills which is shown in the fact that Paddy won the Clean Hands test at the AFL Combine with a score of 26/30 and also scored 25/30 in the goalkicking test.”

Brophy says ““I’m really pleased to have finally chosen a club and look forward to starting at West Coast Eagles and making the most of my opportunity,” he said. “Hopefully one day I will be playing for them in the AFL. I was very impressed with both the club and Perth as a place to live in my short visit and whilst I’m taking on a big move, I’m excited at the prospect and can’t wait to get underway.”

The Footy Almanac is a game by game account of every AFL match of the season. Over 150 shameless one-eyed writers tell the story of their day following the footy. 

They are passionate fans. The result is a wonderful collection of footy writing: funny, insightful, one-eyed.  They are from all walks of life and many varied locations, including international contributors.  The contributions are selected by the editors from those submitted to the www.footyalmanac.com.au website during the season.
 

Some of the contributors giving the The Footy Almanac international flavour are Glen Brownstein from the USA, Peter Cresswell from NZ and Candian expat living in Australia Glen Mudie.
 

World Footy News scribe Prof. Stephen Alomes is a regular contributor to The Footy Almanac as well, his Round 5 Melbourne vs Gold Coast match report is featured and WFN editor Troy Thompson makes his Footy Almanac debut in this year’s edition.

Danish footballer Mikkel Kjoge has dreams to follow in the footsteps of fellow Dane, Aksel Bang, and make it to an AFL team list in Australia. Having just tested at the AFL Europe Talent Combine in Dublin (one of just two non-Irish players to test), Mikkel is keen to chase his dream further, and confident that he can.

 

The following is Mikkel’s story, looking at his early playing days, his journey to date and where he hopes to be in the very near future.

 

 

“I first heard of Aussie Rules when I was about nine years old from a family friend. My mom’s cousin had been playing for quite a while, and to begin with he was my head figure. I went to my first practice with Farum Cats when I was nine. I was a little kid and everybody would just throw me around but I liked the roughness. I kept up the spirit and went to practice every week and I liked it even more every week. I always loved sports and I played soccer when I was younger, but I found AFL way more fun.” 

 

In coming weeks World Footy News will be looking at the 2014 seasons for leagues across Europe, as well as looking towards the 2015 season. This first article features a look at the Australian Rules footy scene in Croatia, courtesy of Josip Kravar, president of the AAFC (Association of Australian Football Croatia).

 

2014

“Croatian league (HLAN) started with new club, Slavonski Brod Tigers and first time we played with four clubs.”

“During the season the Hawks showed the best performances and won all games during the season and won back to back [premierships], pretty much as Hawthorn did in Australia. MVP was Josip Habljak, ruckman of Zagreb Hawks and best rookie was Lovre Čudina, player of Zagreb Cvjetno Dockers who were runners up.” 

“We also played CEAFL (Central European Australian Football League) with our friends from Austria (Styrian Downunderdogs).”

Tokyo Bay Suns victorious in AFL Japan Top League.

The AFL Japan Top League2014 Grand Final was played out between the Tokyo Bay Suns and the Tokyo Goannas at the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club on the 29th November.

In a close fought match the Tokyo Bay Suns reigned supreme 12-10 (82) at the final siren, to the Tokyo Goannas 10-13 (73). 

 

Parrs Park in the West of Auckland is the setting for the return match of women’s  U18 Football, the Australian Woomeras versus the New Zealand Kahus. It’s the last football game on the N.Z. football calendar.  Fortunately Parrs Park is well drained  as the area had received torrential rain for much of the Sunday morning leading up to the game which was played in light rain and  a blustery East wind.

The Kahus were looking to improve on their first outing with the Woomeras where they were comprehensively beaten. Parrs park is quite a picturesque ground with good a surface, good markings, facilities and solid goal posts. It’s also the home ground of the Magpies, one of six teams in the Auckland league.

The Kahus won the toss and decided to kick with the aid of a slight cross wind which unfortunately swung around almost straight after bounce down. The Woomeras were immediately into attack and the Kahus were constantly defending but after a period they able to break out of defence and mount attacking moves. It was a good quarter with the slightly inaccurate Woomeras scoring only one goal four behinds.

The 2014 AFL Europe Talent Combine took place in Dublin, Ireland, over the weekend. Whilst the vast majority of attendees were from Ireland, one Englishman, Sam Willatt, was there to fly the flag for England and pursue his own individual journey to the big time.

As Sam says, “I’ve always wanted to try the combine as a way of taking the next step in my football journey, and leapt at the chance when AFL Europe invited me. My dream would be to get picked up by an AFL club.”

So how did Sam’s journey start, and where will it go from here?

“I discovered the sport at my first week of university in 2012. Before this I played soccer and basketball to a local and school level. The speed and athleticism of the AFL players caught my interest, and highlight reels seeing blokes take huge marks definitely appealed to me.”