World Footy News

AFL Commission Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick was an onlooker at the 2014 International Cup (pictured here at the Women's Grand Final with fellow commissioners Linda Dessau and Sam Mostyn) and it's pleasing he took the time to mention it during his AFL Grand Final pre-match address.

The full speech can be read here, and although it was only one sentence, it was good that the IC got a mention, as it shows he's not ashamed to spruik the international development of the game.

"The International Cup won by Papua New Guinea was again a great success, and goes from strength to strength. Our game really has no boundaries."

Fans of growing the women's side of the sport, as we all should be, would also be pleased to read Fitzpatrick say (speaking about women's football although no doubt primarily within Australia):

"Women’s football is on the march, and the AFL is going to support it."

 

The seasons have been completed in AFL competitions across northern and central Queensland over the past few weekends. Following is a brief rundown on each of the major competitions. For the victors, they are still quite possibly celebrating whilst other clubs will take a break from the game for a short while before plotting their assaults on the 2015 seasons.

 

AFL Cairns

The Port Douglas Crocs won their fifth senior premiership when they defied recent history, and the patterns of the home and away season, when they dispatched the Cairns Saints. History says that Cairns Saints have been to eight consecutive grand finals for five flags since 2007. They finished the home and away rounds in second place behind the much improved South Cairns Cutters.

 

But Port Douglas was not deterred as they defeated both teams in the preliminary and grand finals to surprise many. The season was memorable for the Crocs as they also won the Reserve grade flag and the Under 17 Colts flag.

 

Inor da Silva just loves Australian Rules football. A member of the Timor Leste Crocs International Cup team in 2011, Inor still lives the game as much as he can.  His social media pages are littered with photos of the glory days of the Crocs playing against international teams. He is proud to fly the flag and holds the hope that one day Timor Leste footy can come back.

 

Inor says, “Yeah we keep training in Dili every Sunday. We have got many players at training. But we still look for support for our national team, the Crocs, but we can’t find it. We hope to have good support [in the future] to get to the Asian champions tournament in the Philippines Cup. We hope we can get support soon.”

 

Back in 2008 World Footy News wrote a story, Timor-Leste Crocs enter Asian Footy, looking at the start of the Timor Leste Crocs and the development of the game in the nation. Back then it was full steam ahead, but after their IC11 involvement the Aussie Rules footy scene has dropped away.

 

 

 

Both the Auckland and Canterbury Leagues are well advanced in their seasons whilst the Wellington league will commence the first weekend in October for a short 6 game regular season before a Grand Final in early December.

The Canterbury League sees all 4 teams with a win after Round 4 with both the Eastern Blues and Christchurch Bulldogs on 3 wins each. For more see http://www.cafl.co.nz

The Auckland League after three rounds sees Waitakere Magpies undefeated, one game clear of North Shore Tigers, University Blues and Mt Roskill Saints, Both Pakuranga Panthers and Manurewa Raiders are winless rounding out the competition. For more see http://www.aafl.co.nz

The 2014 AFL Grand Final is upon us. Reigning Premiers Hawthorn take on the highly fancied Sydney Swans at the MCG in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.  We hope you can watch the match wherever you are in the world, one way or another.

The international broadcast details for the match and highlights packages can be seen below.

Celebrate football and cultural harmony later this month as the 2014 AFL season draws to a close.

The whole Perth (WA) football community is invited to attend the Harmony Cup Carnival which aims to unite communities, and showcase talented culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) players.

The carnival will occur on the 30th of September and will see the Edmund Rice Senior Lions take on Nic Naitanui Academy at Barry Britton Reserve at 1pm. 

Every year since 2005, World Footy News has promoted an extensive list of Grand Final Parties around the world. And with the 2014 AFL Grand Final being played this Saturday in Melbourne between Hawthorn and Sydney we are calling for clubs around the world to send details of your party to us, so that fans of the game in your country/city can watch the big game with you.

You can either post details as a comment below (you must register before you are able to post a comment or login via Facebook) or email troy@worldfootynews.com - all these details will be collated as per previous years.

It’s grand final time of year and over the last couple of weeks leagues are wrapping up around Australia – and for that matter in Papua New Guinea. Saturday week ago the Lae Grand Final was held whilst the weekend just gone the big AFL PNG Esiloan Grand Final Day at the Murray Barracks Oval in Port Moresby was run and won.

Esiloan sponsored trophies and medallions.

In Port Moresby a big day of footy was scheduled on Saturday starting off at 11am with the Women’s play off followed by the ‘A’ Reserves; Oldies v Masters and finally at 2.30pm the main game.

Measuring a player’s value solely on their Brownlow Medal votes is a highly inaccurate science and not entirely fair on players. But they can be used as a form of comparison over time, and in this area Brisbane Lions player Pearce Hanley is moving along a career path which has similarities to Jim Stynes.

Pearce Hanley polled nine votes at last night’s prestigious Brownlow Medal count. The award is given to the best and fairest player in the AFL based on the issuing of votes by the field umpires on a 3, 2, 1 basis for each game. Last night it was West Coast Eagles player, Matt Priddis, who won the award on 26 votes from Gary Ablett (22 votes) and Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin (22 votes) in equal second place. Fremantle star Nat Fyfe polled 25 votes but was ineligible to win due to being suspended by the tribunal during the season.

Pearce was a long way back in the field, but he has now polled 21 votes in his career, all over the past three seasons.