World Footy News

 

 

The following article is from the Essendon Football Club’s website detailing the club’s decision to recruit young Irishman, Conor McKenna as an International Rookie.

 

Essendon Football Club is delighted to announce Conor McKenna will join the Bombers as a rookie listed player under the club's Alternative Talent Program.

The exciting Irish prospect has accepted a two-year contract with Essendon and will be the second player to be placed on the club’s Rookie B List, following Johnny Rayner’s appointment last year.

McKenna qualifies as a Rookie B as he has not been registered in an Australian football competition for the past three years.

 

 

Irishman Tommy Walsh has advised the Sydney Swans that he will return home to Ireland. Walsh was recruited to the Club via a trade with St Kilda at the end of the 2011 season. He made his AFL debut in round 8, 2012 and played a further two matches that year. Walsh was almost a late inclusion on Grand Final day in 2012, but luck was not with him.  The Swans went on to win the flag that day.

He returned to the team again in 2013 but his season ended when he was struck down with a serious hamstring injury.  Walsh struggled to return this year after that injury but finally played a number of good games in the NEAFL but not good enough to break into the ladder leading AFL team. 

A recent story by World Footy news reported on the great AFL/VFL eras. The article left open the possibility of clubs around the world coming forward with their own eras of greatness. It certainly hasn’t taken long for one great dynasty to show itself, and the story is quite remarkable. Enter, the Farum Cats from Denmark.

Ian Hill, creator of The Footy Record and long-time stalwart of the Australian Rules football scene in Denmark responded to the article (Dynasties, Cycles and Golden Eras - http://www.worldfootynews.com/article...2721192556 ) with his own comment on the Cats’ efforts.

Can Aussie Bum crack the Spanish market? For the answer to this question and all your queries about doing business in 33 countries check Tim Harcourt's new book Trading Places – the airport economist’s guide to international business at the following link - https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/trading-places/

Who is Tim Harcourt?

Malcolm Ashwood's article about the 2014 SANFL Grand Final appeared last week on The Footy Almanac website.  Norwood's three in a row performance continues the Dynasties theme from Wes Hull's earlier WFN article.

SANFL Grand Final – Norwood v Port Adelaide: The Greatest Win of All

 

The draw for the women's competition for the 2014 Axios Euro Cup in London has been released. This year the women's draw features a record five teams competing across 10 matches for the title. This is an enormous increase on the women's draw in Bordeax, France last year when just the French team and a combined Crusaders team locked horns. The Crusaders won by 19 points.

 

The women's teams for the event this year are:

 

England Vixens

France Les Gauloises

Irish Banshees

Scotland

Danish Valkyries

 

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.