World Footy News

The Pakistan Shaheens, based mainly on expat Pakistanis living in Melbourne, are continuing to gather their numbers as the 2014 AFL International Cup approaches.  An article by Zain Nabi recently appeared in the Express Tribune.

After gaining impressive numbers early on it seems there was a drop off but the Shaheens are now rebuilding ready for IC14.

Once selection was complete, the players were trained rigorously including workouts and sessions on the technicalities of the game. However, many of them started dropping out and there came a time when the number of available players was barely 10. “I think it was good for us.” (Kashif) Bouns recalls. “It showed us how many of them were genuinely interested and we then built on from there to reach the stage where we have a bunch of dedicated players, some of whom will feature in the international cup.”

See Austraian football: Kick start for more.

The Great Britain Bulldogs have named their squad for the 2014 International Cup, featuring a large contingent of UK nationals who are currently playing Down Under.

Of the 27 members in the primary squad, 13 are presently playing league football in Australia - 10 in Victoria and one each in Queensland, South Australia and NSW.

A number of players will be familiar to WFN readers from previous cups, including Anthony Trigg and Adam Ballard, who were offered places training with VFL clubs Preston and Port Melbourne respectively after the IC 2011 and have remained in Australia.

The squad's British-based component is mainly a mix of London and regional England players. No players from the Scottish league were selected, although two players from Welsh club the South Cardiff Panthers made the cut.

Read on for the full squad list.

This is the fifth part of the six part series of the 2014 USAFL Season Preview as we conclude the Men's Division in the Western Regional.

This is the continuation of the six part series on the 2014 USAFL Season Preview as we preview the South Central Region.

This is part three of the six part USAFL Season Preview Series as we preview the North Central Regional.

This is part two of the six part series on the USAFL Season Preview as we preview the Southeast Division.

Southeast Region

The southeast regional has the most dynamic teams in the nation as three of the top ten teams in the nation Nashville (#5), North Carolina (#9) and Fort Lauderdale (#10) are in this region. This is a potent region and will have a big say in the Divisional makeup on the road to Columbus.

This week we run a special 6 part series as Alex Benjamin looks across the whole of the US and back at their 2013 season and gives his predictions on the 2014 season.   Looking at each team you will see a summary with their final 2013 record, points and where they finished in the unofficial standings last year, Alex then gives his prediction where he thinks teams will be ranked ahead of the 2014 Nationals based on how he thinks they might perform this year.  The summary for each team begins as follows:-

Team (Win-Loss record 2013, Points for 2013 based on wins, Finish Rank: Where the team finished 2013 on Alex's USAFL Weekly Report unofficial ladder)

Over to you Alex...

This week's international broadcast networks and airing times below.

The Irish Warriors have named the first 14 squad members for the 2014 AFL International Cup to be staged in Melbourne, Australia from August 9th to 23rd this year. The Warriors are the current holders of the International Cup, having won the most recent tournament in 2011 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after a dramatic comeback victory over Papua New Guinea.

They are also the only nation to have won the tournament twice - having also won the inaugural tournament in 2002.

The 14 selected are European-based players, and the majority of them played in the 2013 European Cup winning side. This is a completely new selection of Irish-based players from the victorious 2011 team with most of that squad now retired from International duty.

Ed: This story courtesy of Harley Vague.

It was a great mild Sunday afternoon for Football. The Zagreb Dockers arrived early and setup a canopy, barbeque and refreshments. The first game of the double header was between the Zagreb Dockers and the new team, the Slavonski Tigers journeying from roughly 200km east of Zagreb.

Even though the new team was winless in its first two outings, the Tigers had performed well. The Dockers had a very tall ruckman and a much larger squad and opened their scoring account in terms of seconds but from then on the game went goal for goal with the Tigers slowly edging in front.

As was hinted in the recent story North Lanarkshire Wolves join Scottish party, yet another Aussie Rules team has entered the Scottish football scene, this time in the heart of Glasgow. As the game undergoes a radical and positive series of changes, the Greater Glasgow Giants are the latest to take advantage of this fertile period in the game’s history.

A recent interview with Douglas Hunter, Scottish Australian Rules football stalwart and architect of the new club, gives a good account of the need for the new club, the processes they are currently undergoing for their entry to the SARFL in 2015 and some idea of their dreams and prospects.

“The team will be based at the moment in Glasgow city centre until we know where most players will come from. Recruitment is mainly from Gumtree [social media site] and from Glasgow University. We have ten players at the moment including one Aussie, three former Clansmen national team players and one who also played in the first three AIS v AFL Europe Under 21 games. The rest are from Gaelic football, football, and rugby. The coach is me.”

Last weekend a squad of talented Scottish footballers, selected in the national Scottish Clansmen team, boarded flights to Madrid to take on the Spanish Bulls at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Autonomous University of Madrid). It is the first match of an agreed two year deal between AFL Scotland and AFL Espana which will see the Spanish team travel to Scotland for the rematch in 2015.

Whilst there is still some conjecture about the final score, it appears that the most accurate is a victory to the Scotland team over Spain 77 to 27.

Players in the Scottish team came from established clubs, the Glasgow Sharks, Edinburgh Bloods and Aberdeen Eagles (who are not competing in the SARFL this season) as well as newer or emerging clubs including the Kingdom Kangaroos and Falkirk Silverbacks (Martin Bell being a Glasgow Shark who is now putting together the fledgling Falkirk team). Also in the squad were players currently lining up with the Copenhagen X-Men in the DAFL and also the Wimbledon Hawks from the AFL London competition.