World Footy News

In one of the closest seasons in recent years, the CNFA home and away season concluded on the weekend with a fight to the wire for finals places. As mentioned in a previous article, the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes, Montpellier Firesharks and Paris Cockerels would all have to fight for their place in the final round.

The unlucky team was the Firesharks who went down by just two points to the Cockerels in a heartbreaking loss. Whilst the Coyotes also lost to Toulouse in the final round, their for and against percentage was marginally better than the Firesharks, giving them fourth place.

Firesharks fans will now lament what might have been, but their season was a credit to them as they remained consistent throughout and were desperately unlucky to miss finals action. Similarly, the Strasbourg Kangaroos and ALFA Lions can plan for next season after long seasons which saw some successes and improvements towards a new year.

The results set up a fascinating round of semi-finals on May 24th. Toulouse Hawks will take on the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes in the first of the semi-finals between 1st place and 4th place, whilst in the battle between the 2nd and 3rd finishers the Bordeaux Bombers will take on the Paris Cockerels.

The semi finalist will meet in the grand-final to be played on the 14th of June.

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in Villers-Bretoneux. The Aussies (selected from across Europe) were training together for the first time. There was an emphasis on clean crisp movements that made the soccer pitch look small. It rained all night and much of the morning. The pitch that was slippery when dry from the grass covering was even more slippery when the hard clay underneath developed a muddy skin. Luckily the rain ceased and the spectators were able to enjoy the pre-match presentations.

A lot of the spectators were familar with fact that the French team were the historical benchmark and were expecting a close tussle. That was not to be. Even though the French ruckman clearly won most tapouts with a great display of athletic jumping the Aussies played clinical dry weather football as they had practised. With the minimum of handling they were able to deliver the ball to an extremely potent forward line that lead fast and strong all day.

 The following article is from the Tyne Tees Tigers detailing the tremendous efforts of their Women’s footy team in their Haggis Cup battle with the Glasgow Sharks. The Tigers were victorious in their 1st Women’s Australian Rules football match with the final score.

Tyne Tees Tigers 30 d Glasgow Sharks 14

On Saturday the 12th of April, England’s first female Aussie Rules club-side travelled to Glasgow to take on the Glasgow Sharks Ladies in the 2014 Haggis Cup. This is the first time two British clubs have played a women’s game. The Tigers ladies who had only picked up an Aussie rules ball for the first time 12 weeks previously were excited with the anticipation of playing in this historic game, in the Haggis Cup at GHA Rugby Club

The game was played as 8-a-side with 4 x 15 minute quarters on a full size rugby pitch. With the home side having a large interchange bench (in Aussie Rules players can sub on and off at any time) and the Tigers having none over the course of the game the Tigers fitness would be tested.

Port Adelaide Power's first international recruit, Irishman Daniel Flynn, has returned to the club after initially looking to be lost.  Back Down Under for just a week, Flynn is straight into Port's SANFL side this week.

The international rookie has been named in Port's second tier side, Port Adelaide Magpies, in the local SANFL.  The Magpies happen to be playing the Adelaide Crows' SANFL side for the first time, with the match to be played in country Clare... that's country Clare, not county Clare.

See Irishman to debut for Magpies for more.

AFL Japan kicked off the 2014 season last on Sunday 20th April in a match where 2013 Top League Premiers, Tokyo Bay Suns defeated the Eastern Hawks by a whopping 110 points. Final score: 21.26 (152) to 5.1 (42).

Anzac weekend saw two matches, Senshu Powers taking on R246 Lions on Saturday 26th while the Tokyo Goannas battled it out with Komazawa Magpies on Sunday.

AFL Japan has undergone some structural changes during the off season, splitting the Top League into two regional leagues. The West League comprises the Osaka Dingoes and the Nagoya Redbacks, whilst the East League is made up of Tokyo Bay Suns, Komazawa Magpies, Senshu Powers, Eastern Hawks, Tokyo Goannas, R246 Lions and for the third year in a row accepted a brand new team, the Poseidons.

Nine teams/clubs is the greatest number of clubs in AFL Japan history and augers well for the growth and development of footy in Japan.

The bald figures state that over 22,000 attended the first AFL game for premiership points in New Zealand in 2013 and yet just over 13,000 attended this year. Did that make the venture unsuccessful as the AFL seek to expand the game? In a letter from Peter Summers, President of St Kilda, he provides his view which is anything but negative.

Please see: Letter to NZ from St Kilda President

In a match not well publicised (on either Denmark or Sweden’s websites) and somewhat overshadowed by the 7th edition of the Anzac Cup at Villes Bretonneux, France, Sweden hosted Denmark in an International match in Skane, Sweden at the weekend on Saturday 26th April.

The effect of the match, which could safely be described as a “football lesson”, as Denmark amassed a whopping 26.22 (178) score to Sweden’s 3.4 (22) on the World Rankings, saw Denmark remain in 10th position but Sweden falling a dramatic four places from 13th to 16th, with Canada, Peace Team and France climbing one place each respectively.

It should be pointed out that prior to this match less than 1.75 rating points separated these four nations so although the ranking fall might have been dramatic, the fall in rating points (2.07) much less so.

Read the full story for the current WFN World Rankings table after this match.

To coincide with the success and popularity of the Haggis Cup in Scotland played a few weeks ago comes the news of another Australian Football club in the country. The Falkirk Silverbacks have arrived on the Scottish scene to continue the growth of the game.

Falkirk, with a population of around 35,000, sits in the Lowlands between Scotland's two largest cities. Glasgow is approximately 33 kilometres away to the south-west and the capital city of Edinburgh just 37 kilometres away to the south-east. It is this proximity to these cities which already boast healthy Australian Rules football clubs which has led to the expansion of the game to Falkirk.

Courtesy of ABC Radio Australia website.

Australian Rules Football Team cleans up Hospital in floods in Solomon Islands.

Organised by the Solomon Islands Australian Football League, more than 30 players and their Australian friends engaged in a community effort to start rebuilding the White River Health Clinic.
 
The clinic was hit by flash flooding two weeks ago, which destroyed more than half its medical supplies.
 
Michael Nunan, coach of the White River Demons footy team and a pharmaceutical distributor says there was "a foot of mud" to be cleared.
 
He also says it's a priority to get the clinic re-opened as the Solomon Islands deals with outbreaks in dengue, diarrhoea and pink eye disease.
 

Sure, we know that the St Kilda Saints will be playing their annual ANZAC Day game in Wellington, this time against the Brisbane Lions, but it is the opportunity that it affords NZ football to showcase their talent which is truly exciting for those with an interest in football on the east side of the Tasman.

Firstly there will be a two match series for the 2nd time between the NZ Hawks and the South Pacific Nations. Last year the series was won 2-0 by the New Zealand Hawks.

The South Pacific Nations will be looking to take revenge, and have a strong side capable of sparking an upset win. Their team is heavily weighted with NZ’ers such as St Kilda International Scholarship holder Joe Baker-Thomas, alongside some of the key players in New Zealand AFL, including Andrew Howison and Shane Leat. They will be coached by long time NZ representative Andrew Congalton. An exciting crop of young Kiwis in Levi Inglis, Kyle Smith, Te Kopa Tipene-Thomas, James Little, Ben Miller will be part of the team who have represented New Zealand at age group level with distinction. A strong contingent of players from the Pacific Islands will be joining them. Ha’ele Finau and Fohe Latu from Tonga, Sam Bua from the Solomon Islands and Chris Cakabou from Fiji are all leading players from their respective islands.

It appears that this year representatives from PNG will not be part of the team.
 

World Footy News reported during last year a decision by the AFLNT (Australian Football league Northern Territory) to include the Alice Springs based club into the premier division of the NTFL. The club played half of the 2013/14 season as an extended trial after an initial four game exposure in the 2012/13 season.

On the field the Redtails certainly enjoyed some level of success. Their 2012/13 performance was heartening with three wins from their four games, including a shock win over eventual premiers, St Mary’s. Last season was not as successful on paper with just one win from their eight games, but closer inspection shows two losses by less than 10 points and only two losses by more than 50 points. The team certainly proved to be competitive over those two trials.

However, the following media release from the AFLNT states that the idea will take on a longer term planning direction for a number of reasons, delaying the club’s admittance to a permanent place in the NTFL Premier League.

The 2014 Under 15 National Kickstart Championships wound up yesterday in Coffs Harbour, NSW with the powerhouse Western Australia team, having dispatched all opponents throughout the carnival, blitzing the Northern Territory team in the Grand Final.

The carnival, played at the Coffs Harbour International Sports Park from April 11th to 16th, also featured the round robin matches and final of the South Pacific Cup (see stories below)as well as the Australia Post All Nations Cup.