World Footy News

The GIANTS will once again celebrate cultural diversity in Western Sydney with the Many Cultures match to mark AFL Multicultural Round against Geelong at Spotless Stadium on July 19.

Auburn is the latest club from around Australia and overseas to become affiliated with the GIANTS. Recently the Dartmoor Swans became the Dartmoor GIANTS and last year Concord became the first junior club in Western Sydney to adopt the GIANTS name and colours.

AFL NSW/ACT General Manager Craig Bolton said: “The Auburn GIANTS represent what the AFL is building. An inclusive code that welcomes people from all backgrounds.

The following article comes from the AFL Sweden website, with their kind permission, and details the players selected for the nation's IC14 squad for August in Melbourne. Also attached is the video announcement of the Swedish squad.

The fifth International Cup in Australian Football will take place in Melbourne. The Swedish Elks will take part in this great tournament and compete against the best national teams in the world. Today, after much anticipation, the squad has been announced that will have the honour to represent Sweden.

For this landmark event, which is only held every third year, head coach Daniel McClaer will bring one of the strongest Swedish sides ever to Australia.

"The majority of players were part of last year's success at the European Championships, but there are some new faces as well," says Elks head coach Dan McClaer.

Head coach Daniel McClaer is excited about the strength and versatility of the Elks 2014 squad and has hopes of a top ten finish in the twenty-three team tournament:

This is the third time the Elks are representing Sweden at the International Cup, so this time we are planning and expecting a Top 10 finish. We have a slightly more experienced and mature squad in comparison to the 2011 campaign.

"The boys have been in preparations since last summer and are really looking forward to showing the football world that we are no walkovers."

"The squad is a well balanced group that will showcase their speed, skill and determination. The versatility of all the players to play any position is also a key to our game in this tournament, which we are looking forward to participating in!"

Read the full story for the squad list and video announcement.

The Edmund Rice Lions are holding a Registration Carnival this Sunday, 9 March at Barry Britton Reserve in Balga (Western Australia).

They are inviting all families, footy lovers and kids down for an afternoon of fun activities and a chance for those who would love to play with the Edmund Rice Lions Football team this year to sign up.

The Edmund Rice Lions are an Australian Football Team of individuals aged 6 – 23 from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) backgrounds.

“This free carnival welcomes all members of the public to increase awareness around opportunities for children coming from low socio-economic areas and CaLD backgrounds,” says Natasha Hanham from the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR).

The USAFL will bring a second women's team with them when they head to Australia for the International Cup in August.  The team to be known as "The USA Liberty" which is a development team made up of players who missed out of a place in the Freedom squad. 

The Liberty will play against local metropolitan and regional Victorian women’s teams to gain valuable experience and game time.  It is expected their games will be played during the International Cup but on non-IC14 match days and they will share the same staff as the Freedom.

 

The USA Women's team known as the US Freedom has been named for the 2014 International Cup.  The squad was named following the camp held in Houston, Texas two weeks ago.  More than 60 players and staff attended the event at the Cullen Park Soccer Fields on the outskirts of Houston.

The Freedom were seeded 5th going into IC11 but finished third behind Ireland and Canada.

From the IC11 World Team selected at the conclusion of the tournament Judith Stein, Becky Kraft and Lindsey Kastanek all return for the Freedom's IC bid.

The GIANTS will add a touch of green to the sea of orange at Spotless Stadium for the Battle of the Bridge against the Swans on March 15.

To celebrate St Patrick’s Day on March 17, the GIANTS have launched a special ticket offer for all Irish fans in Sydney.

It includes a reserved seat in a dedicated Irish “Green Bay”, a green GIANTS t-shirt and a beverage voucher (600ml drink or beer) for just $25.

Award winning Irish band Tolka will kick off the festivities and there will be demonstrations of hurling and Gaelic football before the main game.

No practice game is ever a waste, and the critics who see the NAB Challenge as a series of glorified practice games are probably right, though missing the point. Three points, actually.

Firstly, players got to show their wares as they jostle for starting positions in senior AFL line-ups for Round One in just two weeks’ time. They also gained valuable match fitness and awareness prior to the real show beginning.

Secondly, the fans who had patiently or impatiently waited since last September to watch their beloved game waited no more. It might not have been the start of the real deal, but a game with your own club to support is cherished by fans of all clubs. Practice match or not it is a wonderful experience for the footy tragic when they see or hear their team in actions again after such a long and seemingly endless wait. 

Alice Springs’ own TIO Traeger Park shone today, as did the blazing Centralian sky, as Geelong locked horns with Melbourne in the second last “18 Games in 18 Days” NAB Challenge.

With a touch of history thrown in, this was the first match played in Australia’s heart involving two Melbourne based clubs, with both being the founding clubs of the competition in Australia, coming into existence in 1859 as the oldest of the current AFL clubs.

With temperatures in the low 30’s, a crowd of a little less than 5500 fans turned up at to watch the Northern Territory’s first AFL match of 2014. The Alice Springs crowd was the biggest for an NAB Cup/Challenge match at the venue since 2008.

With just three games to be played in the home and away rounds for 2013/4, the AFL Middle East competition is beginning to take on an air of a Dragon three peat. Whilst the Doha Kangaroos are certainly in a position to spoil the Dragon’s party, there is something quite compelling which says the Dragons are on the cusp of something special.

With the Dubai Dragons having completed their six home and away games, it falls on the other teams to scramble for positions over coming weeks. The Dragons managed to win five of their six encounters, many by large margins. Their only blemish was a shock loss to fellow Dubai team, the Dingoes. At the moment the Dragons hold firm on top of the ladder.

With the build up to this years AFL International Cup picking up across the globe - the anticipation of seeing nations making their debut is one of the many highlights of these tournaments. The first appearance of the Solomon Islands will be a fine achievement building on the work of many over the last 10 years in particular - including the Australian High Commissioner to South Africa Graeme Wilson who as Special Coordinator of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) played a key role in getting the Solomon Sharks first national representative team to Tonga in 2010 for the Oceania cup of that year.

With the formation of the official body of the Solomon Islands AFL the tireless efforts of Job Vulita as National development officer as well as more recently Rowan Fajerman helping oversee the progression we now see the graduation of the first junior side into a senior squad to take on the world - so to speak. Below is an update provided by Job.