World Footy News

2011 Northern Lights player Renee Tong has come one step closer to realising her ambition of playing for her country again at IC14 after winning Canadian wellbeing and supplements company Genuine Health’s $10,000 prize for having the most votes in support of her athletic dream.

Tong’s goal was to use the money towards the flight, accommodation and training costs necessary to compete at the next International Cup. Over 20,000 people voted for her in a tight run but controversial competition, where closest rival, barrel racing fan Marissa Zwicker, was disqualified for cheating when it was revealed her sister was allegedly visiting “pay for votes” Facebook groups and defaming Tong’s character on various chat forums. 

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviews Thomas Urban and Alan Schieber from French footy's CNFA. You can read more about this interview here.

LEFT: Karmichael Hunt kicks the Suns' match-winner after the siren against Richmond in Cairns in 2013

North Queenslanders have breathed a collective sigh of relief after the official release of the AFL draw for the 2014 season. After farewelling Richmond back in July it was unclear as to whether or not the region would host another AFL game. But, thankfully, these fears are now allayed.

Both Cairns and Townsville will be hosting matches next year, with an NAB Challenge match to be played at Tony Ireland Stadium in Thuringowa and a premiership match at the home of football in Far North Queensland, Cazalys Stadium.

With the revised format for the NAB Challenge, 18 matches will be played over 18 consecutive days in all parts of the country. On Sunday 23rd February the two Queensland teams, Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions, will play a state derby at the home of football in Townsville. The stadium is still in the process or organising AFL standard lighting for night or twilight matches, so the game will commence at 3.40pm to be played in full with sufficient light and also be slightly cooler playing conditions.

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviews the Ontario Australian Football Leauge's Director of Development, Morgan King. You can read more about this interview here.

The AFL Queensland Girls State Championships have played out in Brisbane this weekend. In its eighth year, the competition has shifted south, from Cairns to the AFL Queensland Administration and Training Centre, Yeronga. This is the second season the competition has been for under-17, transitioning from the previous Under-16 format. Amongst the sides participating is the AFL PNG Coca-Cola Under 17 Kurukums – being the first time PNG has been represented in this tournament.

With some girls only arriving from Port Moresby about an hour before the game – the Kurukums were up against it against the bigger and stronger South West Magpies side. It should be noted that over half of the Kurukums are under 15 years of age and that the PNG squad is actually the youngest of the (for the first time) 8 sides in the tournament.

In the next installment of Jason Lassey's interviews for Bigfooty Media about footy outside Australia he speaks to the President of the Croatian league, Josip Kravar. You can read more about this interview here.

Interview and article courtesy of Scott Patching

In what is surely a rare, if not unique, dual achievement for an international player in Australia, Great Britain’s Will Worthington has captained a premiership side, and claimed the team’s best and fairest award. Worthington led Onkaparinga Valley Bulldogs to victory in South Australia’s Hills Central Division B grade on the 14th of September, before taking out the highest individual prize, and the Players MVP, the following weekend.

The stories of people from overseas that come to Australia to play footy are often intriguing as we struggle to imagine our game being played anywhere else. Will’s is no different. 9-a-side footy on rugby fields in the south of England must seem a distant memory when playing in front of a few thousand people at a country Grand Final. In between there have been the lows of injury and the highs of national representation.

It is three thousand odd kilometres between Punjab in north India to Kerala far down south. It’s another 2000 kilometres between Gujarat far west and West Bengal on the eastern borders. Massive distance the figures suggest and the present Secretary General of the Australian Rules Football Association of India, Sudip Chakraborty, has travelled the length and breadth of the nation repeatedly for the past 12 months just for footy. Starting from the national championships in Kerala in 2012 and set to culminate in another championship in Goa this November, this twelve months has been one hell of a ride for this footy vagabond.  

A cricket fanatic and open to new ventures, Sudip jumped on the footy bandwagon in 2008 and before long he had become an integral part of the sporting activities in the country. By the end of 2011, Sudip had already represented his country in two International Cups, and as the days rolled on, what started as an exploration, turned into a vision and a stubborn will to make his dream come true.

The full AFL fixture for 2014 can be seen below.

The AFL today released the fixture for the 2014 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, whichwill be highlighted by an historic return for AFL football to one of Australia’s great sporting venues, and a welcome to a new ground and regional city hosting its first-ever match for premiership points.

AFL Deputy Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan and AFL General Manager – Broadcasting, Scheduling and Major Projects Simon Lethlean released the fixture today,which sees the inclusion of Adelaide Oval as a regular venue for Australia’s only indigenous game as one of the highpoints for the national competition.

In this final instalment of the interviews arranged by the Bordeaux Bombers and the CNFA after the recent tournament in France, the focus is on women’s footy. Vanessa Degrave, a player for the French team – the Inattendues – looks at how she became involved in Australian Rules football – in France.

 In a tremendous coup for Australian Rules football in Europe, and the game in general, Prince Charles has become Patron of AFL Europe. The story below, kindly shared with us by AFL Europe, details this landmark appointment. 

 When he was a student at Timbertop (a campus of Geelong Grammar School) near Mansfield, north-east of Melbourne, in 1966, he is unlikely to have escaped exposure to Australian Rules football. He was a student at the campus from January to August of that year: the same year that St Kilda would go and win their only premiership against Collingwood. He also spent some time in Geelong as part of his curriculum requirements, further adding to his awareness of the game. 

Periodically, Prince Charles has been presented with footballs at various events, even as recently as last year when Tony Woods (AFL International Development Manager) and Chris Dow (AFL Europe Chairman) presented The Prince of Wales with another Sherrin.