World Footy News

Richmond will be the first club in AFL /VFL history to have a female president after Peggy O’Neal was voted into the role at a board meeting this morning.

O’Neal has spent the past eight years on the Richmond board. She takes over from Gary March, who officially stood down as president at the Jack Dyer Medal last Monday night.

O’Neal, who was born in Virginia in the United States, has spent the past 24 years in Australia. She currently chairs the Club’s risk and compliance committee, is a member of the governance committee, and also chairs the Tigers in Community Foundation.

LEFT: Flynn with Port coach Ken Hinkley.

19-year-old Irishman Daniel Flynn has been signed on for two years as an international rookie by AFL club Port Adelaide, after meeting with club management at Alberton Oval on Monday ahead of this week's AFL draft screening.

Flynn was identified by his former countryman Tadhg Kennelly, during the AFL talent screening session of 24 prospects in Ireland in March this year. He is seen as a potential running half-back or midfielder, after he impressed with his speed and agility, achieving 2.83 seconds in the 20 m sprint.

A native of Johnstownbridge in County Kildare, Flynn has been a promising junior Gaelic footballer for the Lilywhites, as Kildare's GAA side are known.

His signing follows hot on the heels of Jason Holmes from the USA, who was signed by St Kilda as an international rookie this week.

Port Adelaide's official press release follows.

What price the smile on the face of a kid with a new footy? Priceless. What price also a kid’s ability to run and chase with purpose with their own brand new ball in their possession? Again, priceless.

But if there is anything as good as that, it is the ability to be there first hand, giving the kid their ball, watching their timid belief that it is now theirs and sitting back knowing that you had just had a hand in something special. That’s not why you get involved, that’s just the by-product – the natural result – of what you just did.

Michael Gallus and his team at Footys4all are very aware of this osmosis: they do this all the time. Our little crew from the Pyramid Power club in Cairns learned it ourselves over the weekend when we undertook a trip to the indigenous communities of Yarrabah, Hope Vale and Wujul Wujul, distributing footballs to kids who may not otherwise receive them.

American Jason Holmes is described at the AFL Draft combine in Melbourne this week as 203cm, 104kg , born 28/10/89 - Potential key position player/ruckman from Moorehead State in Kentucky ( the Ohio Valley Conference of the NCAA Division I-AA) with a multiple sports background in basketball, soccer, NFL, baseball and golf. Was introduced to AFL at the USA Combine in April 2013. Left-footer who looked natural with the ball by hand and foot. 

The South China Morning Post has reported on Port Adelaide Football Club legend Russell Ebert in Hong Kong to set up ties with the Hong Kong Dragons. Ebert has signed a reciprocal deal on behalf of Port Adelaide with the Dragons which will be beneficial to their Auskick programme, which currently boasts 300 kids. Click here to read the original article.

Now that the 2013 season has ended for most Australian competitions, the avid fan will turn their attention to ongoing leagues such as the AFLNT, AFL Middle East or the CNFA in France to get through to next season as they play through the Australian summer months.

But this is the perfect time for a collection of updates from northern Australian leagues whose seasons have recently finished.

The Far North Queensland city of Cairns has been in the running to have a team in the NEAFL competition for some time as a prelude to a potential AFL team at some point in the future. Aftersuccessfully hosting three Gold Coast Suns v Richmond matches at Cazalys Stadium (including the remarkable match where a Karmichael Hunt kick after the siren won the match for the Suns), Cairns was hoping for good news. The following article, reproduced from the AFL Queensland website, details the decision today.

AFL Queensland today advised that a North Queensland team will not be introduced into the restructured North East Football League (NEAFL) for season 2014.

CEO Michael Conlan said that while the organisation supported the concept of a North Queensland side, the timing was not right.

Well how good is it? Good enough for a quick kick and handball around the region with your mates. Or more simply put "Its mega awesome".  The 21 member clubs of AFL Asia show us how good.

The USAFL has released the pools for the men's 2013 National Championship Divisions. Division 1 has no reigning champion as the Dallas Magpies who won the 2012 title and were subsequently stripped of the title have been suspended from competition at the National Championships this season. Canadian team the Calgary Kookaburras will again compete in Division 1 at this year's US Nationals.

Pools are:

The England Dragonslayers have sent out their official review of their successful Axios 2013 Euro Cup campaign, with the following article and photos courtesy of coach Rob Fielder.

A new USAFL advertisement will screen during the US coverage of the 2013 AFL Grand Final today. You can catch the video below.

 The Australian Banking corporation NAB will today provide commentary of the 2013 AFL Grand Final live on "Footify FM" in 10 languages.  This can be heard at the website link - http://listen.footifyfm.com/ from 2.15pm Melbourne time today.

The broadcast languages are Arabic, Croatian, French, Japanese, Madarin, Spanish, German, Greek, Punjabi and Turkish on 10 seperate streams.