World Footy News

A cool, windy morning with a few showers greets us on this Saturday in Melbourne. Just hours before the kickoff to the 2013 AFL Grand Final being contested between Hawthorn and Fremantle, we have been told that many around the world will not be seeing the pre-match coverage to this year's game. You may miss the return of Mike Brady performing today so we present to you the video from 1979 - "Up there Cazaly" to get you in the mood.

Michelle Cowan has today been named the 2013 Football Woman of the Year at the annual Grand Final Comedy Debate at Crown Palladium.

At least 5 AFL clubs are reportedly interested in some international talent arriving in Melbourne, with American pair Jason Holmes and Mark Cisco, and Irishman Daniel Flynn being invited to train under the clubs' eyes before taking part in next week's NAB AFL Draft Combine.

The two Americans were first flagged as potential AFL players at the combine held in Los Angeles in April. They are both looking at key position or ruck roles, with Holmes standing 203cm, and Cisco at 207cm.

Young Irishman Flynn is being groomed as a running defender as the 19-year-old has explosive pace and power. He played for the European Legion against the AIS-AFL Academy team in Surrey in April.

More at Clubs looking closely at International Talent on the AFL website.

Triple Brownlow Medallist Haydn Bunton Snr has been named captain of the ACT and Southern NSW Team of the Century.

The brand new AFLNT season will kick off in just two weeks time on 5th October. After last year’s Premier League was won by St Mary’s over the Tiwi Bombers, it is now a case of slates wiped clean as all teams have the chance to seek their new season destinies. The following article from the AFLNT gives a run down on the new season, including highlights for season 2013/14.

The traditional Grand Final replay [betweeen St Mary's and Tiwi Bombers] will feature in Round 1 of the TIO NTFL Premier League after the draw was officially released by AFL Northern Territory today.

"Following consultation with all the NTFL clubs and key stakeholders we believe we have a well- balanced draw which caters for everyone’s needs," advised AFLNT Football Operations Manager Darryl Griffiths.

The Hamburg Dockers have broken through for their first premiership in their 10-year history in the Australian Football League Germany, defeating the Rheinland Lions 9.14 (68) to 7.13 (55).

The Hamburgers have more than just the nickname in common with AFL club Fremantle - the 2013 season seeing the first-ever Grand Final appearance for both the German and Aussie Dockers.

The Fremantle FC are a sister club to the Hamburg Dockers, having supplied them with equipment such as jumpers and balls when the side was originally set up. They also rated a mention in the media Down Under this week via this article, as their captain Casey Woodward hails from the Western Australian town of Bunbury.

With Freo being one of the AFL clubs who have been most proactive in supporting international clubs, we reckon there might be more than a few fans around the world getting in on the Purple Haze action this weekend and seeing if they can replicate the success of their German allies.

The AFL is pleased to announce that Gold Coast Suns ruckman Zac Smith was tonight awarded the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award established by the AFL and The Reach Foundation in honour of the former Melbourne Football Club President and champion player.

It's now less than a year until the 2014 AFL International Cup and one of the exciting features every three years is the anticipation of new footy nations making their Cup debut.  With rapid growth over recent tournaments it's possible there will be a plateauing in new teams, but if Kashif Bouns gets his way we'll see the entry of the Pakistan Shaheens to represent that country for the first time.

Kashif is an AFL Multicultural Officer but takes his passion for the game and his original homeland beyond business hours.

"I have been working in Football for last three years and when I first came across the International Cup in 2011, I straightaway dreamt of entering a Pakistani team, however it just remained a dream until, Tony Woods and Peter Romaniw (AFL International section) who work with me in Game Development department started preparing for the 2014 tournament. I had a chat with them and understood what the requirements were. I had some meeting with the leaders in Pakistani community and also touched base with Ash Nugent (President of Masala Football Club, a key off field member of the IC11 Indian team and a worldfootynews.com alumnus) before I really got going".

With the Euro Cup finished for another year, some teams are going home happy, some disappointed. That is the nature of any competitive sport. However, the individual performances can probably only be truly measured against the expectations of the teams themselves. In subsequent articles this may become more clear, however our starting point for a review is based on a cold, hard statistical analysis of results.

Below is a nation by nation look at performances. As an exercise, anyone interested in how this sits with the teams' hopes can read the series of preview articles published over the past few weeks, where nations listed their goals for the Axios Euro Cup.

The England Dragonslayers are European 9-a-side champions, after defeating hosts France in the final of the 2013 Axios Euro Cup held in Bordeaux yesterday.

The bronze went to Croatia, who defeated Italy in the third-place playoff.

Full tournament report will appear in the coming days!

Every year since 2005 World Footy News has displayed an extensive list of Grand Final Parties around the world. And with the 2013 AFL Grand Final being played next Saturday between Hawthorn and Fremantle we once again call for clubs around the world to send details of your party so that fans of the game in your city can watch the big game with you.

You can either post details as a comment below (you must register before you are able to post a comment) or email troy@worldfootynews.com - all these details will be collated as per previous years.