World Footy News

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.

It’s almost time for the players to run out onto the fields at St Medard-en-Jalles. As the opening siren gets closer, World Footy News continues its series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux. This time we look at the story of the Spanish national team. Dani Ribas from the Spanish Bulls gives us a brief rundown.                                                       

The Journey:

“The 2013 season did not see new growth, but a consolidation of the game from last year. Unfortunately there’s no league in Spain [or] new teams, although we are working on that. It’s hard to recruit new people if you cannot promise them regular matches against other teams.  Basically, we are the same squad as previous Euro Cup editions.”

As we get closer to the event, World Footy News continues its series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux. This time we look at the story of the French national team, and host nation.  Thomas Urban, President of the Comitê National de Football Australien, gives us a rundown.

The Journey:

“This season has been good to the French League. Seven teams were involved in the championship and football starts to be known in cities where we have clubs. We hope that this Euro Cup will be a chance for us to shine in the country and not just Bordeaux Bombers but every club will take benefit of it.”

In response to our recent article which explored the changes to AFL Middle East for the upcoming season, new Operations Manager, Tyron (Ty) Farrell has provided World Footy News with his preview of the upcoming season. Not only does Ty look again at changes to the organisation, he also provides his unique insight into the teams and their prospects.

So the 2013/2014 AFL Middle East Season is almost upon us and the teams have been hitting the pre- season trail pretty hard over the summer in anticipation.

This year the season has made a few major changes with Walid Melhem stepping down as Operations Manager as he moved back to Australia with work. Walid worked extremely hard over the last few years and should be proud of the work that he has done in getting the league to where it is today.  From all in the region, we wish Walid all the best for his return to Australia and we look forward to continuing to build on the foundations that he left us.