World Footy News

In the first of a series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux, we look at the story of the Croatian Knights. Josip Kravar, president of the Association of Australian Football of Croatia (AAF), gives us his insights.

 The Journey:

“Players trained with their clubs until the beginning of June when they joined the Knights squad and 4 times a week preparation began. [Our] main focus for this year was development for a 16 per side team at the European Championship and we are satisfied with our work with young talent and our result at the European Championship. We were placed 11th on the world footy ranking, and what I can say is that we will justify that in future competitions.”

“[There were some] new players that emerged from our collaboration with Zagreb Sports Faculty and Zagreb University. [Along with] a couple of veterans and other well-known names in AFL Europe, this will be team that will go only for a gold medal at this Euro Cup.”

Toronto based Northern Lights player Renee Tong has found a novel way to help raise so money to compete in next year’s International Cup: A contest where the winner is awarded $10,000 towards their athletic dream.

The competition is being run by Canadian wellbeing and supplements company Genuine Health. Each entrant writes about their athletic dream and the $10,000 prize is awarded to the athlete with the highest number of votes. The competition ends on August 31st.

Renee hopes that with help from the international football community she will win the competition and be able to travel to Australia to compete in the International Cup. As well as travel and accommodation costs for Australia, also hopes to use the money to travel across Canada to national competitions so she can gain more experience and become a more competitive player. The prize money will also cover the training, nutrition and physio programme she has set to lead up to IC14.

If you would like to help Tong achieve her dream of playing for her country, please click here to vote for her and read her story here.

More information about Tong’s aspirations and her Australian Football journey so far can be found in this article in local newspaper Inside Toronto.

The 14th annual Asian Championships have taken place in Thailand, with the Hong Kong Dragons taking out the coveted title for the second consecutive year. The Dragons went through undefeated and beat the Philippines Eagles in the final 4.5 (29) to 2.3 (15) at Royal Polo and Equestrian Grounds outside of Pattaya.

This is the Dragons’ fifth title since the tournament began in 2000. The team is now tied with the Singapore Wombats for the record of most Championships.

The first Asian Championships to be held under the AFL Asia banner proved to be a success with a record 13 teams from across the continent competing for the prize, up from nine teams the previous year.

Other than the Dragons, Eagles and the hosting Thailand Tigers, the competing teams were the Singapore Wombats, Macau Lightning, China Reds, Jakarta Bintangs, Bali Geckos, Cambodia Eagles, Laos Elephants, Malaysian Warriors, Vietnam Swans and Japan Goannas.

This year’s tournament shows how the game continues to grow in the region, not only with the record number of participating clubs, but with the strength from within these clubs too. The Philippines Eagles finished at the bottom of the Championship table last year with no wins, but improved to go through almost undefeated this year only to fall at the last hurdle.

The tournament has become the pinnacle of Australian Rules football in Asia. With new structural organisation, an ever increasing number of teams and the depth within those teams, it will continue to grow as the pinnacle of Asian footy.

Luke Gosling, one of the key foundation members of the footy scene in East Timor, is standing as the Labor Party candidate for the seat of Solomon in the 2013 Australian federal election.

Gosling spent a number of years in East Timor with the Australian Defence Force peacekeeping and development mission, after the nation achieved independence in 2002. During his time in the country he was one of a group of Australians who helped introduce the sport of Australian rules, and corresponded with WFN in articles such as Timor-Leste Crocs enter Asian Footy.

Members of the Asian footy scene may remember him through his involvement in the early years of the Timor-Leste Crocodiles national side.

He now resides in Darwin with his family. The electoral division of Solomon takes in the Darwin metropolitan area, as well as some surrounding districts. It was won at the last federal election in 2010 by the Country Liberal Party, who hold the seat with a margin of 1.75%.

The Masala FC has completed its first season in the VAFA's Club XVIII Division, and although the side only managed two wins for the year, the beginnings of the club's mission of exposing new players from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds has been deemed a success thus far.

Since securing a home base in the suburb of Noble Park in Melbourne's south east and playing its first matches earlier this year, Masala has grown to a playing list of almost 50 players, with most of those being new to the code.

The 2013 squad's largest contingent consisted of players of Indian and Sri Lankan backgrounds, but the club also included a number of Anglo-Australians and other players born in (or with both parents born in) Fiji, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Italy, Serbia, UAE, Kuwait, Afghanistan, NZ, Italy and Estonia.

This broad range of cultures and backgrounds reflects the club's name 'Masala', a word used in numerous languages of India to mean a blend of spices, which in turn is represented by the star anise in the club's logo.

Additional commentary, Brett Northey

After several informal releases, worldfootynews.com today publishes our first formal World Rankings since 18th May 2013.

There's been plenty of movement in the lower half courtesy of two new fully ranked nations, France (16th) and Croatia (11th).

France brought their game tally up to our minimum required eight matches with a big loss to Germany, while Croatia qualified during the recent 2013 European Championships in Dublin. Some may argue that a rank of 11th in the world flatters the Knights, possibly rightly, but their form in 9-a-side has been very impressive for some time. Hopefully we'll see them make their International Cup debut at IC14 and that should help settle them in to a spot they deserve, wherever that may be.

In many respects EC2013 was a series of dramatic twists and turns that left us right where we started. Ireland almost came crashing down three times, but didn't. Denmark almost got past Great Britain, but didn't. The Swedes pushed their near rivals but couldn't topple them. Croatia pushed Sweden but didn't get over the line, and Great Britain nearly claimed their first major international title, only to have Ireland snatch victory with the last kick of the tournament.

Sweden's newest team, the Lödde Chiefs, played their first game last night against the famously technicolour Landskrona Bulldozers.

Amazingly, the team was only founded on Thursday. They fielded fifteen players for the match at Brohult IP in Helsingborg, with eight of those having not even seen a game before. Two of their other players were retired ex-Helsingborg Saints, who had only played a handful of games between them.

The Landskrona Bulldozers were also represented by one of South Sweden's women players Kerstin Lövendahl, who reportedly took and dished out the hard tackles very well and wonders if their is any law in DAFL that would prevent her playing in the Premier League.

The Lödde Chiefs are from the small town of Löddeköping, and have chosen their official colours as blue, green and white. If all goes according to plan, the Chiefs will field a side in the AFL Sweden South next year.

Scores from the friendly match are available here.

The 2013 Axios Euro Cup will be held in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles close to Bordeaux, the fifth biggest city in France. The organization is managed by the local team, Bordeaux Bombers, in close cooperation with the Comité National de Football Australien (the French Federation) and AFL Europe.

On the 21st September 2013, hundreds of European players (and volunteers) will compete in a warm and friendly atmosphere. This challenge is a real opportunity for the development of the Australian football in France.

This year, the French League has seen the victory of Toulouse Hawks in the Super League and Montpellier Sharks in the Development League. Nevertheless, following a considerable number of withdrawals caused by injuries and limited games the Comité National de Football Australien has decided to unify the two leagues.

The AFL New Zealand U-18 Kahus – Maori for Hawks – will play their debut game against the touring Australian Youth Girls High Performance Academy team in October. The format of this first ever showdown between the two countries will be a three-match test series.

Kahus players will be selected by a series of combine style AFL skills tests, trials, training camps and the AFL New Zealand High Performance Programme. School programmes, testing and trials were also conducted throughout June and players who impressed the coaches during these sessions will be advanced onto the High Performance Programme.

After this, potential players will be further trained at the end of August, then after the regional Youth Girls competition in September, a final squad will be selected to represent New Zealand against Australia.

Early last year two primary schools in Cairns, Queensland, faced off in the final of the Gold Coast Suns Cup. After a classic encounter, Freshwater State School defeated Gordonvale State School by a solitary point. After the presentations, the opposing coaches, Kristen Knight and Wesley Hull, floated the idea of a follow up.

The result was later dubbed the “1st Annual Women In AFL Challenge” match.

Whilst the official “Women In AFL” round is recognised nationally at the end of June, the schools could not play a game then as they were still on mid-year holidays. The decision was made to play the round in August, mid way through the school term, as a way of recognising the role of women in all aspects of Australian Rules football, whether that be as players, umpires, administrators, mothers, sisters or daughters.

15 year old French exchange student Leopold Khalfi has received some local media attention after pulling on the navy blue jumper of Coolaroo in the AFL Darling Downs, a country Queensland league based around the city of Toowoomba.

Paris native Khalfi has played two matches for the Roos since coming to Toowoomba seven weeks ago, with Coolaroo winning both.

He has also found the French footy clubs - hopefully he will have a chance to run out with the Paris Cockerels or Cergy Coyotes sometime in the future.

The article on Khalfi can be found in Toowoomba local newspaper The Chronicle via French Exchange Student kicks New Goal.