World Footy News

On a beautiful Saturday in Cairns recently, I was told about three women playing for New South Wales at the 2013 Women’s National Championships. The three ladies in question had all come a long, long way to be there, having started their Australian Rules football journeys many years before back home in Ireland. I was given the chance to meet them and have a chat as we watched the Division 2 Grand Final.

 It was the New South Wales Assistant Coach, David Yole, who introduced me, but not before a couple of words. “They have all played well this carnival,” he said. “They are three great young women.” Then he proceeded to call them up to meet me. It is difficult to conduct a true interview when sitting in a grandstand, and the crowd periodically screams their approval at a mark, goal, tackle or burst of speed. So, it is true that the questions asked that day did not have complete answers.

We agreed to fill in the gaps via social media when the girls returned to Sydney after the carnival. But the questions can be found below with the individual responses of Una Mckay, Sandra Ryan and Christine McCutcheon, who are not only known here in Australia as members of their Sydney teams and the state squad, but also members of the Irish Banshees international team back in their homeland.

To me, these answers made fascinating reading as they give a great analysis of the thought processes involved, and the opportunities, sacrifices and successes faced along the way for almost any sports player, but particularly women chasing their dreams of playing Australian Rules football.

The following article was written by Tor Ivar Amundsen from the Oslo Crows. It is reproduced here in its entirety with the kind permission of Tor and also the Crows. There is a clear story of development within these words which paints a very bright future for Australian football in Norway. It is just the tonic for the game in Norway as those involved in the game prepare for a range of upcoming international appointments, particularly the Euro Cup.  Over to Tor and AFL Sweden's Swedish Cup in Jönköping...

The Crows came into this tournament with lots of spirit and high hopes to do better than last year. As many remember, last year the Stockholm weather showed us the worst June day since 1904 and they cancelled the tournament after 3 games. That day the Crows lost 2 and won the last.

This year we had perfect conditions, sunny and only a light wind that didn’t have any impact on the play. The Crows line up was a mixed team assembled by Oslo Crows, Ås Battlers and Bergen Bears, and it had never played a game as one team before which made us a little uncertain on what we could expect of ourselves.

We started our first game against Södermalm which everyone had as favourites. We don’t talk much about this game other than the result… 7.4 (46) – 1.0 (6) in the Swedes’ favour, and that Samson and Tor gave a bit of beating in the last couple of minutes which ended in 5 stitches for Samson and a lot of sore players from Södermalm .

This Scottish club, better known to most as the Central Magpies, have been sitting on a secret for a while now. As the football world has turned all around them, a new image, name and purpose has been developing in the Kingdom of Fife. This article, written by Rab (Robert) Dempsey has been reproduced with his, and the club’s, permission to spread the word to the waiting footballing world.

THE MOB GOES WILD
By Rab Dempsey

Kingdom Kangaroos are Scotland’s newest footy team, hoping to emulate the "Shinboner" spirit of their North Melbourne counterparts when they officially join SARFL next season.

The early origins of the club can be traced back to 2012 when former Glasgow Sharks and Scottish Clansmen player Douglas Hunter tried to start a club covering Central Scotland and Fife.

Whilst SARFL had been running for years, the competing teams were only based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

It is almost hard to believe that the AFL Middle East Grand Final was over three months ago, back on March 8th. Time has flown by without a full report on the season and, of course, the Grand Final result itself. In the first of a small series of articles on Australian football across the Middle East, a brief look at the season that was gives a small taste of the way footy panned out across the region.

The 2012-13 season kicked off with the pre-season AFL9’s tournament in September at the Nad Al Sheba Sports Arena (NASSA) in Dubai. The Meydan Cup was played enthusiastically with the Dubai Dingoes winning the day against their arch rivals, the Dubai Dragons, with a last minute surge to fall over the line in extra time.

As the season proper came closer it became apparent that the Bahrain Blues would not take their place in the league for this new season. It is universally hoped that they can return for the 2013/4 season.

We've heard some interesting stories over the years from across the world of footy of teams stacked with top quality ring-ins from Australia, but few reports would beat the following for a team so lowly to be stacked so well.

The Adelaide University Football Club, known as The Blacks, has a long history in the South Australian Amateur Football League dating back to 1906.  Self-described as the World's Greatest Football Clubs, the AUFC is surely one of the biggest (in fact we'd love to hear examples of any that are larger).

In season 2013 the club has teams in Division 1, 1 Reserves, 6, 6 Reserves, 8, 8 Reserves, C1, Over 35s (known as the Greys rather than Blacks) and a Women's side for the first time (competing in the South Australian Women's Football League) - giving a grand total of 9 open age teams.

Last week saw an interesting tale of five brothers taking to the field.  You can imagine that down at Division 8 Reserves level exceptional talent is, well, spread fairly thin.  University affectionately call their 8R team the Scum, and if the A grade lost a game then AUFC legend Fred "Chocka" Bloch often consoled the club that order had been restored to the Universe because the Scum had lost by more.  But not last week.

The AFL today announced the Indigenous All Stars would be selected to represent Australia in the 2013 International Rules Series, to be played in Ireland this October.

AIS-AFL Academy Head Coach and former Sydney Swans games-record holder Michael O’Loughlin will coach the side, with the senior coaching panel to be made up of Rodney Eade, Tadhg Kennelly and Andrew McLeod.

AFL Deputy CEO Gillon McLachlan said the AFL had explored the concept of the All Stars representing Australia after senior indigenous players across the AFL player group had sought greater opportunities for the All Stars to come together as a team.

“To the best of our knowledge, the All Stars representing the AFL in International Rules against Ireland will be the first All-Indigenous team to represent a national sporting code at senior level overseas since the first cricket team toured England in 1868, more than 150 years ago,” Mr McLachlan said.

“It is our belief the All Stars coming together, with the commitment made by senior indigenous players across the competition, will reinvigorate matches between Australia and Ireland provide us with a great opportunity to regain the Cormac McAnallen Trophy.

The draw for the 2013 AFL Europe Championship has been released, with 6 nations fighting it out in Dublin, Ireland from August 3rd-10th.

Hosts and defending champions Ireland will be joined in Pool A by Sweden and Croatia, with Pool B having Denmark, Great Britain and Germany. The early tipping favours the Irish to have a relatively easy run in the pool stages, with the big question being who out of Denmark and Great Britain will challenge them for the Cup.

The field of six is a drop of two nations from the 2010 European Championship, with Iceland and Finland not attending, and no new nations taking the field.

Full team previews will appear on WFN in the upcoming weeks. For more information, visit the official tournament website at dublin2013.org, or read the full story for a video of the draw.

Tara Salmon never considered playing football back in Wagga but after moving to San Francisco in 2011, she joined a local footy team, the Iron Maidens, to meet people in her new city.

Two years later she is one of the top players in the country and is on her way to the Parallel Cup to represent the USA Freedom when they play their annual match against the Northern Lights. If she impresses the coaches, she might even be on her way back to Australia to play in the International Cup.

The Iron Maidens play in San Francisco’s Golden Gate League and play regular metro and interstate games. Though there are many women who are new to the game, Salmon isn’t the first Golden Girl to break through to the top. Golden Gate Roos’ player Jessica Estrada is also a Freedom regular and represented her country in the 2011 International Cup.

More information on Salmon’s story and her time at the USA Freedom’s training camp can be found here.

France is the latest and 21st nation to be Fully Ranked on WFN World Rankings, playing their eighth qualifying International (and 2nd against Germany) in Berlin at the weekend.

The 16.10 to 2.4 win for the Black Eagles (a win greater than 40 points being worth a rating change of +/- 2.14) sees Germany climb from 15th to 12th Place with 37.87 Rating points.

Les Bleus (aka les Coqs) enter the Full Ranks at 16th with 36.09 Rating Points consequentially pushing China (17th), Japan (18th), Finland (19th) and India (20th) down one place each respectively.

Germany's rise has been at the expense of  Canada (13th), Sweden (14th) and Peace Team (15th) each pushed down one place respectively. The upcoming European Championships will give us an indication of how accurate the rankings are, at least for the 6 Euro nations competing.

Read on for the full WFN World Rankings as of July 1st, 2013.

On Saturday, the German Eagles hosted France at the Maifeld (Olympiastadion Berlin) in an International Friendly. With this the first full-field match in 4 years for the home team on German soil, expectations for the Black Eagles were high and the squad did not disappoint, defeating the French by 90 points.

The French squad struggled to find their rhythm, missing key play makers, and losing a player 30 second into the match. Pushing for final selection in Dublin, the Eagles played outstanding football for national coach Troy Pedder.

Final scores: Germany 16.10 (106) d France 2.4 (16)

Full report to follow, as well as how the match has affected the WFN World Ranking in the lead-up to the European Championships in Dublin.

Melbourne Demons have defeated the Western Bulldogs 8.5(53) to 3.3(21) in the first ever AFL sanctioned women’s game at the MCG in front of a crowd of over 8,000.

Despite the importance of the occasion and playing in front of a crowd which grew to 7,500 supporters by half time, the players quickly overcame any stage fright with Ellie Blackburn quickly opening the scoring for Melbourne. As the AFL’s female goal umpire Chelsea Roffey waved the flags, the crowd voiced their support.

In a major step forward for the AFL PNG Coca-Cola talent pathway the Under 14 Binatangs today defeated North Queensland at Broadbeach to take out the 2013 Queensland Championships.

Match 3	Final
Binatangs	10.6.(66)
North Queensland	2.0.(12)

PNG - Best: Samuel Kenjau, Cobern Gamuna, Paniel Penias, Jemasol Paira, Thomas Wakon, Sylvester Wesley, Saburo Gerard, Iama Rawali.
PNG - Goals: Sylvester Wesley 2, Saburo Gerard 2, Justine Murawa, Valentine Janguan, Cobern Gamuna, Kepas Matrus, Paniel Penias, Eddie Manzin.