World Footy News

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.

This weekend’s historic clash between women’s teams representing the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs, the AFL’s first ever official women’s match, kicks off on Saturday at 5:10 pm at the MCG stadium.

As well as the honour of being the winner of the first ever Women’s AFL game, the two teams will play for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup, named in honour of Barb Hampson who played for Ballarat, and Lisa Hardeman, a past VWFL President, state coach and player.

This week is Round 14 – AFL Women’s Round. And inkeeping with Saturday’s inaugural AFL Women’s Game, featuring the top 50 female footballers from across the country, the theme of Women’s Round will be “talent”.

The historic clash, between women’s teams representing the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs will take place on Saturday on the MCG at 5:10 pm, as a curtain raiser for the men’s AFL fixture. The winning team will be awarded the Hampson-Hardeman Cup, named after two female footballers who led the way for developing the women’s game during the 90’s.

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Newcomer to WFN World Ranks - Le Bleus

France will become the newest Fully Fanked Nation on WFN World Rankings when Germany hosts France in an international match in Berlin this weekend. Regardless of the outcome France will be the 21st nation to have been fully ranked on WFN World Rankings (the official, unofficial Australian Football World Rankings)

Currently France is provisionally ranked with 38.23 rating points whilst Germany is fully ranked at 15th with 35.73 rating points. A fully ranked nation will more often than not defeat a provisional nation, so an Eagles Home win of less than 40 points (rating gap of 0.50) will result in a rate change of +/- 1.43 and see Germany climb to 14th (from 15th) with 37.15 Rating Points.

A week ago the AFLPNG Under 14 Binatangs set off headed for sunny Queensland for the Queensland State Championships.

It is with tremendous pride that AFL PNG announced that their Coca-Cola Under 14 Binatangs had successfully won their way into the tournament Grand Final.

The AFLPNG press release below :