World Footy News

Highlights of the World XVIII Round 1 win over WA Northwest on Sunday. Later today the World XVIII take on the South Pacific team.

North Queensland will once again become the focus of the AFL world when Cairns hosts its annual Gold Coast Suns versus Richmond Tigers match at Cazalys Stadium on Saturday at 4.40pm. This is the main event, following on from the earlier NAB Cup match in Townsville pre-season between the Suns and Kangaroos.

This is a huge match for Cairns. Two weeks ago the northern city played host to the 2013 Women’s National Championships. Now the Gold Coast, undefeated in Cairns after three starts (they defeated the Bendigo Bombers as an AFL side in 2010), get a chance to enhance their own slim finals chances and seriously threaten those of Richmond. Following is a media release from the AFL giving the details.

North Queensland set for NEAFL side, PNG / South Pacific part of the plans

The recent victory of the AFLP PNG Coca-Cola Under 14 Binatangs in the Queensland State Academy Championships has not gone unnoticed. Former Fitzroy legend and now AFL Queensland CEO Mick Conlan was on hand on the Gold Coast to see the talent firsthand.

The potential for future growth of the PNG and by extension the South Pacific nations presence in footy in Queensland and possibly in the NEAFL has been flagged. The talent pathways are to continue to become more clearly defined. Mick Conlan and AFL PNG's Murray Bird discuss further the potential.

The AFL and Australia Post today released the names of the 22 players who have been selected in the first ever Multicultural Team of Champions.

As part of the AFL's Multicultural Round celebration, the team was announced at a special event held at Crown in Melbourne, attended by AFL Deputy CEO Gillon McLachlan and Australia Post Managing Director and CEO Ahmed Fahour, as well as a number of the selected players.

AFL Legends Jock McHale has been named coach and Alex Jesaulenko has been named captain of the Australia Post AFL Multicultural Team of Champions.

Round 1 of the NAB National Under 16 Championships was played out across the weekend at the Blacktown International Sports Park in Sydney.

The AFL South Pacific Under 16s squad had a warm up game last week at the same venue against local Sydney side Sydney Hills (pictured below); with South Pacific prevailing 10.6.(66) to Sydney Hills 7.2.(44). A good lead in to their first tournament game against the Australian indigenous Flying Boomerangs on Sunday.

The Australian Football League launched on Monday the 2013 Multicultural Round, a themed round to recognise our game’s cultural diversity.

AFL Head of Diversity Jason Mifsud, Geelong Vice-Captain Jimmy Bartel, Australia Post AFL Multicultural Ambassadors Bachar Houli and Majak Daw, and participants from The Bachar Houli and Majak Daw Academies attended the launch event held at AFL House in Melbourne.

Round 16 of the Toyota AFL Premiership season will celebrate ‘Many Cultures, One Game', recognising the many players from multicultural backgrounds, who make up 15 per cent of the AFL player list.

AFL Head of Diversity, Jason Mifsud said the Multicultural Round highlights the contribution multicultural communities have made to Australia's game, as well as the community engagement initiatives currently being undertaken by the AFL industry.

"It is important the AFL reflects cultural diversity, providing an environment which welcomes people from all backgrounds to enjoy our game as supporters, players or administrators in the future," said Mr. Mifsud.

A major feature of the AFL's involvement with international footy has been the annual overseas tour conducted by the AIS-AFL Academy side.  The AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) is a Federal Government initiative primarily aimed at raising the standard of Australia's Olympics hopefuls, so it was always a slightly odd connection to include an Australian football contingent, but one that was no doubt carefully orchestrated by the AFL for the monetary assistance, elite training and attraction for elite young sportsmen.

That relationship has come to end.  It was announced last Monday that the 2013/2014 intake will be the last to hold the AIS-AFL Academy title. 

 

 

The World XVIII kicked off their tournament yesterday with a 9 point win over the WA North-West team. The South Pacific team went down to the Flying Boomerangs by 14 points.

Results from the opening round of matches at the 2013 NAB AFL Under-16 Championships played yesterday at Blacktown International Sportspark in Sydney can be seen below.

Tru Blu Entertainment announced today that AFL Live 2 is currently in development and will be released later this year on PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®. AFL Live 2 promises to deliver a deeper and richer gameplay experience, as well as adding new features to the successful franchise.

AFL Live 2 now includes a comprehensive career mode, spanning 15 years, allowing fans to manage their players and their team all the way from the TAC Cup through the Peter Jackson VFL and into the Toyota AFL Premiership Season. The career manager mode also allows control over training, where players gain experience and can have individual statistics improved to suit your style of play. Sponsorships, staffing, tribunal, emails, drafting and trading are all included to be used as you progress throughout the Career Mode.

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.