World Footy News

Susan Chuot is the first African player to make the Western Australia state women’s team. She was originally born in South Sudan but her family soon moved to Kenya to escape the war.

After her family moved to Australia, Chuot first played Australian Football at school, but her main passion was always soccer until she got involved at the Edmund Rice Centre, for young people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, coaching their Indigenous soccer team. Chout was then invited to become the first female to play for the Lions, the boys’ football team, in 2011 and she even captained the team in 2012.

After four days of gladiatorial combat at Cazaly’s in Cairns, the cream rose to the top in today’s grand finals. The glorious weather held firm for the entire event, showcasing Cairns itself for the visiting teams, but also showcasing the tremendous talent on show for the crowds that came along.

The Division Two final between the ACT and South Australia was a tight affair throughout the first half. Neither side could break away in a low scoring game. There was a touch of sparring for much of the half with both sides playing within themselves. Going in at the main break, scores were level.

Despite the local EPL team sharing the moniker, colours and notoriety of AFL’s Collingwood Magpies, many sports fans are unaware of Newcastle United.

However, local Aussie Rules team Tyne Tees Tigers are on a mission to introduce Newcastle to the Australian code of football. And they have the support of Sky News Tyne and Wear who came down to North Shields Rugby Club, where the Tigers train, to film the AFL Central and Northern England League's lightning round there.

Another great day in Cairns saw the final matches of the round robin fixtures in both Division 1 and Division 2. All is now set for the finals tomorrow at Cazaly’s Stadium.

DIVISION 2:
South Australia 11 6 72 d Tasmania 5 6 36
ACT 19 18 132 d Arafura 0 2 2

DIVISION 1:
Victoria 13 14 92 d NSW 4 1 25
Western Aust 12 10 82 d Queensland 3 5 23

Brilliant weather has greeted the teams in Cairns as over 250 women battle it out for the 2013 women’s titles.

So far, after two days of intense competition, Victoria dominates the division one pool with two powerful wins. In the Division Two pool it is the ACT team who holds sway with two wins from two starts. After a rest day yesterday, the women are back in action today.

Day One Results:

ACT 7.11 (53) d Tasmania 4.2 (26)
South Australia 17.9 (111) d Arafura 1.0 (6)
Western Australia 13.17 (95) d NSW 1.2 (8)
Victoria 19.10 (124) d Queensland 2.1 (13)

Day Two Results:

Tasmania 12.7 (79) d Arafura 1.6 (12)
ACT 7.7 (49) d South Australia 6.4 (40)
Victoria 14.6 (90) d Western Australia 5.2 (32)
Queensland 6.8 (44) d New South Wales 3.6 (24)

Division grand finals and presentations will be held tomorrow (Saturday 22nd June) at Cazaly’s Stadium in Cairns to wrap up what has already been an exciting and thoroughly entertaining carnival.

The AFL today announced the 2013 World Team squad which will compete at the Under 16 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships in Sydney in July.

The 2013 squad will showcase the skills of talented international youngsters from South Africa, England, Ireland and Denmark, as well the best upcoming AFL multicultural players from across the nation. Disappointingly no international representatives from the US, Canada or Asian nations will be part of the team this year.

Premiership player and former Carlton captain Anthony Koutoufides has been named head coach of the World Team. "The World Team provides international and multicultural AFL players with elite training, personal development and AFL talent pathway opportunities," said Koutoufides.

“We were in a Newcastle bar… the Shark Bar... at what was supposed to be a sports networking event: free food/free beer. We'd previously discussed the possibility of a club via email over the preceding few months but got nowhere. Hardly anyone else turned up to this networking event so we got stuck in to the free beer! By the end of the night we had agreed to start the club, picked a training venue and date to start training and the Tigers were officially born.”

Such is the story of the birth of the Tyne Tees Tigers Australian Rules football club in the north east of England. The gathering of Ian Baxter, Anthony Nolan and Shaun Bulmer to pursue a means to keep their favourite sport alive in the region has led to the Tigers having served a local “social club” apprenticeship, and they are ready to join the AFLCNE (Australian Football League Central & Northern England) for the 2014 season.

Whilst not technically a “new” team, as they have been in existence in one form or other since 2007, they are quite definitely a new club in a variety of ways.

Cairns in winter is a magical place. Low humidity, warm days in the mid 20’s, sunny skies and the ever so gentle scents of the tropics…rainforests, beaches, suntan lotion, sugar cane and a myriad of dining smells mingling to create a sensory delight.

What better destination could there be to host the 2013 Women’s AFL national Championships?

There is a symbiotic relationship between women’s footy and Cairns. The North Queensland city was the first non-capital city to form a women’s league, and it is now the first non-capital city to host these national championships since their inception in 1996.

This year’s event sees teams coming from Victoria, Team WA, Queensland and New South Wales in Division One. South Australia, Tasmania, ACT and Arafura make up Division Two. The new Arafura team is made of women from Papua New Guinea, North Queensland (including Cairns) and the Northern Territory and replaces the NT Thunder team for this tournament.

The 2014 AFL International Cup, to be played in Melbourne from Saturday August 9 to Saturday August 23, will once again feature a two division competition for men and one division competition for women.  The men will be split after a day of short seeding matches, much the same as occurred in 2011.

New to the International Cup will be an AFL9s tournament, which the AFL describes as an "exciting and new evolution to the AFL International Cup with an objective of providing an entry level opportunity for a greater number of countries and teams to be involved".  Indeed the lure of a shorter stay with less players required could see a number of new nations participate for the first time, hopefully with the goal of graduating to the full-side version in future Cups.

Read on for the preliminary schedule of events.

Coca-Cola Binatangs ready for Queensland Championships

AFLPNG’s under 14 Coca-Cola Binatangs will depart this Thursday for the Gold Coast in Queensland to participate in the 2013 Queensland State Championships. The squad of 27 Young boys has been drawn from the Highlands (Goroka and Mt. Hagen), Islands (Kimbe/Hoskins and Kavieng) , Northern (Lae and Kainantu) and Port Moresby. Selection was via the Coca-Cola National Championships held in November last year at Lae’s Igam Barracks.

The following is from an AFL PNG press release

This media release from AFLNT details the plan to accept the Central Australian Redtails on an expanded, but not full, entry into the NTFL Premier League for 2014.

AFLNT BOARD RATIFIES CONDITIONAL INCLUSION OF REDTAILS INTO THE NTFL ON A ‘TRIAL GAME’ BASIS FOR SEASON 2013/14 & ENDORSES NTFL PLAYER POINTS SYSTEM

The AFLNT board has recommended that the Central Australian Redtails be admitted into the TIO NTFL Premier League for season 2013/14 on an eight (8) game trial basis.

Full time admission into the league thereafter is subject to successful completion of the 2013/14 8 game trial in addition to a further five (5) years of Federal funding being committed to existing AFLNT & NT Thunder Central Australian operations.

This year’s Women’s National Championships are being held in Cairns, Queensland. As usual, there will be two divisions:

Division 1 is the top tier of women’s football and includes the powerhouse football states of Victoria and Western Australia as well as strong state teams from Queensland and New South Wales, bursting out from traditional rugby territory.

Division 2 is a development league which comprises Australian Capital Territory, Arafura (Northern Queensland, Papua New Guinea and Northern Territory), South Australia and Tasmania.

The Arafura team takes the place of the usual Northern Territory state team whilst the Thunder rebuild their female talent program.  Read on for the full schedule.