World Footy News

 

The 2013 AFL season moves on to Round 4 this week.   The international broadcast schedule can be seen below. All times are correct at the time of publishing and WFN takes no responsibility for changes to the schedule.

There are some reports on forums that Sommet Sports that was scheduled to deliver Free to Air coverage of the AFL in NZ was due to launch today but have not.  We would appreciate any confirmation of this. 

Irish convert to Australian Football Setanta O’hAilpin has been named in the Greater Western Sydney GIANTS 25 man squad to play Melbourne at the MCG this Sunday. O'hAilpin, who has not played for nearly 12 months since undergoing a knee reconstruction, is one of eight inclusions for the GIANTS. Some thought the injury might be the end of his AFL career. But the Giants have stuck by him, and he's back.

O’hAilpin has been named at full forward in place of Jon Patton, who’ll miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

GIANTS Head Coach Kevin Sheedy says O’hAilpin deserves his spot back in the team. “He (O’hAilpin) kicked five goals last week and has been in very good form in the NEAFL,” Sheedy said. “It’s a shame we lose (Jon) Patton but I’ve got faith that Setanta can do the job for us up forward.”

The GIANTS final 22 will be named tomorrow.

Of course, the above title should finish “…the more they stay the same.” Yet, oddly, in the case of Australian Rules footy in Ireland, that whole saying could be reversed. The more the game seems to be staying much as it was last year, it is in fact changing by degrees…and for the better.

Cian Quigley, president of ARFLI (Australian Rules Football League Ireland), points out that the league has the same teams as last year. Cian explains that “We have the same number of teams as always but the Midwest Magpies have rebranded to the Galway Magpies. Playing numbers in the Irish league are slowly increasing and the competition between teams is very close. The reigning premiers the Belfast Redbacks lost their opening game to a team [North Leinster Giants] that didn't make finals last year!”

But bubbling beneath the surface, change is occurring. This is best seen through the arrival of the UCC Bombers in Cork. Whilst they are some way away from playing in the national league on equal terms, the fact they now exist, and are actively playing games, means an eighth Irish team is potentially near.

At the beginning of April, and almost buried amid the rash of local, state and national representative carnivals played over the recent school holidays, was the trip undertaken by the Cairns Lions U17 representative team. This annual pilgrimage to Victoria sees these boys try out their skills and talents against southern representative teams.

The games are a part of the Victoria Challenge program, designed to expose players from leagues far removed from the epicentre of the game to the increased standard and tempo of more developed competitions. AFL Cairns has supported the project for a number of years, in the past having played against the Essendon District League and Geelong College.

This year the team from the north played against the Ballarat Football League team and also the Riddell District team.

One Sunday I headed to the MCG. In the interests of full disclosure I am a Hawthorn fan. But today I went along to see what Marty Clarke's game was like. The Irishman made the quickest transition from Gaelic football to Australian football of any of the Irish to come to play at senior level in the AFL.

Of course he went home to play Gaelic football after successful seasons in Australia, before returning last season to the AFL.

This is how I saw Marty's day pan out.

With the snow on distant hills still thawing and the sun enthusiastically beating down on Moscow, the 2013 Gagarin Cup was played this weekend in Russia.

The Gagarin Cup takes its name from the Russian Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human into space when he completed an orbit of the Earth in a Vostok spaceship on April 12th 1961, hence the choice of date for this weekend’s footy carnival. Cosmonautics Day, or Den Kosmonavtiki in Russian, is a national holiday in Russia.

In an enormous show of strength for the Australian Rules football code in Russia, and a shot in the arm for those who have been working so hard for years to establish the game in the country, there were 5 teams consisting of 9 per side, ranking this as one of the best days in Russian football.

The full list of athletes to be tested at the AFL Combine starting in LA today can be seen below.

The fifth edition of the ANZAC cup, organised jointly by France's CNFA and AFL Europe, will be held this year on April 20th in the village of Villers-Bretonneux.

The game which sees France take on Australian expats, is now a well established feature of the ANZAC celebrations held each year in northern France thanks to the great support from the local community. This year the australian TV channel Seven News will be covering the game for the “Sunrise” show to be broadcast on April 25th before the Essendon-Collingwood game.

Although previous editions were played on a full sized oval, this year's confrontation will follow the 9 a side format so common in Europe. This change in format is only due to the cost of renting the field previously used as the oval. Thomas Urban hopes the CNFA will be able to gather enough funds to get the game back to full format for next year's centenary of the start of World War I.

After some difficulties in the past in finding players for the Australian team, AFL Europe is pulling out all the stops to make sure it assembles the best team possible. As usual, France will use this game to test its national side against some tough opposition and hope to hold on the cup they won last year.

One thing that is clear after interviewing Adam Pearce, president of AFL Norway, is that the year 2013 will be one of consolidating their achievements of last year to build a stronger Australian Rules football product for the future.

“After a very successful debut in the Euro Cup in Edinburgh last year with our national team taking out the unofficial trophy for the best team of "developing nations", we are again making the 2013 Euro Cup in Bordeaux our focus for the year” explains Adam.

After having seen the successful National U15 Kickstart Championships played last week in Townsville, the focus of junior representative football remains in North Queensland. This weekend in Airlie Beach, the North Queensland U16 Championships will commence. The following is an article from AFL Queensland which gives an insight into this important addition to the Queensland representative scene.

Illinois basketballer Sam McLaurin has some impressive highlights (seen in the video reel below) both at his former college team Coastal Carolina and his current Illinois Fighting Illini team.  Standing at 203cms the 23 year old is a potential AFL ruckman and will be put through his paces in LA from April 14-16 in the second official US Combine.

 [youtube:Xd6zp7ga9u4]

Following their 9.5 (59) to 1.1 (7) victory over Ireland's Warriors on 6th April in Guildford, the Great Britain Bulldogs have climbed two spots to 7th on our unofficial World Rankings. The US and Tonga each slipped a position as a result. Ireland maintained their position as number two behind Australia, but their margin over PNG is now perilously narrow.

The Bulldogs head across to Dublin for the second and final match of the series against Ireland, scheduled for 20th April.

See below for interim rankings update.