World Footy News

In celebration of 4 years of Stateside Footy TV, the USAFL have released an article on their website commemorating the work put in by the show’s legendary commentator and producer, Bill Robert.

SSFTV started filming USAFL games in July 2010 and aired their first episode a month later in August. The 4th season of the show is due to be aired from next month. To date, 40 episodes have been filmed and the show has been aired on 81 public access channels across 21 states, and has been viewed online by over 20,000 fans.

For a quick fix of “Australian made, American played”, take a look at the show’s flashy new USAFL promotion video which will feature during breaks in the 2013 show.

For more information on Bill Robert’s contributions to the game in the USA, please read the original article written by Boston Demon and USAFL VP Mike Sheppard.

The AFL has announced the top 50 female players in Australia as part of the Women's Draft which precedes the "Women's AFL" exhibition game. The game will be played as a curtain raiser to the Women’s Round AFL game between Melbourne FC and Western Bulldogs at the MCG on the 29th of June.

The two AFL Clubs were given the opportunity to select the players from the draft to represent them in the curtain raiser. Also selected were two of Australia’s top female coaches: Michelle Cowan has been appointed coach of the Melbourne FC women’s team, and Peta Searle has been appointed coach of the Western Bulldogs women’s team.

Unsurprisingly, players from the VWFL dominated the selection, with powerhouse Darebin Falcons notching up nothing short of 10 players on the list, 3 of whom where named in the top 10.

A spokesperson from Darebin Falcons told us, “The girls certainly did their club proud. It was a successful night for Darebin, but more importantly for women's football as a whole. It’s fantastic to see these women receiving a reward for their effort.”

Across town, Melbourne University’s team had 6 players selected, whilst in Western Australia, Coastal Titans managed 4 players on the list and Swan Districs had two players named in the top 10.

Representatives from New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia also found their way into the top 50, echoing the promising results from the recent Youth Girls National Championships, and showing that the gap between the two top states and their closest rivals is slowly closing.

Read the full story for the full list of the top 50 female players, their home clubs and the AFL team they have been selected to play for.

Match report taken from the Glasgow Sharks website and written by "the Great White"

Hello and welcome Sharks fans. Saturday saw the CAFL (Glasgow metro league) season opener with a replay of last year’s grand final between the Cards and the Makos. The Makos fell at the final hurdle last season and so were looking to even the ledger and kick start the new season with a victory. The Cards were also looking to start the season with a bang and maintain their dominance of the league they enjoyed last season.

With both teams missing key players it would be down to each team’s new recruits and second year players to get the job done. The game got underway under sunny skies but feeling very cold. With the turf crunching underfoot the cards were kicking to the stadium end of Victoria Park and the makos heading to the city end.

Alberta is a province in Western Canada that is in the encouraging position of having two cities hosting Australian Football clubs. The following article is from Jason Arnold and Chantal Spindler of the men’s and women’s teams who report on the interesting formation, proud achievements and exciting developments of the Edmonton Australian Football Club.

It’s been an active off season for the Edmonton Australian Football Club.  The club’s teams, the Edmonton Emus (women’s) and the Edmonton Wombats (men’s) haven’t let the long winter slow them down.  They’ve been conducting weekly training sessions, since mid-October.  Significant recruitment efforts have seen the EAFC double their numbers and record a constant 40+ at training.

The club was established as the ‘Edmonton Emus’ in 2008 by Tristan Waldock, who coached the women’s team for two years.  The Wombats (men’s) officially joined the following year in 2009, initially led by Hamish Martin, then led by Brad Havin upon Hamish’s return to Australia.  The Edmonton Australian Football Club was then formed.

After much hard work in the off season 2012 was a breakthrough year with the Wombats enjoying successes at the Kelowna Cup (Western Canada’s first tournament of the season, hosting teams from Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton) and being super competitive in the Stampede Cup against Calgary later in the season.  Off the back of great performances by their National reps, the Emus had their first win over the Calgary Kookaburras at the inaugural Capital Cup.
 

If you build it, they will come.

That was the motto used five years ago when the fledgling Montreal footy club was desperate to get visiting teams into town and build a unique 9-a-side event that put the spotlight on rookie Aussie Rules players.

Armed with the lure of a European-style city like no other in North America, for the very first time some applications for the 2013 tournament had to be refused as the tournament’s 4 women’s and 8 men’s slots filled in record time. Teams from New York, Ottawa, Boston, Baltimore and Halifax all committing to take on Montreal’s spread of home teams in the AFL Quebec Preseason Cup. An estimated 150+ players will be on hand for what will be Quebec footy’s finest hour.

Season 2012 Japan Top League saw the entry of the R246 Lions into the League achieving a measure of success in winning several of their matches and (for a brand new team) very competitive in others.

So too, season 2013 sees another new club, the Tokyo Bay Suns enter the league. The new club is the brainchild of two former Narita Hawks and current Samurais players, Yosuke Kuno and Junji Tanaka, between them about 15-16 years experience playing Australian football.

Club media spokesman and only Aussie on the playing list, Brett Snowdon, explained “the club is run as an ‘open club’, the idea that even though our game day squad is set, any members from other clubs are welcome to train with us. Players from university teams with less experience can learn from our experienced players so helping to improve the level of all teams in the league.” The club has already run a special training session where members from the Suns, Magpies, Hawks and Powers attended, around 40 players in all.

AFL Fiji has started a school holiday footy clinic in Albert Park, Suva, with the aim of increasing female participation in the game ahead of next year’s International Cup.

Despite low turnout on the first few days, as word has spread, more and more girls have begun turning up to the training sessions, many of them with experience playing other sports, such as rugby.

The boys also have a holiday clinic and some of them are staying on to help the senior players organise the girls’ training too.

AFL Fiji’s Lupe Wolfgramm told the Fiji Times that the school program to introduce the sport to women started in mid-April, adding that the response was overwhelming. On the back of their success in the Western Division, they are now turning their attention to Suva.

If the recruitment and training continues to go well, Wolfgramm says she would like to try the girls out in a game situation, possibly a women’s exhibition match during the Oceania Cup in December.

The provisionally-named AFL Scotland hopes to bring together and coordinate everyone's efforts in furthering the sport in Scotland.

Brought about by its two leagues, AFL Scotland is comprised of the Scottish Australian Rules Football League (SARFL) and the Caledonian Australian Football League (CAFL).

The SARFL is the National League format, comprising three 9-a-side teams in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The CAFL is Glasgow's metro 9-a-side league with three teams, Card Sharks, Mako Sharks and Tiger Sharks. The CAFL also has a women's division comprised of the Copper Sharks and Diesel Sharks.

The following is an AFL NT media release.

AFL Northern Territory is pleased to announced the recruitment of NT Thunder Ruckman and NTFL Rising Star winner, Neil Vea Vea, to the role of Multicultural Ambassador for the Northern Territory.

“In the newly appointed role Neil will be charged with a variety of Multicultural Program activations across the Territory, as well as providing key mentor and leadership support to up and coming multicultural players with in the NT,” said AFLNT Participation Manager Adam Moedt.

Vea Vea, 19, of South Sea Island descent (Vanuatu), feels privileged to be able to play a part in delivering the multicultural programs with in the Northern Territory.

On Wednesday, May the 15th, the AFL will select the top 50 female players in Australia, with AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou calling out the names of the top 10 players.

Friends and family of the nominees will be invited to attend the draft at simultaneous presentations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, which will be linked up by video conferencing.

The draft and the game are both initiatives of the Melbourne Football Club, main sponsor of Australia’s top women’s league, the VWFL, and the Melbourne sector of the draft will be conducted in the club’s boardroom.

From the draft, the two teams that will represent the Melbourne and Western Bulldogs Football Clubs during the inaugural AFL Women’s Exhibition game will be selected. The women’s teams will face off at the MGC as a curtain raiser to the AFL game played by the two clubs during AFL Women’s Round on Saturday June 29.

A rather odd article appeared in the Herald Sun today.  It quotes AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce function in Melbourne.  The headline read "The AFL admits it will not become an international sport".  That's pretty blunt and depressing for supporters of the growth of our great game.  But is that really what he said?

Yes and no.

Article courtesy of Glasgow Sharks’ Stacey Hughes.

The Haggis cup saw the Copper Sharks seeking revenge over the Diesel Sharks for a heavy defeat in Glasgow a week earlier. Leeroy Brown was traded for Zoe Rowe for this exhibition match in Edinburgh.

The Copper Sharks dominated early proceedings, outscoring the Diesel Sharks 20-2 in the opening quarter, which Saw Sue Noble score her first goal for the Copper Sharks.