World Footy News

The AIS-AFL Academy, the cream of Australia's young football talent, has defeated the open-age (but focussed on roughly under 23) European Legion side 15.14 (104) to 3.0 (18) at Surrey Sportspark, England.  Hopefully more details to follow later.

Tadgh Kennelly discusses the AFL Europe squad's progress before today's match against the AFL-AIS Australian team at Surrey Sport's Park.

The following media release from the AFLNT details their partnership with beyondblue to tackle depression and anxiety in the Northern Territory.

AFLNT HAS THE ‘BALLS’ TO TACKLE DEPRESSION & ANXIETY

AFL Northern Territory will join forces with beyondblue in tackling depression and anxiety in the Northern Territory for a further three years following an extension of the partnership agreed this week.

“We as the lead sport in the NT have a duty and a responsibility to assist organizations such as beyondblue in order to combat the many issues that we face in day to day life,” said AFLNT CEO Tony Frawley.

On Monday 8th April the northern city of Townsville will again become a major hub of football action as it hosts the 2013 indigenous Kickstart Championships.

As stated by Kathleen Newman, Townsville regional Manager for AFL Queensland, “These championships, held from 8-12 April, [will] bring together around 150 of the most talented indigenous players from around the country and is sure to showcase some very exciting football. There is every chance spectators will see the next Cyril Rioli, Lewis Jetta, or Chris Yarran, running around.”

The matches will take place at Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville, and is yet another feather in the cap for Australian football in the city as it vies to become a major destination of choice for the AFL. As Kathleen says, “This is a big event for Townsville and is the third part of our already successful ‘Festival of Football’.
 

The 2013 AFL season moves on to Round 2 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.

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After a strong preseason performance for the Brisbane Lions, Irishman Pearce Hanley was reported in the Lions loss against the Western Bullldogs on Saturday. The charges are as follows:

Pearce Hanley, Brisbane Lions, has been charged with a Level One engaging in rough conduct offence (125 demerit points, one match) for engaging in rough conduct against Daniel Giansiracusa, Western Bulldogs, during the third quarter of the Round One match between the Brisbane Lions and the Western Bulldogs, played at Etihad Stadium on Saturday March 30, 2013.

In summary, he can accept a reprimand and 93.75 points towards his future record with an early plea.

The first thing that leaps to mind when Josip Kravar, president of the newly formed Association of Australian Football of Croatia (AAF), speaks is his positivism. “AAF is taking big steps now and we are willing to be one of leading countries in Aussie Rules in Europe, [to] spread our magnificent sport, young people, [and] spread our community. Above all, enjoy playing Aussie Rules.”

It is difficult to argue with his enthusiasm, however, when the list of recent Croatian footy achievements is truly analysed. Josip and his crew have been very busy people since last season and 2013 could very well see a very positive and exciting year.

Over-arching the achievements to date is the new name of the association. As Josip says, “In 2013 we founded the Association of Australian Football of Croatia (AAF) [in] what was a big legal step for us now. Under AAF we have 3 clubs, Zagreb Hawks, Zapruđe Giants and Velika Gorica Bombers.” With this new identity locked away, attention could turn to the development of the game in other areas.

Most notable of these developments is the link with the University of Zagreb. Josip explains that, “The AAF in 2013 signed an agreement with the Sport Faculty from University of Zagreb. With this agreement we gained [the] opportunity to build our first oval in Croatia. We are now starting a project of finding sponsors for this project and hopefully we will play our first 18 [per] side games in 2013.”

The AFL has announced that a women’s game will feature as a curtain raiser to the 29th June (Round 14) clash between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs at the MGC.

The two teams will wear the geurnseys of the AFL clubs and the players will be selected from across the Australian Women’s leagues, the All Australian team and the 2012 high performance squad, by means of the first ever women’s draft. The draft will take place in early May and will be managed by the AFL.

The women’s match was requested by Melbourne Football club who have had a major part in developing the women’s game and raising the level of the game played across Australia through their sponsorship of the VWFL, whose Premiers Division is currently Australia’s top women’s league.

"We wanted to showcase the best female players the game has to offer as well as sending a message to all girls that they may one day be able to represent the AFL club they support in a women's competition,” Melbourne’s chief executive Cameron Schwab said. "This game is an important step towards the idea of an elite level female competition. Other sports have successfully developed elite female competitions and our sport should be no different.”

Having had the great good fortune to be in Wellington as a foundation member of the NZAFL Board, formed when the AFL decided to support international football financially rather than in a tokenistic fashion, for the three pre-season games held there from 1998-2001 it is fair to say I have some good memories of football development at that time.

Having been at the coalface of player recruitment and development during this period as a local Club President, a Wellington player and League President at The Basin in 1998 and coach of the victorious Wellington team at the two Stadium Games’ curtain raisers I think that gives some real perspective on what the Anzac Day game may mean for future game development.

That said, things change. Since the last Stadium game so many initiatives have developed for NZ and International footy. The AFL has seen international development as a key development area. They have supported this not just through various funding arrangements but through the support of competitions at junior and open age level.

The International Cups grew from the pioneers at Arafura’s efforts, running of events such as the South Pacific Cups and the inclusion of South Pacific and World representative teams at the Australian Championships. This list continues to grow and I realise is not exhaustive.

“Well, where to start?” begins Oliver Krajacic, captain of the Styrian DownUnder Dogs in Graz, Austria. “Apart from restructuring internally, we finally managed to organise an Australian Football course in cooperation with our local university. The 25 spots were gone in about three weeks, and the prospect of adding that many potential regular players to our sport is just an extremely positive turn of events for us.”

Such is the manner in which Oliver almost breathlessly extolls the excitement of an off season which may forever change the fortunes of Australian Rules football in Austria. Oliver puts it in this light: "If no more than 5 or 6 players from that course turn out to be EU Cup material, we might finally get some competitiveness going. People fighting for a spot on the team for interleague matches or the EU Cup. That's something we'll have to get used to. Heck, practice sessions with possibly two full teams being available were the stuff of dreams in recent years.”

This is a veritable avalanche of players when compared to previous seasons, but it hasn’t all been beer and skittles over the past couple of years.

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