World Footy News

“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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The Gold Coast SUNS will provide Queensland sports fans with an access all areas pass to the Club this weekend, when a special covering the teams recent high performance altitude training camp in Arizona airs on 7mate. Viewers in the rest of Australia and overseas will also be able to watch the doco on the Club's YouTube channel.

From trekking through the Grand Canyon, to navigating the red rock formations of Sedona on Mountain-Bikes and scaling the icy slopes of Mount Humphrey's, the SUNS TV cameras captured every second of the fourteen day camp, documenting the intensive and challenging program set by newly recruited high performance manager Stephen Schwerdt and the GC SUNS coaching staff.

From personal achievements and setbacks to team activities, nothing is off limits during the thirty minute special which highlights the dedication and sacrifice required to play AFL at an elite level, whilst also highlighting the advances the GC SUNS have made as the playing group prepares for their third season in the AFL.

The 2013 AFL season gets underway for the 14 other teams this week. The first match this week is on Thursday night Australian time between the Richmond and Carlton.  No matches are played in Australia on Good Friday.   The schedule can be seen below.

The inaugural AFL Chairman’s Cup and MCC President’s Medal will be presented at the annual AIS-AFL Academy match this Thursday night. The AIS-AFL Academy level two squad, playing as Australia Under-18s will play Collingwood’s VFL team in a curtain-raiser to the Carlton v Richmond match at the MCG.

The winning team will be presented the AFL Chairman’s Cup by AFL Commission Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick.

The best Australia Under-18 player will be awarded the MCC President’s Medal which will be presented by MCC President Paul Sheahan. AIS-AFL High Performance Coach Michael O’Loughlin and his assistants Glen Jakovich, Brad Ottens, Matthew Lloyd, Tadhg Kennelly and Brad Johnson will select the medallist.

The AIS-AFL Academy Level Two squad will depart for a 15-day European tour on Saturday March 30. The squad will train at the AIS European training centre in Varese, Italy, before travelling to London. The squad will play the European Legion on Saturday April 6 at Surrey Sportspark.

As the new Australian Rules season dawns for most European countries, various hibernating footballing leviathans emerge from their winter slumbers. One such region is the Iberian Peninsula where footy lovers in Spain, Portugal, Catalonia and Andorra prepare for the 2013 season.

The love of the game has not necessarily translated to large numbers in these countries, nations and principalities, meaning that regular fixtures are difficult. But that hasn’t stopped the intrepid few from generating interest to keep the code’s flag flying.

A group of German soccer students from Bamberg University recently took on the Tattersalls Football Club in Sydney in a match of AFL 9s - with the Germans' superior fitness allowing them to run out victors over the locals.

Bamberg is in the north of the German state of Bavaria, and while it's not particularly close to any existing AFLG clubs, the idea of some new enthusiastic footy fans in Germany might be of interest to the German footy community!

The following report originally appeared on the AFL NSW/ACT website.

Representatives from St Kilda were in Auckland this week, checking out potential crossover players. A key member of the visitors is Hawthorn’s former list manager Chris Pelchen. Hawthorn have done it in the past, most notably with Kurt Heatherley who plays for a Hawthorn feeder team in the TAC Cup and has transitioned from an International Scholarship player to an International Rookie.

Club bosses see rich athletic potential to mine in Auckland, a point emphasised by chief executive of AFL New Zealand Robert Vanstam. "We're not looking to steal athletes from the NZRU or NRL," Vanstam said in reference to the recent spate of code-hopping by Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt. "We're more interested in giving kids here another option."

The AFL has announced the 2013 NAB Under 16 Championships draw. This year's tournament will again include a WA Northwest team as well as a Flying Boomerangs indigenous team who will play against the World and South Pacific teams.

The South Pacific and WorldXVIII teams will be back for their fourth tournament which will be held in western Sydney from July 6 to July 13.  

The AFL has announced that it is to partner with Breast Cancer Network Australia to present Field of Women 2013. BCNA is an Australian charity representing women (and men) affected by breast cancer, helping to ensure that those diagnosed, and their families, get the very best treatment and support possible.

The Field of Women brings the statistics of breast cancer to life in a meaningful and visually powerful way, highlighting the personal impact of the disease for so many women across Australia and of course around the world. The event will be held in Sydney on August 10, prior to the Round 20 Sydney Swans v Collingwood match at ANZ Stadium. 15,000 people wearing pink ponchos and 125 in blue, will stand together on the field in the shape of BCNA's Pink Lady. The numbers represent the number of women and men estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

The USAFL have launched a new advertising campaign to promote the game and recruit players to their competition. The 30-second clip will run twice during the broadcast of AFL matches on the Fox Soccer PLUS each week as well as other times during the match day.

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Roger Scott, president of AFL Russia, is confident that the nation’s Australian Rules football ambitions will once again be on the rise in 2013. Just as soon as the current European winter releases its icy grip. In a story being played out across the continent, snow and ice are making footy practice a little problematic.

"The new season kicked off on Friday, March 8th with a practice match in the snow. The first official training should be this Sunday, but we’ve had one of the snowiest winters in history, and it doesn’t look like melting any time soon, so we could be delayed," explains Roger.

Whilst this scenario might suggest a slow start to the year, Roger is confident that things will pick up from here. “I’m helping organize the festival of Australian Culture in Moscow for July this year. It’ll be the first time such an event has been put on here. It should be a huge occasion."

"We’re hoping to play a practice match against a European or any foreign team as one of the main events for the festival, so we’re trying to find a team, whether it be local European, European representative or whoever, who’s ready to come! We’re also going to be running demonstrations, selling merchandise and showing games there." Now, there’s an invitation for someone to run with!