World Footy News

AFL Europe have announced that Axios Systems have signed on for 3 years as the naming rights sponsor of the Euro Cup, with the upcoming edition in Bordeaux now officially known as the 2013 Axios Euro Cup.

Axios Systems delivers on-premise and SaaS Service Desk and IT Service Management (ITSM) software to customers across the globe. They combine software, consulting and training to implement ITSM strategies tailored to meet the needs of their customers.

The AFL Europe encourage any company needing such services to get in touch with Axios via axiossystems.com and support a company that supports Australian Rules Football in Europe.

They would also like to publicly thank Andros Symeonides (Senior VP Business Development) and Ranald Haig who both recently played for Iceland in the 2012 Euro Cup and have been instrumental in securing this support for the development Australian Football in Europe.

The official logo for the 2013 Axios Euro Cup is shown at left, designed by European footy stalwart Kolja Koracak from Croatia and his company Locker Room 51 Sports Branding Studio. His work can be found at lockerroom51.com.

“I took three boys into Darwin to play representative footy in November 2012 and we went food shopping together. I asked one of the boys to go and get me a few things from the shopping list and they had never heard of it before."

"When I asked what they eat for breakfast, the reply was ‘left over turtle or dugong’. Unfortunately we were unable to find that in Coles. It is great to see that the traditional food gathering still takes place in these areas such as fishing and hunting. If we can help them [indigenous people from Groote Eylandt] understand our culture then we will be able to achieve so many more goals.”

This recollection from Shawn Ford, the AFL Regional Development Manager for Groote Eylandt, says a great deal about the differences that still exist in many ways of life in remote parts of Australia. Aspects of life that many take for granted can be viewed differently by others.

The AFL Europe have named the squad for the European Legion this year's Easter Series against the AIS-AFL Academy team, to be held in Guildford, England and Copenhagen, Denmark.

16 young players and 2 emergencies from around the European leagues have been selected, with a further 8 to be added from the recent combine in Dublin where GAA players were put through their paces.

Coaching the squad will be the Sydney Swans' famous Irish recruit and premiership player Tadhg Kennelly, along with former Richmond and Geelong premiership ruckman Brad Ottens.

Assistant coaches are former Demon Glenn Lovett, English footy stalwart Ian Mitchell and Icelandic journeyman Palli Finnson.

Full squad follows.

This article is only here because we've had some technical issues and the site won't let me edit the BWFL article now it's in the system.

Read the full story for some maps of where the clubs are located around Germany - although if we can work out what's going on with the editor privileges and fix it, we might merge this into the previous article.

Many involved in footy outside Australia know it can be tough to find locals willing to try out a completely unknown sport and then travel all the way across the nation for a game. For numerous clubs across the USA and Europe, the key to getting larger numbers involved is local footy, often on a 9-a-side basis, for people to try out the sport with a minimum initial outlay of time and money.

One such league trying to get going is the Baden-Württemberg Footy Liga (BWFL), based around new clubs in south-western Germany and loosely connected with the Stuttgart Emus club.

Grant Walsh from the Emus says that a local league was always part of the long-term planning for the area, spurred on by the foundation of the Ludwigsburg and Haslach clubs. "The Taipans started up quickly and introduced a fresh new perspective, it became clear that they would soon be looking for some real competition."

That competition may come from clubs hoping to get off the ground in Böblingen, Tübingen, Freiburg and Karlsruhe, as well as possibly a reserves squad from the Emus. Although some of those new sides are looking more likely to take the field this year than others, WFN brings you a short preview of the people working on each of them.

Here's a story that never made it into an article and has sat in my pile of drafts for almost six years now - reporting some early stirrings of footy in South Korea.

Although it became one of a long of clubs that had some impetus early on but ultimately never saw the light of day, I figure it's worth giving everyone a chance to read the story of the Kimchi Kangaroos - also known as the Seoul Crocodiles, as it was around 6 years ago!

Certainly if growth, confidence, belief and sheer unbridled enthusiasm are markers for success, then Finnish Australian Rules football is about to enjoy a wild ride in 2013. Word from Finland is that up to three new or resurrected clubs may join the league in coming seasons, with most having an eye towards being competitive in some way as early as this season.

Leading the charge are the Parru Wildmen (referred to as the Lappeenranta Wildmen in a previous WFN article), based in the south eastern city of Lappeenranta, close to the Russian border.

According to Antti Lipsanen, the "man behind the wildmen", the development of this team got off to a slow start. "We had some trouble with booking a proper hall for us to practice, which in turn makes it hard to promote the sport [as we] can't really say 'be there' if there is no place to be. However, we've since had three sessions with a bunch of guys thanks to AFL Europe and the SCP-grant."

Irishman Pearce Hanley really stood out at the Lions in 2012 with a many great performances running out of the back line, and as seen in the highlights package below kicking some nice goals when he ran forward too.  We hope to see his development continue and lead the way for the Irish imports in 2013.

[youtube:sI5QhdD8JMk]

Australian Football in France has been consistently growing in the last few years but anyone familiar with the European scene will know that this has not always been the case. In fact less than five years ago Football was about to disappear from France. But thanks to the work of a few dedicated persons it survived and it's now stronger than ever.

The country now counts seven established teams spread around the country with ongoing projects to add another three. Travel has always been an issue in France as the teams are quite far apart, so to ease the pressure on the newest ones, a two league system has been implemented.

The new year has heralded some changes to the Australian Rules football scene in Denmark. In 2013 the DAFL will look different to the past in a number of ways as the league continues to make changes to benefit and grow the game.

The first round of the 2013 season is a cracking start. The two newest teams in the league, both running with working titles until official names are chosen, will play each other to start the show. The “X-Men” will take on the “Greater Southern Suburbs of Farum” team to get the ball rolling on the 9th April. After that, the season will continue in a larglely revised format with regards to team numbers and fixturing.

Australian Trade Commissioner and Vice President of Australian Rules Football Association in India, Tom Calder, was special guest at the closing ceremony of the "Swarnim Khel Mahakumbh" in Ahmedabad, a mass scale sports carnival organized by the Gujarat state Government as a part of the program to celebrate 50 years of the formation of the West Indian state.

Participation at the event saw nearly 1.3 million participants of various ages competing in 24 different sports at 1,100 venues across the state. The event is the brainchild of Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has a strong pro-sports agenda and who declared in his speech that the carnival would become an annual event.

During his speech at the event Tom asked the Chief Minister to consider promoting the unique Australian sport in Gujarat as a way of increasing Australian-Gujarati sports links and presented an AFL India branded Sherrin to him on stage (pictured at left).