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Galiwinku – An “Island Home” to Aussie Rules Footy

  • Wednesday, February 20 2013 @ 03:34 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 6,099
Australia

When Tayo Cafarella, the current Regional Development Manager for AFL Northern Territory in the town of Galiwinku, first reported for work he was surprised. The local oval was closed for cultural reasons, which seemed to put a stop to his work before it even started.

Not so, according to the kids in town. Oval or no oval the footy must go on. As Tayo says, “this did not stop the juniors who were at my door every day pleading for footy [so] we played 10 rounds of our U13’s competition in the local park. The boys were running around barefoot, dodging trees, dogs, a sandpit and the odd pig. Not once did they complain of the conditions, they were just stoked to be playing footy!”

So, welcome to the spirit of Elcho Island, and Galiwinku, its largest town. A quick search of the map will show that Elcho Island is located near the north-eastern tip of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The island is long and narrow, surrounded by the Arafura Sea to the west and Cadell Strait to the east. It is one of the southernmost islands in Wessel Group and Galiwinku sits roughly in the cenre of the island.

Cleveland Cannons recruiting video

  • Wednesday, February 20 2013 @ 08:33 am ACDT
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  • Views: 1,999
North America

Fledgling USAFL club, the Cleveland Cannons have released a promo video as they head into the 2013 season.  You can watch the Youtube video below and you can hookup with the club on Facebook here. 

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Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - Hawks consolidating in 2013

  • Tuesday, February 19 2013 @ 10:11 am ACDT
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  • Views: 3,387
Europe

In part two of our look at the local footy scene in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, we take a look at the Hawks from Haslach, a suburb of the small city of Herrenberg.

Along with the Ludwigsburg, the Haslach Hawks are one of the two local footy clubs that have grown out of players from the Stuttgart Emus bring footy closer to home.

Driving force behind the Hawks is Jakob Jung, who spent a year as an exchange student in Bribie Island, Queensland, in 2009-10.

Cairns v Townsville – Which will be the home of an AFL team by 2030?

  • Monday, February 18 2013 @ 05:07 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 6,223
Australia

I am very lucky that I can travel the stretch of road between Cairns and Townsville many times a year. The drive takes in some of the finest scenery in Australia. Along the way there are the imposing twin mountains, Bartle Frere and Bellenden Ker, with their luxuriant rainforest canopies.

There is the beach at Cardwell with its views across to majestic Hinchinbrook Island. Mile upon mile of sugar cane farms surrounding the towns of Gordonvale, Innisfail, Tully and Ingham in the valleys of the Mulgrave, Johnston, Tully and Herbert Rivers.

Then there are the detours to Mission Beach, Wallaman Falls, Paluma and more. It truly is an amazing part of the world.

At either and of the drive are two growing cities. They are rivals in many ways - complementary in others. Some believe that Cairns is the “tourist capital” of the north and others see Townsville as the “administrative capital”. These descriptions are too simplistic, and are an argument for another day. What is becoming clear, however, is that these two northern cities in tropical Australia are about to become locked in a battle to see an AFL team franchise based there by 2030.

Local footy in Baden-Württemberg - Ludwigsburg Taipans hoping for opponents

  • Sunday, February 17 2013 @ 05:01 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 4,876
Europe

The German state of Baden-Württemberg, located in the country's south-west, has been represented in the AFLG by the Stuttgart Emus for a number of years now. Besides the Emus however, there are also a number of regional towns where interested German and Australian footy fanatics are working on the creation of new clubs, with the possibility that this year may see a local league start play.

The most active of the regional teams are the Taipans, founded in the medium-sized city of Ludwigsburg around 15km north of Stuttgart. Ludwigsburg has been home to a number of Stuttgart Emus players over the past few years, including local Kevin Kilger and Aussie expat Chris Robertson, a native of Williamstown in Melbourne's inner-west who has played with the Emus since 2009 and coached them in the second half of the 2011 season.

WAFL International Round a huge success

  • Saturday, February 16 2013 @ 05:05 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 3,075
Australia

The West Perth Football Club was much like other historic football clubs that find themselves at the mercy of changing demographics and now classified as "inner city".

In 1994 West Perth bit the bullet and moved from their traditional Italian community based Leederville to the populous new city of Joondalup. It was a major upheaval, with clashes between the members wishing to remain “West Perth” and the club’s desire to appeal to the new and wider community of Joondalup.

In 2012 the club successfully promoted the idea of a WAFL International Round with the West Perth F.C. donning Union Jack style jumpers and appealing to the large English immigrant community. The club also undertook an energetic campaign of attending all 65 schools in the area and engaging the media. 6044 people attended, the second largest WAFL H&A of the season against poorly supported Subiaco F.C.

Wolves hunt in Packs - New German club Dresden joining Czech league in 2013

  • Friday, February 15 2013 @ 08:30 am ACDT
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  • Views: 4,286
Europe

A new club on the German scene will enter regular play this year, with long time Rheinland Lions stalwart Chris Odenthal having built up a club in the eastern city of Dresden over the past 10 months.

Chris played seven seasons with the Rheinland Lions and has also represented the German Black Eagles on the European stage - now he's hoping to apply his experience to a new club.

LEFT: The Dresden Wolves in 2012 (wearing old Düsseldorf Lions jumpers until their own arrive)

Northern Territory punching above its weight in national talent stakes

  • Thursday, February 14 2013 @ 03:26 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 2,129
Australia

This is a media release from the AFL Northern Territory sheds a new light on the importance of the Northern Territory to Australian Rules football nationally in terms of how many kids are making it through the talent pathways to AFL teams.

“AFL International and National Talent Manager Kevin ‘Shifter’ Sheehan has released some statistics which shows the Northern Territory is in the top three of AFL talent producers between 1997-2011.

“The NT has been a steady contributor to the AFL system over a number of years and these statistics put them in the top three behind Vic Metro and South Australia,” advised Sheehan.

The study conducted by Griffith University, has the Northern Territory producing on average 12.08 players per 1000 participants aged between 13 and 18 as compared to Vic Metro 14.13 and South Australia 12.35.

“When you break it down on comparison and based on population the Northern Territory are clearly doing the right things to foster and develop talent and with a little more refinement I think we can get that number higher.”

“If you look at 2012 the NT had three players drafted which is above the 2.5 average they have had between 1997-2011.”

Majak ready to go for 2013

  • Thursday, February 14 2013 @ 08:18 am ACDT
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  • Views: 2,339
Africa

Sudanese born Majak Daw speaks about the preseason how he sees his season ahead.

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AFL officially announce AFL TV

  • Wednesday, February 13 2013 @ 10:04 pm ACDT
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  • Views: 5,091
General News The AFL today announced the launch of a new international subscription service, AFLTV, offering overseas fans unprecedented viewing access to AFL matches.
Developed in conjunction with Rightster, the online video distribution and marketing specialist, AFLTV is an innovative subscription service providing access to live and on demand AFL games to fans outside of Australia and New Zealand.

This is the only international service that offers exclusive access to every single 2013 Toyota AFL season match live and on–demand across multiple devices - desktop, phone and tablet - with a range of new purchasing options designed to accommodate the differing needs of international AFL fans.

Two New Teams in BSP POM AFL Competition

Oceania

AFL PNG has been building consistantly in recent years and 2013 sees potential further growth in the senior competition which given the numbers participating in junior footy in PNG - it is good to see the Port Moresby senior league consolidating upon that. The following is a press release from AFL PNG.

Preparations have commenced for the 2013 BSP AFLPNG Premiership, and two new teams are on track to join the competition. AFLPNG Senior Football Manager Connie Papau announced today that: “Taurama Diggers and Gulf Isapeas have commenced training and expressed interest in joining the eight team BSP Port Moresby AFL Competition. If all clubs return in 2013, we may have a 10 team competition”.

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