World Footy News

For those Australians who have wondered what it would be like to undertake the big tour of Europe and possibly see a little Australian Football as well I would like to try and make it a little less daunting.
 
In 2010 my wife and I took the trip of a life time to tour Western Europe. After much research we chose a VW rental camper and staying at caravan parks as the optimum mode of travel - for convenience, flexibility, comfort and affordability. Ease of parking and driving on narrow congested roads were prominent considerations. With finances settled,  we flew into Frankfurt Germany and took possession of our vehicle. Cautiously driving out of the yard I indicated a right turn by switching the window wipers on and immediately stalled the van. Nervously I continued, adapting to driving on the right, reversed vehicle controls, unfamiliar road signs, differing road layouts, a new GPS and my wife’s directions.  Surprisingly, everything quickly fell into place as we travelled down the nearby “Romantische Strasse” (Romantic Highway), a road linking a string of walled medieval cities. Soon, we would be completely relaxed, executing a massive clockwise spiral into Austria, Italy, France and Spain.

The Australian Football season in Europe was mostly coming to an end. Searching the internet there were few games available to visit matching our rough itinerary.

Two Americans Derrell Acrey and Quinn Porter remain on the GC Suns permission to train list this week.  The two athletes who previously took part in the AFL's draft combine in LA trained last week with the Suns in Arizona.

Gold Coast football operations manager Marcus Ashcroft told the AFL website "It was a really good opportunity for them to come up here and join in and see where they stack up against our lads in skill work and conditioning work and it also broke the camp up with a bit of fun from our boys' point of view,"

The AFL wishes to advise the following unlisted players currently have permission to train with AFL clubs. Recent additions since the last notification on November 5 are underlined:

 

 

The AFL today announced the locations for the 2012/2013 Australia Post AFL Community Camps, with Greater Western Sydney Giants to kick off the first camp in Canberra on December 4.

 

The Australia Post AFL Community Camps will see more than 800 AFL players take the game to regional and rural communities across Australia, as well as overseas when St Kilda Football Club visits Wellington, New Zealand in January 2013.

 

The AFL stars will carry out training sessions and visit schools, local football clubs, nursing homes and hospitals, to bring together individuals and communities, irrespective of backgrounds and beliefs, while promoting healthy lifestyles.

 

 

Thanks to AFL India president Sudip Chakraborty (pictured) for contributing this article.

It has been over a year since India won its first international match of footy against Timor Leste during AFL International Cup 2011 on 24th August. A historic day in Indian sports history. A day that came after almost four years since India started playing the game officially.

After a fairly good show in the later stages of IC08, the players had gone back to a complete standstill for over a year, with the previous body in charge disappearing due to lack of interest and enthusiasm. That was when two of the players from the IC08 squad took up the challenge and got the AFL to dissolve the previous body and helped them set up a new board to get things going again.

Fiji v Nauru 3-Test Series Impact On WFN World Rankings

With the second match of the 3-Test Series Fiji will become the 20th Fully Ranked Nation on WFN World Rankings.

WFN World Ranking system 'predicts' that the Higher Ranked nation in any match will win more often than not and the only previous meeting between emerging Fiji and Nauru was in the Seeding Rounds at IC11, with Nauru taking the honours in that match, 6-6 (42) to 2-3 (15).

Currently Nauru is ranked 6th with 46.15 Rating Points and Fiji is the highest ranked nation among the Provisional Nations with 45.21 Rating Points (courtesy of their four wins in the second Division of IC11).

The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS have welcomed the announcement by the Federal Government of a partnership to support young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in Greater Western Sydney.

The Federal Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Sport, Senator Kate Lundy, announced at ŠKODA Stadium that the Federal Government through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has committed $1.2 million over three years to fund a national approach to youth settlement through the Multicultural Youth Affairs Network Australia (MYAN)

As part of this commitment, $270,000 has been earmarked to fund the establishment of a new independent service in New South Wales through a partnership between the GIANTS, the Centre for Multicultural Youth and Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW and its local host organisation, Settlement Services International (SSI).

Fun and festivities are happening today at St Joseph's Tenaru in the Solomons today.

Media release from SIAFL below

Tension rises between Barbarians and Sharks for charity AFL game

The originally scheduled 4 test series has now been reset to a 3 match series, commencing Friday November 16 with subsequent matches on Tuesday November 20 and Friday November 23. All matches are scheduled for 5-7pm at Albert Park in Suva.

AFL Fiji unveiled their jumper as well as announcing the Fiji Tribe team list for the upcoming matches.

The Gold Coast Suns are sweating it out at their preseason camp in Arizona. The two videos below reveal just what the club gets up to on their high altitude camp.

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Port Adelaide rallied inside the last minute to kick the winning goal, ending the most fantastic game of footy Europe has ever seen.

The Bulldogs put out a young team, but they came out strong in the first quarter, with early goals from Ayce Cordy, Liam Jones and Luke Dalhaus. The Bulldogs then further extended their lead in the second quarter, with new recruit Koby Stevens putting on an impressive debut performance and Liam Picken exciting the curiosity of the crowd by leaping onto the shoulders of the Port defence in a textbook specky to grab the mark.

The Dogs were able to effectively control play for the majority of the game, seemingly unanswered by Port. And by midway through the third quarter, Port were trailing by 39 points, a gap that was surely insurmountable, and it looked like it was game over for the young and inexperienced Port team.

 

The Fijian press has reported that AFL Fiji is to receive a $A10,000 ($F18,458.93) grant towards the 2013 development program. 

The Acting Australian High Commissioner, Glen Miles, promised the grant during a presentation of $800 cash to support the Fiji Tribe senior team in its preparation for the upcoming 'test series' against Nauru beginning November 13 at Albert Park in Suva.