World Footy News

The Sydney Swans this week announced the following list changes, following the post season review period.  

Primary list players Jarred Moore and Mark Seaby have been delisted, along with rookie list players Eugene Kruger, Jack Lynch and Dylan McNeil.  

South African born Eugene Kruger was on the rookie list and did not play any senior games with the Swans in his time at the club.

 

The video below if from Australia's ABC News - giving their take on the internationals at the Draft Combine.

Gideon Simon has become the first player who has learnt and played Australian rules football in another country to make it through the development pathway onto an AFL rookie list. Richmond yesterday announced that young PNG star who has been on an International Scholarship with the club will be officially listed with the Tigers in the Rookie draft this year as an International Rookie. The announcement came at the end of the AFL Draft combine in Melbourne where Simon tested well.

Others such as Mike Pyke, Shae McNamara and the now long list of Irish code crossers all came from other countries but did not play Aussie rules in their home country.

This is a huge vindication of the development pathway that has been developed in PNG, and hopefully will give hope to those elsewhere around the world to develop the game in their own corners of the globe. It is also a giant pat on the back to all that have been involved for many years in footy in PNG to bring the game there back from the brink.

Simon has been at the club for the latter part of this season, playing with Richmond's affilliate club Coburg (this affilliaton will not continue in 2012) in the Development League of the VFL.

[youtube:gBKZVm8tSWk]

Andrew Cadzow speaks to ABC Radio Australia about the Internationals at the Draft Combine in Melbourne and Yoshi Harris, Brendan Beno and Gideon Simon are questioned in the studio.

Thanks to Leiha Shrubsall for contributing this match write up.

Final score: Irish Banshees 13.14 (98) to European Crusaders 8.8 (52)

 The Irish Banshees attended their third consecutive Euro Cup last weekend taking with it a team of mostly new players, some of them having never played a match previously. The European Crusaders were a team made up of French, Scottish, Spanish and English players. The Irish knew it was going to be a tight contest from word go having played alongside the Scottish girls earlier in the year at the Haggis cup, so they anticipated the match to be a lot tougher this year.

 

Belinda Duante has been named 2012 Football Woman of the Year at the Grand Final Comedy Debate at the Crown Palladium. Duante is a senior executive at Richmond Football Club and is the inaugural director of the Korin Gamadji Institute, which provides leadership development, education and training to young Indigenous men and women. She also had a key role in the establishment and development of AFL SportsReady’s National Indigenous Programme and has helped in the development of the Career Oriented Participation in Sport program for first-year AFL players, which now incorporates specific Indigenous considerations.

Richmond CEO Brendon Gale described Duante an outstanding contributor to the Richmond Football Club.
“As a proud Wotjoboluk woman, Belinda has a wonderful understanding of the role football can play in the lives of young Indigenous Australians and she continually advocates for them to stay in the game at all levels,” he said.

Our thanks to Lee for contributing his coverage of the tournament which also featured in The Herald Sun newspaper.

Ireland Warriors won their second AFL Europe Euro Cup with a stunning come-from-behind one-point win over Denmark Vikings in Edinburgh on Saturday.

In what AFL Europe general manager Ben MacCormack described as the “best game of Aussie Rules I’ve seen played in Europe”, Ireland trailed the Danes by 11 points with a minute to go.

Then, almost simultaneously, Denmark momentarily dropped its guard, allowing Ireland pounce on the opportunity and blast home two quick goals just seconds from the final siren and win 5.0 (30) to 4.5 (29).

Ireland’s Muiris Bartley was responsible for kicking the match-winning goal.

Former Melbourne Demon Glenn Lovett, now vice-chairman of AFL Europe, awarded medals post-match.

Remarkably, Saturday’s was the second one-point result in Europe in a month after North London Lions beat Wandsworth Demons in a nail-biting AFL London grand final in August.

Ireland remain the leaders in Europe's Australian rules football scene, having successfully taking out both the men's and women's titles at last weekend's Euro Cup.

In the men's final, the Irish Warriors edged out an inaccurate Denmark by a solitary point, 5.0 (30) to the Vikings' 4.5 (29).

The final of the women's division saw the Irish Banshees defeated the European Crusaders 13.14 (92) to 8.8 (56).

Full scores from the tournament available here, a full report is to come.

When the final siren sounded yesterday afternoon, one of the more interesting efforts to circumvent the AFL draft and develop talent outside of the primary channels had a milestone moment of vindication.  Mike Pyke's journey to the AFL is now pretty well known - in Australia.  What has also happened over the last week has been a recognition of his efforts 'back home' in Canada.  And with yesterdays win - we now see the file photos of Pyke from the Canadian national Rugby side during the 2007 RUWC replaced with Mike Pyke, Swans player, and a premiership cup.

Teams	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3d Qtr	Final
Hawthorn	4.5.(29)	4.6.(30)	9.10.(64)	11.15.(81)
Sydney	1.4.(10)	7.4.(46)	10.5.(65)	14.7.(91)

Goals :
Haw : Franklin 3, Roughead 2, Gunston 2, Hale 2, Breust 2, Ellis, Smith
Syd : McVeigh 2, Malceski 2, Morton 2, Jack 2, Kennedy 2, Hannebery, Reid, Roberts-Thomson, Goodes

Norm Smith Medal : Ryan O'Keefe, (Syd), 28 disposals and 15 tackles.

Att : 99,683

Premierships : 1909, 1918, 1933, 2005, 2012

In a see-sawing final quarter Hawthorn had kicked out to an early lead, only to see the Swans pegging back the lead then first levelling the scores before pushing ahead by a first a point, then a Goodes goal to lead by 7. 3 Consecutive misses including a poster from Gunston and 2 (snaps) by Sewell (who had battled valiantly all day with a game high 33 disposals) saw the Swans leading by just 4 points with just minutes remaining. The Swans surged forward, there ensued a stoppage and large pack from which Malceski snapped the match sealing goal, after kicking the Swans first he closed the deal with the last. Hawthorn could rue several posters, and other misses including Franklin who finished with 3 goals 4 plus one very much across the face and out on the full at a crucial time kicking to the Punt Rd end just before half time. Roughead also finihed with 0.3 while Hale squared his ledger with 2.2 after his 2 first half misses. The Hawks inaccuracy cost them, and for the Swans, with the frees ledger sitting 9-22 against, there might have been an grudging excuse had they lost. In the end it was a classic contest irrespective.

Of interest to Canadian footy fans - Mike Pyke finished with 16 disposals and 6 marks and 29 hit outs. The Swans headed into the last quarter with substitute player Luke Parker still to be brought into the game - and shortly into the last made the call of removing a tall. That they replaced big Shane Mumford (6 disposals, 2 marks) was a massive show of faith in Pyke who rucked out the last quarter. Including a key late pack mark (that led to Adam Goodes scrabbling a goal to put the Swans up by 7) as well as a couple of vital contesting efforts in the play that saw his mid-air hack at the ball marked by Jetta who went back with about a minute and a half remaining to drive the ball to the teeth of goals - from where the pack developed that lead to Malceski's match winner.

After the Swans had surged to a 28 point lead midway through the third term, Hawthorn had shown courage to fight back, take the lead just before 3/4 time but conceded a 50m penalty (against Sam Mitchell for a sloppy return of the ball) and late goal to Jarrad McVeigh who regained the lead for the Swans. The first 2 goals of the last quarter came to the Hawks The Swans kicked the last 4 goals of the game, against the Hawks 5 behinds. Goals first to Hannebery on the run to get back with 6; then Jack in the goal square to tie up the scores, followed by Goodes and finally Malceski.

Kieren Jack manages to go one better than his dad (Balmain legend, Garry Jack) did for Balmain in the NRL (losing to Canterbury in 1988 and Canberra in 1989). Jude Bolton has been revealed to have played on through the finals with a partially torn PCL and more significantly a partially torn ACL - and is facing a knee reconstruction and the question would be posed as to whether he's played his last game. Nick Malceski as well headed in for his LARS knee reconstruction in early March 2011, was walking within 4 days and now has a premiership medallion to fully validate the decision. Rhyce Shaw who missed out at Collingwood almost 10 years (the 2003 50 pt loss to Brisbane) ago has tasted the ultimate success and was congratulated by brother Heath after the game - however, the emotion of Mark and Jarrad McVeigh's embrace across the fence during the lap of honour was palpable. (Read Mark's tribute ). Mike Pyke as well has 'stuck it up' his detractors (chief of whom perhaps 'BT' - Brian Taylor, although in part tongue in cheek at times, becoming a bit of a running 'gag' on Ch.7 during the season - so much so that even Swans president Richard Colless passed a message via Ch.7 boundary riders back to 'BT' from the rooms after the game.). Pyke was interviewed on the ground post match by Cameron Ling - and perhaps Pyke doesn't know the Canadian for 'Lingy' as Pyke said it with perhaps a hint of Aussie twang? Mitch Morton spoke of having to earn the trust of his teammates to finally get a game, and the surreal feeling he had as a premiership player 12 months on from leaving Richmond. Adam Goodes has been reported to have suffered a torn PCL early in the contest - through which he played out the game and continued to compete strongly, including kicking a vital late goal. Meanwhile, Swans stalwart Kenny Williams again led the Swans song back in the rooms - premiership cup in hand.

As the clock counted down to the first bounce and from the international angle - the plot was threatening to twist and turn. The late rumour doing the rounds (incl. AFL website here) was that Swans #1 ruckman Shane Mumford was very much doubtful with a hamstring injury from training during the week.

Canadian Mike Pyke has been built up in the media (somewhat overdue Melbourne based recognition - including on AFL.com.au today), and ironically former Hawthorn premiership player and now media commentator Dermott Brereton had suggested that with the weather forecast that the Swans might consider replacing a 'tall'. The obvious candidate would have been Pyke as suggested in the Age here.  Yesterday Swans coach John Longmire denied that Pyke's place was in jeopardy (the Australian here).  Whilst Mumford was in doubt, then Pyke would have been called on to take the number 1 ruck role with perhaps Irishman Tommy Walsh slipping into the 22 (Another of the Swans emergencies is Trent Dennis-Lane with Burmese background).