World Footy News

The AFL and The Reach Foundation announced on Monday Richmond midfielder Daniel Jackson as the winner of the inaugural Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award.

Daniel Jackson was presented the award by Brian Stynes, brother of Jim, last night at the 2012 Brownlow Medal Ceremony.

The Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award honours the former Melbourne Football Club President and champion player who passed away in March this year, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Essendon's Jobe Watson tonight took out the Brownlow Medal with a season tally of 30 votes. Despite Essendon's poor second half of the year Watson left others in his wake with Trent Cotchin from Richmond and Sam Mitchell from Hawthorn tied for second with 26 votes and Dane Swan and Scott Thompson both polling 25.

One of the red hot favourites going into tomorrow's Euro Cup in Edinburgh are the England Dragonslayers. After coming in third last year, the English will be eager to regain their past glory as European 9-a-side champions.

The Dragonslayers will this year again be coached by Robert Fielder, with Mark Williams as Manager and Ian Mitchell as captain.

Tony Woods speaks to Radio Australia following the announcement of the international athletes invited to next months Draft Combine in Melbourne.

 

One of Europe's oldest footy nations, the Danes are consistently in the top flight of teams alongside the Irish and British.

This year's DAFL Premier League had 5 teams competing - the Jutland Shinboners, Farum Cats, North Copenhagen Barracudas from Denmark, and the Helsingborg Saints and Malmø Maulers from southern Sweden. The competition was played with each team playing each other twice, and a final 4 - finals system.

Last weekend saw the Farum Cats take on the North Copenhagen Barracudas 2012 DAFL Premier League Grand Final. Farum went into the game as favorites, without fielding any Australians at all in their lineup. And Farum did impress, beating the Barracudas 60-35. This extraordinary feat was the first time in DAFL history (and possibly in the history of international football) that an ALL-local team, even coached by a local, won a GF again a side that included expat Australians.

With the GF and season at a close, Jens Djernes spoke to WFN about the national team's preparations for the Euro Cup.

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 Please note that these details are correct at the time of publishing. WFN accepts no responsibility for any changes to these times by broadcasters. Please check local guides or afl.com.au. 

2012 TOYOTA AFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – AFL Preliminary Finals INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SCHEDULE Friday 21 September  – Saturday 22 September.

GAME	DATE	DAY/NIGHT	MATCH	VENUE	STATE	LOCAL TIME	EST	CST	WST	GMT	NETWORK
Prelim 1	Friday 21 September	Night (N)	Sydney Swans vs. Collingwood	ANZ Stadium	NSW	19:50	19:50	19:20	17:50	9:50	Channel 7
Prelim 2	Saturday 22 September	Twilight (T)	Hawthorn vs. Adelaide Crows	MCG	VIC	17:15	17:15	16:45	15:15	7:15	Channel 7

For most of the year there has been specualtion about Ciarán Kilkenny of Dublin making the cross from GAA football to the AFL club Carlton. The gifted footballer has fielded questions many times about whether he would be staying in Ireland or heading down to Melbourne to play with the oval ball.

But the Irish Herald.ie website today revealed that Kilkenny, who has just returned from an Australian trial had visited with the Hawthorn Football Club and that they were keen to sign him (although Hawthorn have not commented). Irish players are basically open to whoever is the first to sign them so the battle seems to be on for his signature between the Hawks and Carlton.

Picture:Sporstfile.

Read this great little story in The West Australian of the 13 year old Iraqi boy Zain Uafim determined to take footy back to Iraq with him.  Article here. 

Some snippets from the article:

Zain arrived in Perth when his father, Naji, took up a scholarship at the University of WA to study animal science.

Mr Uafim's speciality is chickens and by year end he will take new-found knowledge and a master's degree back to Iraq, where he works for the Babylon Agricultural Department.

Zain is taking home football.

"I'm going to make a footy club when I go home," Zain said. "I already have eight footies and a full set of rules.

"One day we will bring an Iraqi team to Australia."

An Eagles supporter who comes in at 148cm, Zain knows how to take a hit and knows how to mix it with bigger lads (he plays at Northern Cobras Junior Football Club).

"We're a real multicultural team and he slotted into it really well," said coach Jamie Ryder, whose players include indigenous kids, an African, an Indonesian and two from the Middle East.

Making their debut at this year's Euro Cup will be Norway, and with a few years worth of domestic growth under their belt, hopes are high that the Norwegians can take the next step and join the ranks of Europe's established footy nations.

National team coach Adam Pearce is bringing an all-local squad to Scotland for the tournament, and took some time out of his schedule to speak to WFN about his squad's preparations.

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