World Footy News

They saved their best game of the year for last, but the Oslo Crows won the 2019 Kenguru Cup downing the As Battlers. In doing so, the Crows have defended their title from last year and raised the stakes ahead of the 2020 season for the Battlers to keep searching for a premiership winning formula.

In our World Footy News match preview (see: Kenguru Cup Grand Final This Weekend), the case was hinted that the Crows had turned a slow start to the season around and were showing good form. A narrow loss in their Round 3 clash was followed by their first win over the Battlers in Round 4. That change in form held true and the Crows were too good come the final.

For the past few years we have been looking at the player of an international background who has polled the most Brownlow Medal votes and awarding them the “title” of winning the International Brownlow. This year, Richmond’s Mabior Chol and Western Bulldog Jason Johannisen polled a vote each to take the “award”.

Last year, Johannisen tied with Sydney’s Aliir Aliir and Collingwood’s Mason Cox. Previous “winners” have included Jim Stynes, Tadgh Kennelly and Pearce Hanley.

Chol, a refugee from Sudan as a child and now at Richmond, polled his vote in the Round 15 clash against St Kilda. That day he enjoyed 16 possessions – 13 kicks and 3 handballs – as well as 7 hitouts. But, most telling were his three goals which helped his Tigers to a 33-point win over the Saints. His 2 tackles and 8 contested possessions made it a breakout game for Chol and was recognised by the umpires.

 Source: Government of the Republic of Nauru - NauruNews 

Thirty-five players and officials from the Boe Lions’ 2019 AFL Premiership winning squad will be flown to Brisbane free-of-charge by the Republic of Nauru Government, Minister for Sport Hon. Maverick Eoe announced yesterday (Tuesday).

Minister Eoe said the Government’s gesture was a fitting reward for the Boe Lions’ “hard work and sweat” in over-coming Panzer in Saturday’s Grand Final at Linkbelt Oval.

It has been a massive year for the Norrtälje Dockers in the Stockholm Australian Football Federation (SAFF), culminating in a second premiership for the club. Downing the Södermalm Blues in the Grand Final was the icing on a pretty impressive cake in 2019.

The city hosted the 2019 Euro Cup back in June, and impressed the entire European footy community with a well-run tournament – a massive undertaking for any city. However, all that energy expended on the event made no difference to the Dockers’ charge to a Grand Final berth, nor did the team run out of breath on the big day, proving too strong for the Blues by 42 points.

The following excerpt from the http://www.afleurope.org website sets the scene across the season for both teams in the lead-up to the big match:

The AFL Norway Kenguru Cup comes to its conclusion this weekend in Voldsløkka Idrettspark (Oslo) when the As Battlers take on the Oslo Crows in the hope of reclaiming the title. Having won the minor premiership after the four rounds of the Kenguru Cup, the Battlers go into the Grand Final as favourites, but nothing is certain.

Across the four rounds this season, the Battlers won the opening two matches comfortably, setting up a feeling that Oslo would have to improve dramatically. But, they did. Round three saw the Crows get out to a 15-point lead over the Battlers before being run down. Then in Round 4, the Crows held on for a 3-point win in a very tight battle.

It suggests that whilst the Battlers still deserve slight favouritism this weekend, without doubt the Oslo Crows are coming for them. Form is a great thing and as it stands, the Crows are in arguably their best form for the season.

The first full season of the new AFL Switzerland competition has finished in emphatic fashion after the Geneva Jets put their opponents to the sword by a whopping 180 points in the inaugural Grand Final. The match, played at the Centre sportif de Vessy in Geneva, capped off a grand season for AFL Switzerland.

The match itself saw the Jets assume control of the match early and never relinquish that advantage. The score line suggests a very lopsided match, and in some way, it was. However, the score doesn’t reflect the efforts of the Basel Dragons – the losing grand finalists – as they tried all they could to stem the flow of scoring from the Jets.

Basel has defeated Geneva earlier in the season, proving they would be a worthy challenger. However, the longer the season went, the better the Jets got, and come Grand Final day the Jets had peaked. In the end, the scoreline saw the Geneva Jets 32 19 211 defeat the Basel Dragons 4 7 31.

One of Essendon’s first off-season moves since being put out of the 2019 AFL Premiership race has been to secure another talented Irish footballer. The move to secure Ross McQuillan has been in motion for some time, but as the following story from the Essendon Football Club states, McQuillan has now been locked in.

Essendon will have a second Irishman donning the sash in 2020, following its signing of Ross McQuillan as an international rookie.

The new deal will see McQuillan join the red and black until at least the end of 2021, linking up with fellow countryman Conor McKenna.

Growing up playing Gaelic football for St Patrick’s in Northern Ireland, the 20-year-old will relocate to Australia to pursue his AFL career.

McQuillan’s impressive efforts in Gaelic football won him recognition as a forward in the 2018 EirGrid GAA Football U20 All Ireland team. The talented athlete also represented Northern Ireland in basketball.

In Finland, there is a new power back in town. The 2019 FAFL premiers, the Turku Dockers, have broken the four premiership streak of the Helsinki Heatseekers to be crowned Finnish premiers. It is the fifth flag for the Dockers, equalling the tally of the Heatseekers. The Waasa Wombats have a title, winning back in 2011.

The victory is even more joyous as the club has had some tough times in recent years, so to come back from those setbacks and take a premiership speaks volumes for the players, club, supporters and backers who had stayed the course and rebuilt the club.

Heading into their Grand Final, The Turku Dockers had met the Helsinki Heatseekers on three occasions across the season. Helsinki won their Round 1 clash by 18 points, and later in Round 3 by a narrow three points. But in between, the Dockers won their Round 2 encounter in Turku by 27 points, which in retrospect might have been a pointer to their premiership win.

For a club that was born in 2013, the Odense Lions have done remarkably well. Whilst they received the requisite hidings in their early days, the club was in raptures back in 2016 when they reached the DAFL finals for the first time. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, they returned to finals action in 2017 as well.

In both campaigns, the club was unceremoniously dumped in their only finals outing. Their 2016 final against the Copenhagen Barracudas saw a 137-point whacking, and their exit at the hands of the Farum Cats in 2017 saw a 93-point deficit.

Sad ends to promising seasons, but it is no real surprise, in retrospect, that 2018 became a year of recalibration for the Lions. The club took the wooden spoon yet the stirrings of 2019’s efforts were there.

In just a little over two weeks’ time, the new NTFL season will get under way. The weekend of 5th and 6th October will see the eight Premier League teams back in action along with all other men’s, women’s and junior competitions.

It is arguably the most exciting time of the year for all fans as the beginning of a new season, where all teams start again at ground zero, and fans of all clubs can have their dreams and hopes for the next flag, next finals appearance, next win.

The opening round leaps straight into where last year’s story ended. The Grand Final replay between the Nightcliff Tigers and Southern Districts Crocs helps open the season as part of a TIO Stadium double-header on the Saturday night. The season opens with two of last season’s other finalists clashing with the Darwin Buffaloes up against the Tiwi Bombers.

The Hamburg Dockers Australian Football Club is the toast of the AFLG and German footy overall after both their men and women won their respective Grand Finals to claim two premierships on a great day for the club. Sadly, the Berlin Crocs were on the receiving end of both defeats and will lick their wounds over the off-season whilst the Dockers celebrate.

The men’s match, the Dockers set the tone of the match early, getting away to a two goal lead at the first break. By half-time, they had kicked away to a 21-point lead, keeping the Crocs goalless for the quarter.

By three quarter time, the Dockers had almost grabbed the premiership, despite a fightback from the Crocs. The lead at the final change was just 14 points, and if the Crocs could build on their third quarter momentum they could bridge the gap.

  The AFL has today confirmed the fourth annual Shanghai match will be featured in Round 11 of the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. 
 
Since AFL’s expansion into China in 2017, three successful matches involving Port Adelaide, St Kilda and Gold Coast SUNS Football Clubs have been played at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai’s Yangpu District. 
 
The Port Adelaide Football Club’s vision in partnership with the AFL have led the way in unlocking the potential the Chinese market has on the growth of the game both on and off the field.