World Footy News

The Dublin Demons men’s team are regulars to the Haggis Cup each year. This year their sister team ‘Dublin Angels’ are heading to the tournament in what will be the first time any women’s teams have participated. The Kilrea Kookaburra’s will also be travelling to Edinburgh with Irish Banshees coach Andrew Hickey in tow.

The two teams played against each other last year only a couple of times, the Angels remaining undefeated. Last year the executive committee were more focused on the International Cup, so this year they want to shift their focus on building and cementing the local teams in the women’s league. They are hoping for a big increase in numbers and more opportunities to play matches, as well as also hoping to have a Cork team up and running this year. Already the Dublin Angels have 6 new players, 3 of which will play their first match at the Haggis cup.

Western Australia have won back to back titles in the National Indigenous U15 Kickstart Championships, held again on the Gold Coast this week. After a slow start to the Championships with a one point loss to South Australia on day one, the team from the West won all remaining games and finished off with a convincing win over South Australia today by 20 goals.

The full score was Western Australia 23.16.154 to South Australia 3.7.25.  Best on Ground in today’s Grand Final was awarded to Darnell Morrison from WA.

After three years of not contact footy, the full contact version of the game comes to Sacramento.  The following is from a press release from the Sacramento Australian Rules Football Club.

The Sacramento Australian Football Club (SAFC) has ambitious goals for the year 2012. Inaugurated nearly four years ago in 2009 by local Aussies Matt (pictured) and Amy Bishop, the club began as a recreational co-ed league aimed at developing the sport of Australian Football, or “Footy” for short. The Bishops, armed solely with their coercive Australian accents, knowledge and love of the game, were able to pique the curiosity of many. The recreational “tag” footy league grew rapidly as many found the game to be challenging, fun, and like no sport they have ever tried before.

The SAFC is part of a broader footy community governed under the USAFL, which oversees more than 30 clubs and 60 teams in the US. The co-ed game that has been played for the last four years in Sacramento is a modified, minimal-contact, version of the real game of Australian football, which is played by either men or women.

The St Kilda Football Club will host the 2012 Australian Defence Force AFL Carnival at Moorabbin Oval next week.  The ADF Carnival will see service men and women from the Army, Navy and Air Force play a round-robin competition for their respective titles.

Chief Executive Officer of the Saints, Michael Nettlefold said it was an honour for the Club to host the ADF at its traditional home ground, Moorabbin.

Bill Robert Producer/Host of Stateside Footy regularly brings us match coverage based around his home team the Boston Demons.   His program shows on many TV stations around the US and following on from his 2011 US Nationals coverage and heading into the 2012 season Bill would like to branch out to provide more coverage of more teams across the US.  But to do this he will need submissions from around the nation to add to his program.

Bill has asked us to help him get the message out.  So over to you Bill.

"The producers of "Stateside Footy" are looking to add some new segments to the program for the 2012 Australian Rules Football season. Simply put, we'd like to widen the breadth of what we're doing as far as shining the spotlight on Aussie Rules played here in the States. And, to do this, we are asking for your help.  

Australian Under 18’s have defeated European Legion by 134 points in the AFL international match held at Surrey Sports Park in London on Saturday April 7.

Lead by High Performance Coach Michael O’Loughlin, the AFL’s future stars dominated early, kicking 15 goals in the first half, with Troy Menzel, brother of Daniel at the Geelong Cats, kicking five goals in a brilliant individual performance.

The European Legion, coached by former Sydney Swan and AFL Ambassador Tadhg Kennelly, matched the Australians in the third quarter with only one goal apiece resulting.

The Legion continued to compete fiercely up until the end of the match but was out-classed by the silky skills of the Australian side.

Most valuable player awards were presented to midfielder Nick Vlastuin from the Australian team and defender Levi Fernandez from Great Britain won the award for European Legion.

Despite their modest performance at last year’s International Cup, the GB Bulldogs can now boast something that no other country can answer to: the rise of two of their players, Adam Ballard and Anthony Trigg, through football to VFL level.

Though the numbers of foreign players are now increasing, at AFL level to date, all of those players have either been brought up in Australia, or were professionals or upcoming youngsters recruited directly from other sports. Ballard and Trigg however, started playing the game in the UK, before moving over to Australia and joining local teams.

Former England Dragonslayers international Adam Ballard learnt his trade as president of the Durham Saints before joining the Prahran Assumption Football Club in Melbourne, 2011 Premiers in the VAFA Division 3. After a successful tour with the GB Bulldogs at IC11, Ballard was picked up by VFL club Port Melbourne and is currently training as a ruckman in the reserves.

In the bustling southern suburbs of Zagreb, just south of the Sava river, the Zaprudje Australian rules football club has recently announced a sister club arrangement with AFL newcomers GWS Giants and taken on the name of Zaprudje Giants. The club was formed in the middle of 2011 by some former and current Croatian Knights, and is the first neighbourhood team in Zagreb, a formula which could be replicated in future years.

Most locals in Zagreb are quite loyal to their neighbourhoods or "kvarts" in a manner described by locals as being akin to local gangs, however without any serious violence. The formation of the Zaprudje Giants and their recent partner-club arrangement with GWS is considered to be a very positive step in the consolidation of Australian rules football in Zagreb and Croatia as a whole.

Thanks to Tony Grguric from the CAAF for this story.

The fifth AFL Unity Cup, which brings together particular and mixed multicultural footy teams from all around Australia, came to Holland Park ovals in Kensington, a few torpedo punts away from North Melbourne’s Arden St ground, on the last Sunday in March, the month which celebrates Harmony Day around Australia.

This festival of footy and community festival was started originally by Essendon. Supported by the AFL Multicultural Program and the Australian Federal Police, it featured teams from Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. The teams played under 18 footy in the AFL 9s format – 9 a side played on a small oval marked out on the artificial turf ground at Holland Park and smaller grounds on the adjacent ovals.

In this game, contests are for the football rather than tackling contests as it is a game of limited contact and with several varied rules. The result was exciting and skilful contests.
 

VFL team the Box Hill Hawks have defeated the Australian Under 18 team by 31 points in the curtain raiser to Richmond v Carlton at the MCG today.

In an entertaining game, after being down by nine points at half time, the stronger and more experienced Hawks overcame the Australian youngsters, kicking five goals in the last quarter to win convincingly.  Clearly their upcoming European opponents will have their hands full with these young Aussie guns. 

On the 17th of March was AFL England Central-North West League’s St Patrick’s Day tournament, hosted by the Manchester Mosquitoes at their home ground in Burnage. Six teams participated in the event, with the hosts facing off against teams from Sheffield, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

WFN managed to catch up with the Huddersfield Rams before the tournament, and Sheffield Thunder's coach afterwards.