World Footy News

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.

 

Aussie Rules ‘Touring’ season is heating up as AFL in Asia gets underway.

It’s a competition that requires a passport and plane ticket for nearly every away game, has one team boasting a forward line that includes champion Hawthorn AFL premiership player Trent Croad and another that fine-tuned its campaign under the guidance of Brisbane Lions triple premiership player and Brownlow medallist Jason Akermanis – welcome to AFL Asia.

The five time winners and reigning Asian champion Singapore Wombats will kick off their 2012 campaign at the end of March, playing an opening fixture against the Jakarta Bintangs in Indonesia.

In a 2011 season that saw the dominant Wombats taste defeat on only the rarest of occasions, their Bintang rivals were able to buck the trend and solve the Wombats in two of their three encounters. Adding insult to injury, Jakarta claimed both victories by the narrowest of margins, taking the honours at home by 3 points and then again in Manila by a solitary point.

A healthy crowd of around 200 onlookers and players were present to see the excitement unfurl as the Australian-Irish Swans took on the Irish-Australian Gaels in Vietnam for St Patrick’s Day. More than 50 players, from nine nations, were split into two mixed sides of 15, with each side having plenty of subs.

The scoring was modified with a goal in the net only amounting to three points, and a score over the crossbar only registering one point.

15 minutes quarters were played, alternating between codes and balls (rather than playing International Rules), beginning initially with the native Irish game. A tightly contested first half meant that scores were tied going into the big break. The second half was a lot less confusing as everybody had become more accustomed to the rules, but the Irish-Australian Gaels' persistence paid off and they managed to wrap up the game with some straight kicking in the fourth quarter.

The game was played in great spirit and both teams got together after the match for dinner and to celebrate St Patrick's Day with a few pints of Guinness.

A raffle was held after the game, which generated 9.5 million VND ($450USD) for Loretto, an organisation which helps disadvantaged children through education programmes.

The fifth annual Unity Cup will be held in Melbourne this Sunday. The Round Robin tournament aims to promote community understanding and social inclusion. Teams travel from around the country and represent various ethnic and religious groups.

A joint press release from the AFP, AFL Victoria and Essendon, North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn Football Clubs can be read below.

A legend on the field.

An inspiration off it.

The AFL has announced the 2012 NAB Under 16 Championships draw.  This year's tournament will include a WA Northwest team as well as a Flying Boomerangs indigenous team. 

The South Pacific and WorldXVIII teams will be back for their third tournament which will be held in western Sydney from July 7 to July 14.  The introduction of the new teams this year will see the international teams play each of the new teams once each as well as the other international team.  

The draw is as follows;