World Footy News

The DAFL season in Denmark is fast approaching finals with just three games left to complete across two remaining rounds. The Port Malmö Maulers feature in two of those matches, which makes the fight to the finals very interesting.

In recent weeks, the Farum Cats have flexed their muscle with important wins over both the Maulers and the Odense Lions. A narrow win over the Maulers in Limhamn followed by a big win over the Lions sees them sitting pretty with a match to go in first place. With a match to go against bottom team, the Aarlborg Kangaroos, the probably cannot be beaten now for the minor premiership – barring some form of miracle.

However, the Maulers have a game in hand and will most likely finish in second place going into the finals.

Last weekend saw the AFLG semi-finals played in Frankfurt, with both the Hamburg Dockers and Berlin Crocodiles going through to the Grand Final. For the Dockers, they get to retain their title won last year. The Crocs will go to their fourth successive premiership decider.

The Dockers have been the best performed team across the season and will go into the match as strong favourites. Recent form back in Round 9 saw the Dockers down the Crocs by 29 points at home.

Earlier in the season, in Round 7, it was again the Dockers too good for the Crocs to the tune of 45 points. Their Round 2 clash also went the Dockers way by 19 points. When combined with last year’s victory for the Dockers over the Crocs, it is hard to see the Crocs finding whatever they need to reverse trend.

The latest round of the AFL Colombia season was played last weekend in Bogota with the DC Aguilas up against the Bogota Bullants. The victorious Aguilas are now well placed to win their second title. The following report from the Bogota Bulldogs details the match.

The CAFL was in full flight again on Saturday with the Aguilas taking on the Bullants.

The Bullants. desperate to notch their first win of the year, jumped out of the box and dominated the first five minutes of the first quarter. However, they couldn’t take advantage and failed to convert into a stiff breeze.

The Aguilas found their feet and rebounded with the wind to score two quick majors. The quarter continued to be rebound footy with both sides sharing two more goals apiece with Oscar and Alonso kicking truly for the Ants. Sloany and Sergio gained confidence, space and finishing ability in the absence of Rimma Quigley and finished the quarter with two goals each for the Aguilas. An after the siren goal from Smallwood brought the margin back to two goals at quarter time.

The 2020 AFL International Cup (or IC20) tournament location is expected to be released in early September. The AFL is considering bids from inside and outside Victoria and is believed to have narrowed this to a final two.

With considerations of fixturing the IC20 finals at the best possible venue (IC17 Men’s final was played at the MCG and the Women’s at Etihad Stadium) as an AFL curtain raiser the tournament dates cannot be finalised until the venue is decided and the 2020 AFL Fixture is released in late October.  

 

With all AFL Middle East clubs coming to life after their off-season, the excitement and anticipation for the new season is already starting to grow. The release of the 2019/20 season draw last week added to the excitement as teams learned whom they will play, where and when.

Kicking off the challenges of the new season is the Pre-Season Cup, just over six weeks away. Scheduled for Friday 11th October, the day is the perfect chance for teams to dust off the cobwebs with match play and the first silverware of the new season. The venue will be announced shortly.

The opening round is full of excitement, featuring a double-header in Abu Dhabi. The Grand Final rematch between the Multiplex Bulls and the Dubai Dragons. The Bulls will be keen to get their title defence off to s flying start against their archrivals. The Dragons will be hoping to claim a victory and right the ship after losing last year’s final match.

After another flawless season, the Belfast Redbacks have achieved their goal of winning back to bag Irish premierships by downing the Leeside Lions last weekend. In a close and tough encounter, it took until the final term for the heavily fancied Redbacks to shake off the persistent Lions to run out 29-point winners.

The margin seems significant, but probably does little to really show how gallant the Leeside Lions were in defeat, and how hard the Redbacks had to work to defend their title and complete a second successive undefeated season.

The Lions certainly came to play and by half time actually trailed by just seven points. The fact that they also dominated the scoring shots for the half – 11 to 8 – was cause for concern in the Redbacks camp. The Redbacks held sway largely through a better conversion rate on the scoreboard – in general play things were far more even.

The last few rounds of the AFL season ushered in many new talents across many clubs as they blooded players that either needed another look, or needed the senior AFL experience to prosper into the future. Hawthorn and Essendon were two clubs that tired this, but in their cases they were giving the football world a glimpse into the next phase of African nation footballers.

Round 21 saw Hawthorn debut their exciting youngster, Changkuoth Jiath. His first game, played in Canberra complete with snowfall, saw the highly athletic Jiath galloping all over the field and picking up a handy 11 possessions, five of which were contested. It was a confident start to a career in the big league.

Photo Credits: Changkuoth Jiath (http://www.hawthornfc.com.au), Tuth Jok (Herald Sun)

Reigning SARFL premiers, the Edinburgh Bloods, had a tough road to negotiate, but they came up trumps last weekend when they downed the Glasgow Sharks in the Scottish Grand Final.

After going down to the Sharks in their semi-final, the Bloods had to negotiate the Tyne Tees Tigers in the Preliminary Final to gain another shot. They did, and after their 44-point win on Saturday, they have retained their title as the best team in Scotland.

In a game “played in great spirits”, the Bloods got away early but only held a four goal lead just after half time. The Sharks could have closed the gap. However, the Bloods sensed danger and by three-quarter time had pulled away to a 42-point lead, effectively ending any chance of a Sharks' revival.

His mission is simple. Go to Pakistan, meet with the people who can grow the game in the nation and work with coaches, players, administrators and potential supporters of the game to further develop AFL Pakistan’s great work to date. Michael Gallus is the man on the mission, and is the right man for the job.

Michael Gallus is already widely known as the founder and administrator of the Footys4All Foundation, a charity that has already distributed sporting equipment all over Australia and the world. More recently, however, Michael took the coaching reins of the Pakistan Shaheens women’s team at the IC17 event in Melbourne.

He has maintained contact since then, both with players and those off-field, placing him in a position of both knowledge and connections to drive the rapid development of the game taking place across Pakistan.

The kids came from everywhere, seemingly. From Gladstone to the south of Rockhampton, north to the Torres Strait and scattered inland towns and cities, school teams descended on the Barrier Reef Arena at Harrup Park in Mackay, North Queensland. It was a showcase of school talent – the North Queensland championships of the Queensland Schools Cup.

Queensland footy continues to grow – at grass roots and the highest level. The Brisbane Lions’ win over Geelong this weekend saw them go to the top of the AFL ladder with a round to go before finals. The Gold Coast Suns have had a horrid season, yet they boast four Cairns players in Jack Bowes, Jarrod Harbrow, Jacob Heron and Caleb Graham.

Next season, the AFLW will feature Cairns’ women Elisha King (North Melbourne) and Kitara Farrar-Whap (Gold Coast).

However, the championships played last week in Mackay featured the future beyond those players already mentioned. Amongst the teams of primary and secondary aged students who took the fields last Tuesday were the next breed – the next Jack Bowes or the next Elisha King.

A recently released film clip of a 1947 fund-raising women's football match has been released by the AFL and Samsung. The clip brings to vivid life a match which, in many ways, acts as a vanguard for women's football. Whilst the game has been played by women since the origins of the game, this brilliantly restored clip shows women playing the game at an advanced level long before many believed was so.

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The Edinburgh Bloods have the chance to defend their AFL Scotland/SARFL premiership title when they go on to meet the Glasgow Sharks next weekend in the 2019 Scottish Grand Final. Their solid victory against the Tyne Tees Tigers this weekend confirmed their booking and gives the Bloods a chance to go back to back.

In a tight match, scores were locked to three-quarter time. According to the Edinburgh Bloods Facebook page, “the Bloods are in the Granny! Very hard fought win in horrible windy conditions today. The game was all square until the fourth quarter where we managed to pull away with several unanswered goals. Thanks to the Tigers for a great game and all the best for next season.”

The Bloods and Sharks live on to fight another day for the 2019 premiership, but in many ways the story of the weekend could be the Tyne Tees Tigers. Whilst they would be disappointed to have lost a chance to reach their first ever Grand Final, they should also revel in the success of their best season to date.