World Footy News

The Bordeaux Bombers are French Premiers for the 2010-11 season, after they defeated the Toulouse Hawks 77-52 in the Grand Final tournament held in Perpignan last Saturday.

The Bombers had finished top of the northern league, winning the right to take on the Hawks, who had topped the southern division.

The northern clubs continued their dominance in the other matches of the day, with the Paris Cockerels defeating the Aix-Marseille Dockers 171-38 for third place, and the Strasbourg Kangourous defeating the hometown Perpignan Tigers 178-66 to avoid the wooden spoon.

A full report of the Grand Final tournament will be available soon, but in the meantime the French national team is preparing for their first 18 a side international test match, to be played against Germany in Paris on June 11th. The clash against the Germans will be a prelude to their first International Cup campaign in Australia in August.

For more information, visit footballaustralien.com.

One of the world's oldest non-Australian football competitions is underway for 2011. This Japan AFL season features six teams playing five rounds plus finals. Given the Earthquake and Tsunami that devastated the country earlier in the year, it's impressive that apart from a struggle for sponsors, the season was launched without issue.

Read on for Team Previews and the Fixture.

Shane Savage from Hawthorn Football Club is the Round Eight NAB AFL Rising Star nominee.  The 20-year-old New Zealand born midfielder played his best match for the Hawks with a career-high 26 disposals, 14 marks, five tackles and two goals in the 30-point win over St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday.

Shane debuted for the Hawks in 2009 and played the last three matches of the home and away season. Despite being named as an emergency eight times in 2010, he made no senior appearances. In 2011 Shane has now played in all eight matches for the Hawks.

AFL “F” is a new organisation which has been established to help support the growth and development of women in Australian Football both in Australia and Internationally. It is founded on the ideas and collaborations of individuals and organisations with a passion for female sports, but aims to have the financial freedom to invest in and support the growth of women’s football around the world.

AFL “F” stands for much more than just female football players: In addition to the “Chick-kick” girls, Youth Girls, Women’s seniors and female coaches who bless our game with their efforts and achievements each weekend, there are increasing numbers of female umpires, administrators and operational staff as well as girlfriends, wives, mothers and daughters who all have an important and often unseen impact on the game.

Each month, AFL “F” focuses on a new “F” word and this month’s word is “funding”. They’re trying to develop some new and exciting funding initiatives to help create more opportunities for women to get involved in football. If you want to be a part of their global female football community and have an idea, skill or product that you think will support women in football, then tell AFL "F" about it by contacting them at ideas@aflf.com.au.

AFL “F” is also putting together a “telemovie” of women involved in Australian Football around the world. The video will be distributed to domestic and international leagues to promote female participation in Australian Football. If you have a story which you would like to share with the female football world, please contact AFL “F” at yourstory@aflf.com.au or visit their YouTube channel - here.

For more information on AFL “F” please visit their website - aflf.com.au or better still, join them on Facebook here.

The Queensland Sunfire Women’s AFL Team has been selected following some outstanding performances at the Women’s State Championships. Players from AFL Cairns teams dominate selection, after their victory in the State Championships over AFL South-East Queensland’s North and South teams.

The Sunfire will compete in the National Championships Division 1 alongside teams from Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. The National Championships are to be held in Adelaide from 7-12 June, 2011. The Grand Final will be held at Gliderol Stadium, Glenelg, on the 11th.

The Sunfire will be coached by AFL Queensland’s Community Development Manager Richie Lyons, with Deion Menzies as Assistant Coach. The team will be managed by AFL Brisbane Juniors General Manager Cherie Brockwell.

Full squad follows.

Due to the increasing amount of women's Australian football around the world, worldfootynews.com is re-organising its Links section, to provide appropriate categories rather than simply "Women's footy".

As such, our existing women's footy links will be shifting and appearing in the What's New section on the right hand side of the website.

The Welsh Australian Rules Football League will kick off its 2011 season this weekend with the annual pre-season Cymru Clwb Challenge on Saturday May 21st.

Held at Heol-y-Cyw RFC in Bridgend, the competition will see last year's winners South Cardiff Panthers try to defend their trophy against the league's new teams, the Bristol Dockers and the Bridgend Eagles (who are combining with Vale Warriors for the day), as well established teams the Cardiff Double Blues and Swansea Magpies.

Ball-up in the first match is at 1pm, in what looks to be an explosive prelude to the season, which gets under way on May 28th.

The WARFL will consist of 6 teams in 2011, with the Cardiff Double Blues, South Cardiff Panthers, Swansea Magpies and Vale Warriors joined by new Welsh club Bridgend Eagles and the Bristol Dockers from England's West Country, who are joining the WARFL after almost 20 years playing in the BARFL and AFL London.

When the AFL released the current list of IC11 hopefuls last week, the Finnish Icebreakers were one of the sides that had pulled out. Like with many other teams, the decision was mainly due to financial constraints, with Craig Primmer from the FAFL saying that "We don't have any sponsorship deals and the lack of information from the AFL regarding possible financial support or airline deals meant that flight prices were getting too high for it to be feasible."

"We had about 20 guys interested, but this included 5-6 guys of Finnish origin in Australia that had never played the game before, so we decided it was better to hold back and focus on the domestic front as well as the Euro Cup in Belfast this year."

On the domestic front, the Finnish National League will start the season with 5 teams, up from 3 last year. The two new sides are the Waasa Wombats, based in the northern city of Vaasa, and a second team from the Turku Dockers. Turku will field A and B teams, with the A team not including any Aussies.

Craig Primmer says "The aim with this is to make sure that all players get as much game time as possible, and to increase the on-field responsibility of the non-Aussies with a few years experience."

"It is also promising that numbers in Helsinki are looking good and there is again talk that maybe the Espoo team could be re-started at some stage."

The FAFL season kicks off on May 21, and then from May 26-30 Brett Kirk will be visiting for a couple of FAFL matches as well as some training sessions. Shortly after that, a double-header will be held in Turku on June 2nd, with AFL Europe General Manager Gerard Murphy in attendance.

The Perpignan Tigers are hosting the French National League's grand final tournament this Saturday May 14th, with all six teams from the regular season in attendance at the Stade Roger Ramis.

The French sides played in two pools this year, with Aix-Marseille, Perpignan and Toulouse in the southern division, and Paris, Strasbourg and Bordeaux in the north. Unlike most Australian rules football leagues in Europe, the French played their season over the northern winter, beginning late 2010.

The first match kicks off at 10.30am, with the Perpignan Tigers taking on the Strasbourg Kangaroos for 5th place. The Aix-Marseille Dockers clash with the Paris Cockerels for 3rd at 2pm, and in the main game, the Bordeaux Bombers and Toulouse Hawks will clash for the national premiership at 4pm.

The premiership cup will be presented by Damien Blanch, professional Rugby League player from the Perpignan-based super league club Dragons Catalans, with cheerleaders and the Dragons' official mascot also adding some colour to the event.

For more information, visit perpignantigers.com.

Zillmere Eagles Youth Girls Under 15’s players Eh Ka Dot Ray, Selee Po and Lar Htoo May lined up alongside their team mates against Calamvale last weekend. Despite their age, the three girls have great handballing and kicking skills, and aren’t afraid to go in hard after the ball- easily on par with their team mates, brought up with Auskick and the AFL.

But although the girls play like Australians, they are actually refugees, survivors of the ongoing conflict in Myanmar between government groups and Karen rebels.

Brian Clarke, General Manager of Aussie Rules International, has announced that a proposal for ARI to stage an exhibition match between a South African side and an Australian Indigenous side at the 2011 All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique has been accepted by the Games organisers.

The match is planned to take place in the first week of the All-Africa Games (also referred to as the African Games), which will start on the 3rd of September, and would be played in the National Stadium in the Mozambican capital, which has a spectator capacity of 42,000.

When contacted for comment by WFN, Mr Clarke said that ARI is currently seeking sponsors for the project, but he is confident that the required funds will be secured.

Mr Clarke declined to give details on who would be playing, managing or coaching the sides in the match, although he stated that he is currently in contact with a number of different organisations in Australia to select an Australian Indigenous team, and that the South African side would be selected next month.

When contacted by WFN, AFL South Africa operations manager Joel Kelly indicated that the AFLSA is not in any way connected with the All-Africa Games project.

The match has received some coverage in the mainstream Australian media, including this article in Melbourne's The Age newspaper, and this article on Fox Sports.