World Footy News

If pre-match entertainment on Grand Final day is your thing, then you will be glad to hear the AFL has secured the world renown band INXS as it's headline musical act. We do expect however that there may be some coverage around the world that will not show this.

AFL General Manager Commercial Operations Darren Birch, said INXS is a band whose local and international success spans many decades and the AFL is thrilled to have such an iconic act involved in the grand final.

With a career spanning 25 years, INXS is undoubtedly one of the world's great bands. With more than 30 million records sold worldwide, countless awards from their peers and fans, platinum certifications, and a history peppered with outstanding achievements, the band are arguably Australia's most successful rock export.

The inaugural season of the Bayern League came to a thrilling end in Munich on August 5th as the top teams, the Sendling Blues and the Schwabing Saints, played off for the first ever Bavarian premiership. In a competition with no finals, the Saints needed to win the last minor round game by 38 points to overtake the Blues on the ladder and snatch the cup.

The four NZ Leagues and the stand alone Otago Riot are all preparing feverishly for the National Provincial Championships to be hold on the 24-26th October. We take a look at where each league is at.

The Auckland League recently held their annual Lightning Premiership with the North Shore Tigers defeating the Mt Roskill Saints. This set the Tigers up to repeat the dose in Round One last weekend with a 13.9 (87) to 6.7 (43) victory over Mt Roskill. In the replay of last year’s Grand Final the Waitakere Magpies reversed the result over the University Blues with an 11.9 (75) to 7.9 (51) scoreline. In the final match of Round One last year’s two bottom Clubs squared off with the Manurewa Raiders taking the win over the Takapuna Eagles 9.8 (62) to 6.4 (40). The Reserve Grade saw wins to North Shore, University and Takapuna.

Football continues to develop incrementally in the university dominated city of Dunedin on the South Island of NZ. CEO of AFL New Zealand, Robert Vanstam, visited Dunedin recently to speak with local sporting officials and help put the Otago Riot through their paces at training.

Down at Logan Park every Monday and Wednesday afternoon a group of keen young men are practising unfamiliar skills with a familiar looking ball. They're the Otago Riot, Dunedin's very own Australian Rules Football team and they're part of a quiet sporting revolution developing strong roots across New Zealand.

Former Carlton and Collingwood AFL footballer Chris Bryan was last week cut by the Green Bay Packers. But the end of his NFL adventure had only just begun - as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have trialed Bryan this week and now offered him a contract as their punter for the coming season.

Bryan will join the other Aussies with Aussie rules backgrounds in Matt McBriar, Ben Graham and Sav Rocca in the NFL for season 2010/11. He will make his regular season debut at home against the Cleveland Browns at 5.00am Monday Melbourne time.

Former World No. 1 Russian women's professional tennis player Maria Sharapova recently took to the Sherrin as part of her fitness training with her Australian fitness adviser. If anything could inspire Russians to take up the Australian game, this could be it.

New Zealand: The 36th Auckland football season since the resumption of play in 1975 kicked into life on Sunday 29th September 2010, despite some of the worst underfoot conditions seen for many years. The usual daily downpours during August combined with pretty much undrained fields at Mountford Park Manurewa to produce a mudfest. Never the less the traditional season opener, the Lightning Premiership, was keenly contested by the six Auckland clubs, the same six who have contested every AAFL Premiership since 1990. The Lightning Premiership was introduced in 1994 as the season opening event when the Premiership was reduced from 15 to 10 rounds.

This Sunday Hong Kong will host the China Cup. It is the first time the tournament has been played outside Mainland China.

The Turku Dockers have made it two out of two by claiming their second premiership in the Finland AFL in their second year of existence. The Dockers, coached by Australian ex-pat and two-time EU Cup all star Grant Siermans, beat the all-Finnish Salo Juggernauts 19.17(131) to 8.5(53).

Although the Dockers went into the match as favourites, having beaten the Juggernauts on all three encounters during the home and away season, injuries to several key Dockers players (as a result of EC2010 duty) combined with recent reinforcements to the Juggernauts squad via their high-school recruitment program suggested that the grand final could be a different story. But it wasn’t to be.

Report courtesy of Craig Primmer, photos by Antti Lipsanen.

More like a black hole than a sun, players who are out of contract are drawn to lucrative contract offers from the Gold Coast Suns. The Suns are allowed to offer up a contract to one player from each existing club that have a player out of contract as of the end of this season.

All Australian Defender Nathan Bock and exciting young defender Nathan Krakouer are the first two of these transfers to have signed with the Gold Coast SUNS for its inaugural AFL season. More will be announced in the coming weeks.

Whether it’s the work of the martians or the seagulls, Kevin Sheedy is not often backward in coming forward. For a plumber – he can be somewhat lateral. His latest suggestion is reported in the IrishExaminer Sheedy proposes novel ‘tri-series’ idea.

Last year it was Sydney Swan Tadgh Kennelly who returned to Ireland and led his county Kerry to the All Ireland GAA Gaelic Football final against Cork – and ultimate victory to win the Sam Maguire Cup.

This year, it remains to be seen if a win can be achieved; however, former Collingwood player Martin Clarke has helped his County Down side to make the All-Ireland final for the first time since 1994.