World Footy News

The 2009 Australian Football League Grand Final will be played between two of the most dominant teams in recent memory. St Kilda finished the minor round with 20 wins and 2 narrow losses. Geelong will be playing in their third Grand Final in a row and have an imperious record over 2007-2009. The football public await an intense battle of the sort seen in 2005 and 2006 when Sydney and West Coast battled out thrillingly tight contests.

However, the result doesn't always live up to the hype as one side cracks under the weight of expectation, but in terms of season form these are the two power sides of 2009 and the odds are good for a classic match. And despite it often being said that Grand Finals regularly have blow outs, out of the last 12 AFL Grand Finals only 4 have been decided by 40 points or more, with 3 being by 10 points or less.

In worldfootynews.com's third preview of teams for the 2009 EU Cup, we spoke with coach of the England Dragonslayers (and new assistant coach of the GB Bulldogs) Robert Fielder about their preparations for defending the title, as well as Juan Martin and Antonio Avila in Spain and Doug Pate in Andorra about their respective teams.

Footy in the Madrid area took an important next step this year with the creation of a second team and the commencement of a local league. The Andorrans completed their debut season in the Catalan league and will be keen to make a good impression in their first EU Cup appearance.

In other EU Cup news, team Catalonia have announced their withdrawal due to financial difficulties, meaning organisers are currently looking at 14 national sides, plus the EU Crusaders to be confirmed. A finalised draw will be available soon.

Our final preview, covering the Irish Exiles, Germany and the Netherlands, will be on WFN soon.

Whether you are a Cats fan wanting to see them make it two out of three, a Saints tragic wanting to see them break the long and painful drought or a neutral just wanting to watch the big game, finding somewhere to watch it when you are overseas is not always an easy task. Once again World Footy News is proud to present you with a wide list of venues to watch the 2009 AFL Grand Final around the world. Feel free to add any venues that are not listed below in the comments section and we will add them to the main list.

Please note: The information is entered here in good faith. worldfootynews.com is not responsible for any incorrect information posted to this story. Wherever possible attempt to check ahead to make sure the party you are planning on attending is still going ahead and has room for you. There have been cases of sell outs and late changes e.g. when a venue could not secure a telecast.

AFL Britain has named a new Head Coach and Assistant Coach for the Great Britain Bulldogs, to prepare for and contest the upcoming International Cup in 2011 and beyond. Since the initial event in 2002, the Bulldogs have developed steadily and have been recognised as one of the stronger European teams and equal 9th in the world according to the 2008 World Footy News rankings. Now the new coaching pair have the task of taking the squad to the next level, to compete with the increasingly professional approach apparent in such teams as Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and South Africa.

In perhaps a good omen for the St Kilda Football Club ahead of this year's AFL Grand Final, the West Coast Saints have taken out the 2009 British Columbia premiership in Canada's west. The following report is courtesy of Myk Aussie.

What a great summer weather drive it was for me from Calgary to Vancouver especially to watch the NWPAFL Grand Final. The North West Pacific AFL competition also known as BC Footy is now a 5 team league and rapidly growing competition in British Columbia, Canada. The Grand Final was between the undefeated Burnaby Eagles coached by Matthew Bell and the West Coast Saints coached by Ward Frost. Neither of these sides had won a premiership. The UBC Fields were in great condition and I was gladly surprised at the excellent crowd in attendance eagerly waiting for the start of the Grand Final (one report put it at around 300 people).

Round two of the Japan AFL season has been (mostly) played and won, with another emphatic win to the Tokyo Goannas, who after only two rounds, are already looking like favourites for the flag.

The Goannas started the round with a 108 point victory, their 15th in succession since 2007, over the Komazawa Magpies in Chiba.

The reigning premiers booted 5.4 to nothing in the first quarter on the way to an 18.22 (130) to 3.4 (22) demolition job. Although led tenaciously in the ruck by Tanaka, the Magpies had no answer to the ball-winning ability of the Goannas midfielders, Wilson and Jones especially prominent.

At Shinshiro Sogo Park, accuracy in front of goal gave the Nagoya Redbacks a tough win over the Tokyo Leopards.

The Leopards came out all guns blazing, dominating the first quarter 6.4 to 2.0 For the rest of the game, however, inaccuracy in front of goal cost Tokyo dearly. At half-time they had 15 scoring shots to 6, but the margin was only 14 points. As the saying goes, poor kicking is poor football, and the Redbacks came to life in the second half, running out 14.7 (91) to 9.14 (68) victors in a hard fought affair.

The Osaka Dingoes - Senshu Powers game will be played in October.

The 2009 AFL Grand Final participants have been decided, with St Kilda scraping home in a thriller against the Western Bulldogs and Geelong running away from Collingwood. The sides will enter the big game with those contrasting preliminary final wins, both tight early but very different margins at the end.

Worldwide: Live scores, stats and audio on http://AFL.com.au
Africa: ESPN, 06:30 CAT, LIVE
Asia: Australia Network, 09:00 India, 10:30 Indonesia, Thailand, 11:30 Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Singapore, 12:30 North Korea, Japan, LIVE
Canada: TSN, 00:30 EDT, LIVE
Caribbean: ESPN, 00:30 EDT, LIVE
Europe: Eurosport 2, 06:30 CET, LIVE
Israel: ESPN, 07:30 ISR, LIVE
Ireland: ESPN, 05.30 BST, LIVE
Middle East: Showtime Arabia, 07:30 KSA, LIVE
New Zealand: Sky Television, 16:30 NZT, LIVE
Pacific: Australia Network, 15:30 Fiji, 17:30 Cook Islands, LIVE
United Kingdom: ESPN, 05.30 BST, LIVE
USA: ESPN Classic, 00:30 EDT, LIVE; ESPN360.com, 00:30 EDT, LIVE

For more info go to the AFL guide here
Confirmed broadcast times will be updated as they come to hand.
Please note that all broadcast times are subject to change.

The Gold Coast Football Club is set to welcome a new group of players to the club as it continues to build its talented list in preparation for 2011.The team will compete in the VFL competition next year which is considered to be the best development pathway for the team and players as they will compete against players on AFL team lists.

GCFC will play 10 games in Queensland and eight in Melbourne with the match fixture and venues to be released next month. After exceeding expectations in its first year in the TAC Cup under 18s competition by reaching the semi finals, GCFC’s 2009 season ended last Sunday with a loss to the Geelong Falcons.

Coach Guy McKenna and his assistants have begun preparing for a new level of football next year in readiness for the Club’s journey to AFL competition in 2011.

The Port Malmö Maulers will tomorrow aim to become the first-ever Swedish team to win the Danish Australian Football League premiership when they host the North Copenhagen Barracudas at Limhamnsfältet, Malmö.

The match marks the first time the DAFL Grand Final has been outside Denmark, with the Maulers red-hot favourites going into the match after the dominant Farum Cats bowed out of the finals series in straight sets.

Thanks to Ingmar 'Terry' Lundquist for this match preview.

Written by Paul Drake

Chicago, IL- Chicago United claimed their third MAAFL title in a row after another devastating display of Australian Rules Football on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. This weeks victim was their old foes from Wisconsin who made the 90 mile trek down the I-90 with a handy team.

Though starting the game with several top name players out including Rohan Ward, the Chicago United was able to draw first blood early when Big Al MacGlashan presented at full forward and took a strong mark on the lead and then cooly went back, cocked that magnificent left hoof and went BANG from 50. He followed this up with two more strong marks and from closer in, missed by a country mile both times. Gordon Ambrosino was proving a handful with his pace and he was rewarded with a smart goal from a snap to bring up Chicagos second.

ESPN were planning to show this year's AFL Grand Final on a two hour delay on ESPN2 but it now appears that viewers across the USA can now watch the game live. It will now be screened on ESPN Classic channel live which is great news for Aussie Rules clubs in the US as well as the fans, both expat Australians and converted locals.