World Footy News

St Kilda and the Geelong – the dominant clubs of the 2009 season – have tonight provided almost half of the players named in the 2009 Four’N Twenty All Australian Team.

The Saints and the Cats, who went 20-2 and 18-4 respectively through the home and away season, each supplied five players to the team of the year -- Nick Dal Santo, Brendon Goddard, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna and Nick Riewoldt along with Gary Ablett, Paul Chapman, Corey Enright, Matthew Scarlett and Joel Selwood.

Top four contenders the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood each supplied a further five selections between them, reflecting the success of the best teams in the competition in 2009. Riewoldt was named as All Australian captain for the first time, in his fourth year as an All Australian player, while Carlton’s Chris Judd was named as his deputy for his fourth selection also as an All Australian player.

Tom Hawkins from the Geelong Football Club is the 2009 AFL Army Award winner. It was Hawkins’ brilliant smother and subsequent chase and tackle in Round 22 against Fremantle that secured him the award. He finished ahead of Port Adelaide’s Jacob Surjan (26 per cent).

The AFL Army Award was introduced in 2007 and celebrates on-field displays of courage, initiative and teamwork – values synonymous with both the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Football League. The 21-year-old forward was presented with the AFL Army Award Medal by Commander - Forces Command, Major General David Morrison, AM at the 2009 Four’N Twenty All-Australian Dinner held tonight. He will receive a travel voucher to the value of $10,000 and an Army experience.

Hawkins received 54 per cent of the public vote which was endorsed by the All-Australian committee comprising Andrew Demetriou (chairman), Adrian Anderson, Kevin Bartlett, Gerard Healy, James Hird, Glen Jakovich, Mark Ricciuto and Robert Walls.

Majak Daw, a young footballer born in Sudan who migrated to Australia, has been receiving plenty of media attention recently as a possible draftee and the first of hopefully many to have originated in that part of Africa.

His stocks rose further last week when he was awarded one of eleven Mike Fitzpatrick scholarships by the AFL Players' Association. It was presented at the AFLPA's MVP Awards on Monday night, at which Geelong's son of a gun, Gary Ablett Jr took out his third straight win.

Since 2001, the AFL Players’ Association has awarded scholarships to assist young footballer’s aged between 15 and 17 in their education and training whilst they aspire to an AFL career. According to AFL Players’ Association General Manager of Player Development Steve Alessio, “this scholarship continues to provide much needed assistance to quality young talented men who may not otherwise get the opportunity to achieve their dream of playing in the AFL without this financial assistance.”

For all the speculation and theories on form and match ups, at the end of the second round of the 2009 AFL finals all six matches so far have been won by the team that placed higher at the end of the minor round.

The Preliminary finals are now set as follows:

Friday September 18
First Preliminary Final
St Kilda v Western Bulldogs at the MCG, 7.45pm

Saturday September 19
Second Preliminary Final
Geelong v Collingwood at the MCG, 7.30pm

The climax of the 2009 Australian Rules Football League of Ireland sees two Dublin rivals contesting the Grand final. Minor premiers and defending champions the Dublin Demons will go into the game as favourites having led the ladder all season. However the South Dublin Swans are also in confident mood, having started the season poorly (with 3 losses in their first 4 matches), they have won their last 5 games, including a close semi final victory over the Midland Tigers.

After announcing their exciting new partnership with the AFL’s West Coast Eagles in May, the vagaries of the international postal service have kept the former Karlstad Dragons waiting by the letterbox for the arrival of their new uniforms.

But on Tuesday September 8th, so fittingly following on the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s own “… small step for man… (and) giant leap for mankind”, we can proudly announce that: “Sweden… the Eagles have landed!”

Eagles President ‘Jumping’ Jimmy Ljunggren was impressed with the foresight shown by the West Coast Eagles, in sending a set of long-sleeved jumpers: “We can train all-year-round in these. We just need to get ourselves a couple of snowploughs to clear the track in winter.”

The Asian Championships played in Kuala Lumpur on 5th September, 2009 were immensely successful in terms of participation with 10 Senior teams, 3 Under 18 Teams, Auskick and over 400 players, seniors and juniors participating. After a day of intense competition, last year's winners Dubai (UAE) Heat and Jakarta Bulldogs both managed a repeat triumph in the Senior and Junior competitions.

Week two of the AFL's 2009 Finals Series sees the competition to move to sudden death, with all finals elimination from now on.

Last weekend St Kilda impressed the most, shaking off a recent downturn in form, to stifle Collingwood and win by 28 points. Geelong also affirmed that they are not a spent force, pulling away from the Western Bulldogs early and holding them at arms length for a 14 point victory.

In the other finals Adelaide eliminated an undermanned Essendon as expected by a record 96 points, and Brisbane staged a stunning comeback to knock out Carlton by 7 points.

Week Two Finals

Friday September 11
Second Semi Final, Western Bulldogs v Brisbane Lions at the MCG, 7.45pm AEST

Saturday September 12
First Semi Final, Collingwood v Adelaide at the MCG, 7.30pm AEST

Further facts and figures from the finals follow.

In our second set of previews of teams for the 2009 EU Cup, WFN spoke to team coaches and managers from France, Scotland, Italy and Austria.

The French, Austrians and Scots will be eager to improve their standing over previous years, while the first appearance of an Italian side in European Australian rules football circles has created a huge amount of interest.

So far, we've looked at half of the 16 national teams that the organisers at Aussie Rules Europe are expecting to make the trip. Still to come are some very big names including reigning champions the England Dragonslayers, potential juggernauts the Irish Exiles, and the always-improving German Black Eagles.

Dubai Heat last weekend won the Asian Championships in a repeat of 2008, defeating the Singapore Wombats in the Grand Final. The Heat trailed at half-time but superior fitness saw them overwhelm Singapore in the final stanza to score a well-deserved victory.

Third and fourth spots went to the Bali Geckoes and Hong Kong Dragons, who were defeated in the semi-finals by the Heat and Wombats repectively.

The pinnacle of the Asian Football season, the Asian Championships this year were held in Kuala Lumpur at the Selangor Polo Club on 5th September.

In the Juniors grade, the Jakarta Bulldogs also went back to back, asserting their superiority over the St Johns Malaysian Warriors, though the Malaysian boys' effort is to be highly commended as they took on far more experienced rivals and gave them strong competition.

The Rheinland Lions reasserted their position as Germany's team to beat last weekend, defeating the Munich Roos 13.9 (87) to 8.3 (51) to take out the 2009 AFLG premiership at the Frankfurter Ostpark. The Lions have now won three premierships in a row, with the Roos runners-up in each of those seasons.

In Division Two, the Rheinland reserve grade team were unable to equal the effort of their senior team, going down to the Berlin Crocodiles by seven points. For the Crocs, the win marked their first premiership in any grade, with their seniors playing in Division 2 this year to rebuild after some tough seasons at the bottom of the table.

Reports from our German connections suggest the Crocs' move to second division has paid dividends to the club in terms of local development, the opportunity for more competitive matches meaning that the club's membership has grown greatly this year. The second division also created a venue for the new Stuttgart Emus club, as well as the reserve teams from Munich and Rheinland.

AFLG Grand Final - Premier Division

Rheinland Lions	5.2	6.5	11.6	13.9 (87)
Munich Kangaroos	0.1	3.2	5.2	8.3 (51)

Second Division

Rheinland Lions II	0.0	1.3	2.4	4.11 (35)
Berlin Crocodiles	3.1	3.4	6.5	6.6 (42)

For more information, visit AFLG.de.

The Irish Exiles, representing the best Irishmen playing Aussie Rules in England, staged a massive final term comeback to defeat the England Dragonslayers by 9 points last Saturday, September 5th.

Played in sunny but windy conditions at Albert Road Recreation Ground in Bounds Green, London, the Exiles kicked 5 goals in the last quarter to triumph 9.9 (63) to 7.12 (54). Neither team kicked a goal against the wind all game, the Irish accuracy in front of goal getting them over the line despite the Dragonslayers' greater number of scoring shots.

Information for this report courtesy of Aussie Rules UK. WFN reminds readers that we are more than happy for you to quote and/or reproduce our articles, providing the original authors and/or sources are given credit.