World Footy News

The US Women Freedom team today ended the playing part of their tour down under with a narrow loss to the VWFL team. On a cold blowy Saturday afternoon the Freedom failed to capitalise on some good movement into the forward line on many occaisions.

The Freedom came out on fire continually driving the ball forward with a handy breeze. Poor kicking though saw them fail to capitalise fully with 2.5 on the scoreboard while the shellshocked VWFL was scoreless. Sarbarker and Harrington being the Freedoms goalkickers.

The second quarter proved the value of the breeze and how well the two sides were matched when this was almost reversed and the VWFL kicked 2.5 to the Freedom's two points.

The Norway Polar Bears, or "Isbjørnene" in Norwegian, will take the field for the first time ever on October 3rd, traveling to the city of Karlstad in Western Sweden for a full 18-a-side Test match against the Swedish Elks.

The Polar Bears are aiming for at least 50% Norwegian players in the team, as well as to include representatives from all three Norwegian clubs - Oslo, Ås and Tromsø.

The Elks for their part are selecting Team Sweden under IC rules, with AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis tipping the side to be very similar in composition to the Elks squad that visited Melbourne last year.

The following is an extract from The Bendigo Advertiser

Coached by Kangaroo Flat’s senior coach, Darryl Wilson, Bendigo won 8.4 (52) to 3.2 (20) before a crowd of more than 1500 as the Freedom marked the third match of its first tour to Australia. Although it had just a couple of training runs before the historic clash, Bendigo’s squad dominated the first half.

As reported in a previous article, Liam Ackland traveled to Adelaide from Auckland to trial in an SANFL Under 18 game for the Glenelg Tigers against the Central Districts Bulldogs on Saturday 25th July.

Not the usual World Footy News - but until we get the World Footy Classifieds together, we have the following offer from Munich Roos coach David Mudge:

Does anyone have a spare set of footy jumpers they are willing to swap for a set of North Melbourne Kangaroos (blue & white) jumpers?

I am coach of the Munich Kangaroos and this season we invested in some shiny new jumpers. Therefore we have our old jumpers lying around doing nothing. If only they were a different colour, I could use them for internal practice games and trainings. Therefore I thought if one of you is in the same situation of having two sets of jumpers, we could swap a set and both clubs end up with a set of training jumpers, or a set of jumpers for starting a new team.

Let me know if you know of anyone who could be interested. If it works out, we could do the swap at the EU Cup in Samobor.

Any takers, leave a message on this story and we will pass it on to Dave Mudge and the Roos.

The Asian Championships is the goal of all teams in the Asian region. Being played in tropical conditions, subject to vagaries of weather and in a lightning premiership type format, the day is a true test of stamina, team management and above all, depth.

Yet, for all the elements of luck that can play a part with the draw, with injuries and other factors, usually the best side wins.

Whilst many internationals are played during the year, and nearly all clubs have some sort of intra-club domestic competition, like racehorses aiming at the Melbourne Cup, it is the Asian Championships that all conditioning is aimed towards.

This year is the 10th edition of the Championships - Hong Kong and Singapore have won 3 each, Indonesia (as a combined Jakarta-Bali side many years ago) 2, and Dubai 1.

Coinncidentally it is the 10th year of the Malaysian Warriors Football Club and they will be hosting the Championships on Saturday, 5th September at the Royal Selangor Polo Club, situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

The Women’s USAFL team have been on tour in Australia since August 7th and so far have played two tough matches, going down in both but losing no respect along the way. The first match was against a team of first year players in the current Sydney Women’s AFL (SWAFL).

An accumulation of effort between SWAFL and US Footy saw the first ever match between a rookie representative side from the Australians and the US Freedom Team. The Americans had arrived missing two players due to a lost passport at LAX, but with some handy-work and cooperation of the taxi industry - the Freedom recovered their two players in time for the main event.

Australian actor Eric Bana appeared on US comedian and tonight show host Jimmy Fallon's show and promoted the game of Aussie Rules - attempting to teach Fallon some of the finer points. He then gave VB, St Kilda and AFL Grand Final a good plug. A good year to be a Saints fan.

You can watch the video here.

Freedom Coach Wayne Kraska gives us the genesis of the current tour and US Women's footy.

In 2005 after a group of players had been gathered together to play an exhibition game at the Atlanta USAFL National Championships it was suggested that a women’s team in Atlanta would be a good addition for the Atlanta Kookaburras as a club. Being the President of the club at the time there appeared no one really interested in taking on the role to coach this team, so after separating myself from the coaching ranks of the men's team, it was left to yours truly. After our first training session at Scott Nathaniel Park in Decatur, Georgia, I was contacted by Kathryn Hogg who along with a few others had been the driving force behind the trial games in Atlanta in 2004 and the year before in Kansas City.

The following is Essendon's media release on Meli's signing.

Essendon has signed exciting Papua New Guinea prospect David Meli. The 178cm, 76kg small forward is the second International player ever signed by the Bombers (after Irishman Michael Quinn at the end of 2008) and the first player signed by the club under the AFL's International rookie system.

The 16-year-old PNG resident (he turns 17 in September) is currently living on the Gold Coast to further his football career. He is expected to begin training at Windy Hill in November.

On Saturday August 1, the small town of Mason Ohio played host to the 2009 49th Parallel Cup, an annual event that matches the USA National Australian Rules Football Team, “Revolution” up against “Northwind”, the Canadian National Australian Rules Football team. The 49th Parallel is the average latitude that marks the border between the US and Canada. It was a football match that eventual saw the US Revolution victorious by 8 goals and leaving the Northwnd think tank scratching their heads on what had possibly gone wrong for football in Canada on that one beautiful August day in the small town Mason.

On a day where bigger issues overwhelmed the football, the Vietnam Swans defeated the Laos Elephants by 4 points in a important warm-up game for the upcoming Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur.

Craig Senger had been a player with the Jakarta Bintangs Football Club and tragically lost his life in the recent Jakarta bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels.

Prior to the match, the Australian Ambassador, the Deputy / Minister Counsellor from the Indonesian Embassy and Dave Kainey (“Official Legend” of the Jakarta Bintangs and former Swans President) addressed all players and spectators. A minute's silence was observed.