World Footy News

The Dubai Dragons have made their way into yet another AFL Middle East grand final after downing the Abu Dhabi Falcons at Sevens Stadium on Friday. The club has won six of the past seven premierships and now have a unique chance to add yet another in a golden dynasty. Currently they have four flags in a row and eyes on a fifth after winning their Preliminary Final against the Falcons.

Waiting for them ahead of next week’s Grand Final are the Multiplex Bulls. After four successive premiership defeats they will be a formidable opponent, especially after having enjoyed a week’s extra rest as the Dragons and Falcons battled things out.

The Falcons kicked the first goal of the Preliminary Final, getting off to a useful start, however the Dragons kicked five of the next six goals to take an 18-point lead to the first break. The Falcons stayed in touch in the second term, kicking one goal to the Dragon’s two to trail by just over four goals at half time.

Weekend results in France have certainly fallen in favour of the ALFA Lions. Locked in a battle for a place in this season’s finals, the Lions needed a couple of things to fall in their favour with just three rounds remaining of the season. First of all, they gained the points after the Stade Toulousain team forfeited their match.

The club are on a mission to recapture their premiership form from two seasons ago and stated, “we [have] got strong ambition this season as the last one [2017/18] was very disappointing for us.”

Certainly the points for the forfeit help, but so do other results from the weekend.

The Paris derby saw the Paris Cockerels further enhance their premiership credentials by downing their siblings the Paris Cockatoos. The Cockatoos are also deep in the hunt for a finals spot, and their defeat to the Cockerels will hurt, putting them back with the pack fighting for finals spots.

Carlton came away with the win just by three points over a fearless Western Bulldogs at the Whitten Oval on a fine sunny day in Melbourne.

The match was slow moving with both teams just going through their paces until the fourth quarter when the Dogs came hard at the Blues with five goals.

It was the annual AFLW Pride Game between the two teams and they both wore commemorative pride guernsey’s.

Next week the Blues will host the Fremantle Dockers in the preliminary finals at Ikon Park. 

It marks the first time the Blues will play in the AFLW finals. 

Image Source: Michael Wilson

Collingwood secured their first win of AFLW 3.0 by a goal over Brisbane Lions at Victoria Park on a fine sunny day in Melbourne.

This win meant a lot to the Magpies, as they broke their 364 day winless drought. 

At the start of the match there was a minute of silence for the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

The youthful Magpies caused headaches for the Lions who were eyeing off a finals spot in Conference B.

In the second half, the Lions had their chances at goal but they will rue the missed opportunities at goal.

The Magpies game plan was short kicking, they had better build up, ball movement and defensive pressure was electrifying all day.

This Magpies win means that the Lions will miss out on playing finals next week and the Cats have made the finals in their inaugural AFLW season.

Image Source: Michael Dodge

The title of this story is actually very close to the real title of a book "Long Bombs To Snake", which was a collection of sport stories from The Footy Almanac. Funny how the title very nearly came to life in Adelaide yesterday when a venomous Brown Snake entered the field during a pre-season trial match between North Adelaide and South Adelaide.

The irony here is that last season North Adelaide was involved in a high profile "19th" player on field incident during the SANFL finals. There is NO suggestion that the snake involved was aligned to either club.

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The Fremantle Dockers were all class as they notched up a solid 27-point win over a strong North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos at the Fremantle Oval in a splendid day in Fremantle.

This win by the Dockers means that the Dockers will feature in the Conference A finals next week and North have just missed out after a remarkable inaugural AFLW season.

The Dockers will hope the injuries for two of their major stars Sabreena Duffy and Dana Hooker will not be too significant so they will play next week in the finals. 

It was the pressure and ball movement of the Dockers that was first class all match.

North matched it with the Dockers all match, but they could not make the most of it when they had the ball inside their forward half of the ground.

At the start of the match there was a minute of silence for the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Also the players wore black armbands, as a show of respect for the New Zealand tragedy.

Image Source: Daniel Carson

Adelaide Crows put on a demolition job of Melbourne by 61 points at the Casey Fields on a sunny day in Melbourne. 

The Crows were ruthless and tough, whereas the Dees struggled to play their brand of football all day.

This win means the Crows will definitely be in the Conference A finals and the Dees will miss out again on a AFLW finals series for the third consecutive year. 

The Dees recorded the lowest ever AFLW score.

Marijana Rajcic was solid in defense for the Crows for the entire match.

Harriet Cordner was the shining light for the Dees with 19 disposals.

Crows were well and truly on their game plan for the whole match at Casey, the Dees could not wrestle back the momentum.

At start of the match there was a minute of silence for Christchurch, New Zealand for yesterday’s terrorist attacks.

The win was set up with the Crows impressive first half, as they kept the Dees scoreless and all their players were working hard for each other.

Image Source: Michael Wilson

The GWS Giants pulled off a comprehensive win by 30 points over the Geelong Cats at the UNSW Canberra Oval in a fine cool night. 

This win by the Giants has spoilt the Cats chances of making the finals in AFLW 3.0 and the Blues will take part in the Preliminary Finals next week.

At the start of the match there was a minute silence for the lives lost in the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand today.

A highlight of a dark day in our world came when the first Muslim women's player to ever play AFLW Haneen Zreika notched up her first ever AFLW goal in the first quarter. 

Image Source: Matt King 

When you take a look at the cold, hard data, the Dubai Dragons will today win through to The AFL Middle East grand final next week against the Multiplex Bulls. Everything points to that result playing out, including logic. Better form, home ground, history, talent – it all adds up to a win for the Dragons.

But that is what makes footy so much fun – the unexpected. The two teams have met twice this year, both times seeing a Dragons win. But dig a little deeper under the surface and there are nuggets of information that suggest that the Abu Dhabi Falcons are not out of this race yet.

Round 2 at the Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi saw the Falcons desperately unlucky to lose to the Dragons by just two points. The Dragons held the lead all day until the Falcons produced a stunning last quarter fightback to nearly take the game. A reproduction of that form today could certainly change a result.

Round 7 teams have been released below

GWS Giants Vs Geelong, Friday 15th March 7:15pm at UNSW Canberra Oval

GWS Giants Squad

Position	Name	#	Name	#	Name	#
Backs	P.Randall	21	E.Brush	10	A.Farrugia - C	18
Half Backs	P.Monahan	28	T.Hetherington	9	N.Barr	8
Centreline			R.Beeson	6
Half Forwards	Y.Bonner	27	J.Dal Pos	7	E.Bennetts	22
Forwards	D.Gisu	30	C.Staunton	13	C.Bernardi	4
Followers	E.McKinnon	23	A.Parker	3	A.Eva	2
Interchange	L.Stephenson	12	H.Zreika	24	L.Whiteley	15
	C.Gum	26	B.Perry	19
Emergencies	T.Mackrill	32	M.Collier	14

In: - P.Monahan, D.Gisu, H.Zreika

Out: - J.Hicks (Injured), J.Barclay (Injured), I.Nielsen (Omitted) 

Geelong Cats Squad

Position	Name	#	Name	#	Name	#
Backs	C.Blakeway	4	R.Goring	44	M.McMahon	24
Half Backs	M.Hickey - C	18	M.McDonald	11	D.Taylor	27
Centreline			R.Cranston	30
Half Forwards	J.Ivey	5	M.Boyd	26	S.Van De Heuvel	27
Forwards	K.Darby	8	P.McWilliams	23	D.Orr	2
Followers	E.Hoare	46	R.Garing	12	O.Purcell	16
Interchange	A.O'Connor	14	M.Clifford	7	H.Burchell	3
	J.Crockett-Grills	6	M.Keryk	45
Emergencies	M.Fogas	13	G.Clarke	17

In: - S.Van De Heuvel, A.O'Connor, H.Burchell

Out: - R.Caris (Omitted), G.Rankin (Omitted), G.Clarke (Omitted)

Melbourne vs Adelaide Crows, Saturday 16th March 4:45pm at Casey Fields 

Melbourne Squad

 

Position	Name	#	Name	#	Name	#
Backs	M.Downie	2	H.Cordner	21	K.Smith	13
Half Backs	S.Lampard	8	C.Phillips	35	C.Emonson	11
Centreline			E.O'Dea	5
Half Forwards	M.Gay	3	K.Hore	10	S.Scott - C	12
Forwards	E.Zanker	29	T.Cunningham	1	A.Newman	16
Followers	L.Pearce	15	L.Mithen	14	K.Paxman	4
Interchange	B.Jakobsson	7	T.Hanks	28	M.Guerin	22
	A.Kemp	36	S.Heath	30
Emergencies	J.Hickey	31	B.Patterson	24

In: - A.Kemp

Out: - B.Patterson

“Ducky? I’m not really sure, it’s just a family nickname I was given as a child. You might have to ask my mother! However, one of my earliest memories is of my brother teaching me how to solo on the run in the back garden when I was like three or four years old. He had me running around my mother’s washing basket which was almost the same height as me!”

And so begins the interview with Ailish Considine, recruited by the Adelaide Crows last year after she impressed enough to catch the eye of recruiters at the CrossCoders program. Like so many before her, Ailish has a story of curiosity which became desire, commitment and now success.

Her journey began in Ireland, “playing with West Clare Waves at home was really the first time I was introduced to playing the game. Rosie Currane recruited a few of us to play a tournament in November 2017 because her brother Mike had organized it. Obviously the Irish girls already playing Australian football over in Australia made me more aware of the AFLW.”

 

Last year, AFL Cairns lost its annual AFL Premiership match to fierce rival, Townsville. After a proud history of hosting pre-season cup AFL matches, the city received a VFL match in 2010 between the Gold Coast Suns and the Bendigo Bombers (affiliated then with Essendon). 

From 2011 to 2018, Cazalys Stadium then hosted AFL Premiership matches featuring the Gold Coast Suns – a regular, linked heavily to the club’s talent academy in Cairns. Their opponents, Richmond, Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne, put on a show which captivated Cairns’ audiences on and off the field – but now that match is gone and questions remain as to the impact that will have on the local game, especially at grassroots level.

But four past and present VFL/AFL players use their knowledge of their time involved in Cairns footy, and on the bigger stage, to consider the state of Cairns footy – past, present and future.