World Footy News

The number three ranked (WFN USFooty Top 10 Polls) Baltimore Washington Eagles (BWE) have won the 2007 Eastern Australian Football League Premiership, suggesting they are the best team on the East Coast for 2007. The Eagles have won 11 games in a row, which includes a 5-0 record in 2007. The EAFL Premiership was finalised last weekend with the Eagles beating the Philadelphia Hawks 98 to 17 in Philadelphia to finish 4-0 in EAFL play. The New York Magpies (5 in the poll) finished second with their only loss being to the Eagles at home. Boston (8) finished third after losing to the Eagles in Washington and failing to hold off the Magpies' last quarter come-back in New York last weekend. The Hawks finished fourth with one win over the North Carolina Tigers in Washington DC. After their strong finish to 2006, BWE still had plenty to prove but knocking off New York will surely make the USFooty community take notice.

Samoan-born forward, Aaron Edwards, was the stand out forward in today's AFL semi-final between North Melbourne and Hawthorn. In a match when all eyes were on the Hawks' twin towers of Lance "Buddy" Franklin and Jarryd Roughead, the "recycled" Edwards booted four goals and launched himself skyward to pull in one of the 2007 season's great marks. The forward is one of those rare success stories where a player is let go by a club (in this case West Coast) and plies his trade in a state league (the VFL), and is thrown a lifeline by a different AFL club. Edwards rewarded the Roos with his four which were the equal top contribution (with on-baller Brent Harvey) in a relatively low scoring game as North Melbourne redeemed themselves for last week's annihilation at the hands of Geelong, defeating Hawthorn 14.9 (93) to 8.12 (60). North now get a crack at Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium and Collingwood face the daunting task of Geelong, probably before close to a sell-out crowd of 100,000 at the MCG - the only risk to that being if Pies fans don't believe they have a genuine chance to winning.

AFL Samoa intends using Edwards as their inspiration for young Samoan boys taking to our sport and such heroics from the player can only help that cause. There aren't too many men of his size, carrying that much muscle bulk, who can leap high above a pack - maybe one day AFL scouts will turn their eyes to the South Pacific island to see if there's any more such talent.

Collingwood tonight steamed home to win their first game against the Eagles in Perth since 1992 after scores were locked at 10.12 (72) each at the end of the fourth quarter. For only the second time since the system was brought in to decide drawn finals, extra time was needed - two additional mini-halves of five minutes each. Young international recruit Martin Clarke was involved in a crucial play in the closing minutes of the dramatic match.

After fifteen highly entertaining rounds of Australian Rules Football the 2007 Ontario Australian Football League regular season has ended, making way for the 2007 OAFL Finals series to begin. Five of the nine teams will now compete for the Conacher Cup to become the 2007 OAFL premiers, while the remaining four will be forced to watch from the sidelines. The five teams competing for this year’s premiership include last year’s premiers the Toronto Eagles, the Etobicoke Kangaroos, the Broadview Hawks, the Toronto Downtown Dingos and the Hamilton Wildcats.

Two Samoan footballers, Fia Tootoo and Chris Teniselli will face off against each other this weekend in the Ellinbank & District Football League Grand Final, a country league about an hour's drive east of Melbourne. Teniselli represented Samoa at the 2005 International Cup whilst Tootoo was alongside him in 2005 and part of the inaugural team in 2002. He was also named in both All-star teams.

Both players are former team-mates at the Moorabbin Kangaroos, although come Saturday, Teniselli will pull on a Catani jumper whilst Tootoo lines up for Nyora. According to Michael Roberts, AFL Samoa’s Game Development Manager, "both lads can play. Chris is one of my favourite players and should make the best team in 2008. Fia should be our captain next year". The game will be held at Cora Lynn.

Saturday night saw the announcement of the Atlanta Kookaburras' "Team of the Decade" to coincide with the USAFL's anniversary celebrations. It was also a time for reflection and acknowledgement of those that have made the Kookaburras one of the more revered clubs in the US.

Former club President and club founder Mike Powers and current President Wayne Kraska heralded over proceedings recalling who, what and when things had happened since 1998 when Mike had first organized training sessions at Dobbins Air Force base in Marietta GA.

With the help of club historian Marty Hyder many stories of the past were touched on from how the team was named to how the Nationals came to Atlanta and why it was such a success. A surprise for some maybe was Steven Thomson who only played in 2001 was named Head Coach of the team.

Details of the full team can be found at the Atlanta Kookaburras website.

On October 6th 2007, AFL Canada will be hosting the touring Convicts Australian Football Team from Australia, as part of the Ontario AFL's Grand Final Day. The Australian Convicts are a team made up of players from varying levels of amateur from all around Australia whose charter is to promote and develop Australian football internationally, while having a good time seeing the sights. The combination of these two games promises to make this year's OAFL Finals Day one of the greatest spectacles of Canadian footy on the 2007 calendar. Date: October 6th, 2007 Time: 10:00am Location: Humber North College, Toronto, Ontario worldfootynews.com welcomes Salv Capoferri as our new reporter for Canada.

The message seems to be slowly getting through (at least in New York and Philadelphia) that the Aussie punters in the NFL are from Australian Football and not Rugby. The number of times the guys are referred to as a “former Australian rugby player” have much decreased over the last couple of years. Listening online to some of the audio during the NFL preseason games, it seems that many of the announcers are doing their homework on the game. Not all of them though, as the great John Madden still managed to link Rocca with Rugby on a Monday night football broadcast that went live across the nation. But even then the Philadelphia Eagles message boards had many posts by US fans mocking the sports casting senior citizen’s gaffe.

The latest evidence that the media at least are becoming aware of the difference can be seen in an article yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware newspaper, The News Journal:

Reno Mahe doesn't have all the facts straight yet, but he thinks he'll be ready to return punts -- in prime time. Mahe said Wednesday he caught punts kicked by "the Australian rugby guy" -- Sav Rocca -- at the NovaCare Complex in preparation for Monday night's game against Washington. Rocca, of course, isn't exactly a "rugby guy." More like a legend of Australian rules football. The Eagles hope Mahe is more accurate about his synopsis that catching punts is like "riding a bike."

Lets hope there is a flow-on effect, and with a greater understanding of the game, more Americans will seek out Australian Football locally.

With the EU Cup 9s tournament kicking off in a few days, we take a quick look at the Czech and Dutch teams for the tournament, as well as a look over the team lists for the remaining sides. The twelfth team for the tournament is to be a scratch team of extra players of teams with more than 15 making the trip, as well as a few from other countries not represented.

September has arrived for 2007 and Australia is gripped with AFL finals fever. For international footy fans it is also an exciting period as the countdown to the 2008 International Cup intensifies. Should the event be held on the proposed dates, round 1 will kick off on 27 August and the event will conclude with the finals being played on 6 September. Below we look at recent weather trends in Melbourne in order to get some idea of next year’s conditions. We also look at previous International Cup venues, and examine those which organisers may look to use for 2008. Adding to the excitement, the AFL have released the logo for next year's tournament. It is an adapted version of the 2002/05 logo and can be viewed in this story.

Recently we've reported on the Canada versus US women's footy match (see North American women's footy on SEN and US Freedom dominate in first women's international) and the Tiwi Islands girl who won the Yarra League U13 Best and Fairest (see Young Tiwi girl beats the boys to win junior league B&F). It's all part of the rapid growth of the game in this demographic. In Melbourne throughout the winter my local paper has had regular reports on the South Mornington Tigerettes, who play in the Victorian Women’s Football League. It is an area where those who may have traditionally thought of it as a male domain on-field have had their perceptions challenged.

There could be exponential growth in the near future and women's footy is certainly closer to being in a reasonable position to have a World Cup with full Australian involvement, than the men's game. One of the countries that might be ready for that is Papua New Guinea, which has also been proactive with its development of women’s footy which we touched on in PNG Representative preparations in place. Now we look at the recent history of the women's game up there in Australia’s closest northern neighbour.

1. San Diego Lions (10 #1 Votes) (6-0)
2. Denver Bulldogs (5-1)
3. Baltimore Washington Eagles (5-0) (UP from 4)
4. Golden Gate Roos (1-1)
5. New York Magpies (4-1) (DOWN from 3)
6. Chicago United (4-1) (UP from 7)
7. Orange County Bombers (1-4) (DOWN from 6)
8. Boston Demons (2-2)
9. Atlanta Kookaburras (4-1)
10. Seattle Grizzlies (3-0) (IN)
Also receiving votes Milwaukee Bombers (3-5), Minnesota Freeze (2-1) (OUT), and Nashville Kangaroos (6-1).

As we move another week closer to the 2007 USFooty National Championship Tournament in Louisville KY, things are heating up in USFooty. The last few weeks has seen some big games that have had a large impact in the World Footy News USFooty Top 10 Poll. No. 1 San Diego has remained undefeated in 2007, most recently putting away Las Vegas in Vegas. No. 2 Denver has just one loss to its name and that to San Diego in the Western Regional Tourny. The big movers in the top 5 were the No. 3 Baltimore Washington Eagles who have won 11 games on the trot. Golden Gate has remained at 4 with their only loss to San Diego. Rounding out the top 5, the New York Magpies have fallen from 3 after losing to the Baltimore Washington Eagles in New York. The rest of the top 10 is Chicago United who has steadily increased its ranking to 6, the Orange County Bombers with only one win but one of the toughest schedules in footy. At No. 8 is the Boston Demons who lost by a goal to the New York Magpies in the last game of the season. Atlanta has remained steady at 9 and an excellent 4-1 record. The top 10 is held up by the Seattle Grizzlies who enter after an impressive win over Chicago United in Seattle.