Welcome to World Footy News Saturday, September 28 2024 @ 06:52 pm ACST
The Czech AFL are hosting the first-ever Prague Cup on November the 5th - with an open invitation for all teams and players from across Europe to come for a great end-of-season trip to one of Europe's top tourist destinations.
The USAFL National Championships in Milwaukee earlier this month was a huge weekend for footy in the land of the “stars and stripes” for not only the tremendous organizational efforts by the host club the Milwaukee Bombers but also it gave genuine notice that women’s footy had also found a place in the USA. The inaugural National Championship for Women’s footy took place with what was hoped to be four teams but ended up with three. However the intensity and desire for success was still very evident with the prestige of being crowned the first ever USAFL National Champions on the line.
International Rules tours have been played at Under 17 AFL/GAA level back to 1981. However this month an under 23 Australian Amateur Football Council
team completed its first tour of the Emerald Isle.
The u23 Amateurs played 4 matches against an array of Irish teams from Club to a University rep side, Banks-Army team to the All Ireland team itself.
Ryan Bartz, an exchange student from New York, was selected in the Green & Gold Australian Women's football team at the Australian University Games late last month. Although selection is honorary as there is no international competition to play in, it is a major achievement for Bartz who had only played two games of Australian Rules football prior to the Australian University Games.
WFN has reported on International rules matches around the world. Apart from the AFL v GAA senior and under 17 matches, International Rules matches have been played by amateur clubs, increasingly on an annual basis, in at least 23 cities across Australia, Ireland, USA, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, China, Singapore and Japan. That is probably not an exhaustive list. This article reports on the first series that we know of in England, where Reading, west of London, has become the scene of what is set to be a regular 3 match annual series.
St Anthony's GAA club in Reading and the Reading Roos share adjacent grounds that has helped forge the partnership. They are also two of the more progressive clubs in developing under age football in Gaelic football and Aussie rules in England.
Melbourne newspaper the 'Herald Sun' reported on October 19th that Michael Ablett (relative of the famous AFL family) is moving to the US with his fiancée whom he will marry next year. Included in the report is a suggestion that he will coach fledgling US Footy club the Las Vegas Gamblers who are yet to play an official match.
At World Footy News we're keen to see the game of footy grow internationally. A key factor will always be the health of the game "at home". Recreational Football could well prove to be an important factor in that health. 
AFL club Melbourne recently made the news after announcing it was investigating playing an exhibition match in the Chinese metropolis Tianjin. The Demons are now about six weeks away from announcing a five-year development plan, supported by the City of Melbourne and the Tianjin regional government, according to General Manager of Business Development Shane Anderson.
The Bakersfield Barbarians founder Leigh Hickling knew his Christmas had come early when the fledgling club's first set of jumpers arrived. All those well established around the world started somewhere, and maybe when those first Guernseys arrived was when they really felt that it was all really happening - or maybe that came the first time they copped a big bump. There's no doubt the uniforms look great and now the team awaits their imminent first game.
The 2005 AFL International Rules Series will be televised in the following locations:
Australia
Elsewhere in the World
UPDATE:
Advice from AFANA is that when they last checked there would be no international coverage besides Ireland and on ABC Asia Pacific, although there would probably be some sort of coverage,
radio and or delayed video, on the AFL web site. However, AFANA are also chasing news that the games may be shown, delayed by 2 days, on US satellite TV. AFANA will have the latest information on their site as soon as it is available.
Just a quick note to say that our RSS feed is working again, having been out of action for a few weeks due to a problem when we changed servers. For those unfamiliar, RSS feeds allow news headlines to be sent straight to your email or RSS reader.
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