World Footy News

Article Courtesy AFL Europe

Only 4 days remain before 350 players from 15 nations descend on Cork, Ireland, and the first ball is bounced at one of the world’s premier international football spectacles, with AFL Europe’s Euro Cup 2018 earmarked to be the best in the events eleven-year history.

The city on the southwest coast of Ireland will play host to 64 matches on the day at the Cork Institute of Technology sports facilities, as Europe’s premier national teams face off in the nine-a-side format chasing the title of champions of Europe.
That crown currently belongs to England in both men’s and women’s divisions after their Dragonslayers (men’s team) & Vixens (women’s team) both took the spoils in Bordeaux at the 2017 edition of the tournament.

Lions from across Europe descended on Denmark last weekend with the second instalment of the Lions Cup. The tournament was created and commenced in Lyon, France, in 2017, with the tournament decided by for and against results. The North London Lions were deemed inaugural winners. Last weekend it was the Odense Lions from Denmark taking the title.

The tournament saw the host team, Odense Lions, the North London Lions and the ALFA Lions from France competing in a three-way round-robin. Odense won both of its matches on the day to take the cup ahead of the North London Lions in second place and the ALFA Lions third.

One of the more interesting teams headed to Ireland for this weekend’s Euro Cup in Cork is the newest Australian Football entity in Israel, the Tel Aviv Cheetahs. Whilst they are a genuine new team on the world stage, based in a city not known or its connection to the game, in truth, they are a phoenix rising.

The team that runs out in Cork to do battle with the best teams Europe has to offer owes much of its existence to the Peace Team, formed in 2008, and more recently their incarnation as the Jerusalem Peace Lions. But make no mistake - this team from Tel aviv is itsown entity, grown out of its own grit, sweat and determination.

After having performed admirably at the 2017 Euro Cup in Bordeaux, France, where they managed to finish in 11th place overall with an historic win against Sweden, the Lions returned to Israel to a period of change. With key players leaving Jerusalem to travel elsewhere on life paths, some relocated to Tel Aviv and, inevitably, a footy got kicked in a park somewhere. From there, the Tel Aviv Cheetahs came to life.

The USAFL's National Championships will see seven divisions of men's and women's footy in Racine, Wisconsin over the coming weekend, October 13-14 at the SCORe Complex. 

This year's tournament features 45 teams spanning seven divisions, representing nearly forty clubs across the USA and Canada.  Two women's divisions, four men's divisions and one men's reserves division. 

Everyone will be out to hunt down Golden Gate who took out the 2017 titles in both the Men's and Women's Division 1.  And those divisions are very strong with six stand alone clubs in each all eager to take that title.  

 

And now for something completely different....Footy has long inspired song writers to try and capture the games essence and put it to words accompanied by an appropriate tune.  None bigger than the likes of Up There Cazaly and One Day in September. 

Adam Western contacted us this week to share his take on the footy anthem.  His song had it's humble beginnings "in the garage of the drummers house(as all good songs do)."

"We had been at the local football in Albany that day (coastal town on the south coast of Western Australia) and the umpires had been particularly disappointing ,we were jamming away making up lyrics about the game and came up with the song Holding The ball".

"We think it has a chance of becoming the seminal anthem for our game , as the term "holding the Ball" or just simply "ball" is surely the most commonly used term a spectator uses whilst watching our great game.Think about it when you watch the game, It really is the catch cry of the game" Western told us.

Rumour has it that the West Coast Eagles Josh Kennedy and Jarrod Schofield are listed among high profile fans of the song.

Euro Cup 2018 – German girls ready for tournament debut

Fresh from a highly competitive AFLG season, the vast progression of the game in Germany will be on show in Cork this October as the German Eagles women make their maiden voyage to a Euro Cup competition, heading to Ireland alongside their 2017 bronze-medal winning male counterparts.

Leading the side as the inaugural female skipper, Ioanna Kopasaki, who says that the lack of experience is going to be no barrier to her side’s performance, and if anything, can allow the Eagles to be at their best without any burden of expectations.

Last Saturday, Austria came alive to the sounds of footy with the 2018 Austrian Challenge at Rugby Donau Park in Vienna. The Vienna Galahs hosted the Styrian DownUnderdogs. The following report from Austria, provided by the DownUnderdogs, looks at the game.

Last Saturday saw the first game between two clubs from Austria since 2013. The Vienna Galahs, a phoenix club from the old Vienna Kangaroos, invited the Dogs from Graz to fight for the 2018 Austrian Challenge trophy. On a early sunny afternoon, the two teams had a warm-up session together and kicked off almost on time.

After an absence from the Euro Cup for a couple of years by the Valkyries and Vikings, both teams are  mounting a two pronged assault upon Cork.

Maybe even hoping to instill a little "dread" into the Irish and other cup contestants as in history as did those dragon headed ships when they appeared on the horizon.

The women’s side will once again be led by Odense Lionesses veteran and superstar Maria Falkesgaard.
 

The new NTFL season got under way this weekend with a set of relatively close games. Southern Districts Crocs got their flag defence off to a solid start, whilst last season’s wooden-spooners, the Palmerston Magpies, grabbed a huge first round win. The Nightcliff Tigers and Wanderers also got the season off to a flyer with first up wins.

Darwin’s TIO Stadium played host to a triple-header to kick off the season, whilst the Palmerston Magpies played host to Waratah at Asbuild Oval.

In a perfect start to their season, the Palmerston Magpies held on in a low scoring match. Bounding out of the blocks with a four goal to nil opening quarter, the Magpies had Waratah under pressure from the outset. Despite a second quarter comeback by Waratah, the Magpies still held sway at the main break. The second half was more even, but Waratah just couldn’t bridge the gap, despite keeping the Magpies goalless in the final quarter. Palmerston held on to win by three goals.

The Russian domestic season has been completed with the two St. Petersburg teams – the Cats and Tigers – doing battle to decide the 2018 title. The following media release from the St. Petersburg Cats details the event.

On a cloudy September 23nd, St. Petersburg footy fans gathered onto SKA stadium to see the Grand Final of St. Petersburg 2018 Cup. There were two opponents – the St. Petersburg Cats and Northern Tigers – and both had won 2 games during 2018 season, so a deciding battle had to be played.

During the first quarter, Cats started only with 8 players on the pitch due to the late arrival one of their teammates. However, even with this handicap, the Tigers were struggling to stop their opponent’s offense, resulting in a 21-point lead to the Cats’ by the first break. After that, the white-and-blue team continued to develop their advantage, scoring one goal after another. Tigers tried to make their comeback in the last quarter, but it was too late for them. The final score was 91 to 32, with St. Petersburg Cats being declared the champions of 2018 Saint Petersburg Cup.

The bi-annual tour of Under 17 talent from St Marys Sporting Club in Geelong has been completed for 2018. The club’s long association with South Africa, and particularly the work of AFL South Africa, has seen students tour three provinces in what is described as a “life changing experience” for those students.

Other tours for St Mary’s students include Ireland and Cape York Peninsula communities in Australia. The South African tour features a series of matches and clinics for kids across the Western Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and North West provinces in association with AFL South Africa and AFL FootyWILD.

 

 Ryan Davidson from the www.afl.com.au website has reported on the eye-catching performances of a couple of potential Irish recruits after they impressed at last week’s NAB AFL Draft Combine. Held at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne (formerly Etihad Stadium), the Irish lads held their own and more up against the best of the prospective AFL draft prospects for 2018.

IRISH prospects Anton Tohill and Mark Keane believe they've shown enough to deserve a spot on an AFL list, and several clubs are interested in signing the promising duo. 

After impressing at the Dublin Combine last December and at the AFL Academy's camp in Florida in January, the youngsters earned an invitation to this week's NAB AFL Draft Combine, and they didn't disappoint.