World Footy News

Round 13 of the DAFL saw an upset and a derby as the featured events. The Copenhagen Barracudas triumphed over their capital city rivals, the Giants, whilst the Aalborg Kangaroos upset the top team, the Farum Cats.

An eight-goal opening quarter to the scoring end saw the Barracudas set their match up early. A 43-point quarter-time advantage for the Barracudas was clawed back to just 18 points by the main break as the Giants worked themselves back into the battle. However, the Barracudas kicked another eight goals in the third quarter to effectively decide the match, leading by 55 points by the final change. The Giants could not generate any real advantage in the final quarter and despite taking the quarter by two points, they still fell by 53 points.

The 2018 SARFL Grand Final will see the Glasgow Sharks take on the Edinburgh Bloods after the weekend’s finals battle saw the Bloods down the Kingdom Kangaroos by 43 points. It is a fitting result as both the Sharks and Bloods have dominated the home and away season.

The Bloods led for the match and continued to build as the game went on. An undermanned Kangaroos team fought to the end, winning the final quarter with five goals. However, it was a case of too little too late to stop the Edinburgh team from taking the match and the grand final place.

The Bloods lead by 16 points at the first break and opened that up to 28 points by half time. By the end of the match, the Bloods had put enough distance between the two teams to withstand a Roo fightback.

In a revamped FAFL season which has seen a three round and finals format, as well as the Turku Dockers electing their first ever all-Finnish board, the on-field action has seen a marked difference in competitiveness. After the dominance in recent seasons of the Helsinki Heatseekers, either by pure talent or dwindling opposition, this season is shaping as one where each team could potentially take the title.

Last weekend, the second round of the season was played at Parkin Kenttä in Turku. Across the three-way round robin format, all three teams enjoyed a win after the rain cleared to allow some good footy. The Turku Dockers upset the Helsinki Heatseekers, the Waasa Wombats then downed the Dockers and the Heatseekers regained their composure after the earlier shock loss to defeat the Wombats.

These results, following on from the first round results, see the Heatseekers on top of the ladder, but they are not invincible – as the Dockers proved. Earlier this season the June tournament was played in Helsinki with the home team winning both matches against the Dockers and Wombats. The Wombats downed the Dockers in the other match.

The recent tour of Ireland by the USA Revolution national team in playing two #International Tests against the Irish Warriors has had only limited ramifications as far as the World Footy News World Rankings are concerned. Because Ireland received 3.00 *Home Advantage Rating Points the Rating Gap for both matches (Ireland won both) was +/-10.29^ and therefore No Advantage was gained or lost by either nation.

 For international footy fans new to WFN World Rankings see below for the relevant rules.

 *To reflect home ground / country advantage the home team has 3 ranking points added to their total for the purposes of the points exchange calculation. This is applied to one off or two team series, it generally is not applied to tournaments with multiple teams, as the home ground advantage is often diminished as teams experience neutral games, often stay for extended periods and the home side often has a heavy burden in organisation.

Hawthorn have named Conor Nash to make his debut for Hawthorn against Geelong at the MCG on Saturday afternoon (Melbourne time). The 197cm Irish rookie from County Meath has played two seasons (25 games) with Box Hill and has had an Aussie rules education in a number of positions in defence, forward and on the wing in that time.

Coach Alistair Clarkson today told the media “We told him in front of the group, but also with his parents on Wednesday. I knew he was in the car with his family so I made the call then and that was pretty special. His mum wanted to do cartwheels”

The AFL Players association have released the "2018 Multicultural Map" which shows current AFL and AFLW players that were either born outside Australia or have one parent born outside Australia.

From Austria to Zimbabwe, there are 48 countries represented on the 2018 Multicultural Map — the fourth of its kind.

Players highlighted in green were born outside Australia, while those in red have a parent born in another country. Therefore, some players may be listed against more than one country.

You can check it out here.

Round 21 of the 2018 AFL Season kicks off Friday night Melbourne time at the Docklands Stadium with Essendon hosting co-tenant St Kilda

The full broadcast schedule for the round can be seen below.

In addition to the TV networks you can also subscribe to the Watch AFL service that will give you live access to all the matches and more (outside Australia only).

You can access that service by clicking on the link here or the Watch AFL promo shot on the left to register and by then paying the subscription fee.

Right now Watch AFL is offering a Mid-Season Pass a big discount on the regular season pass. This pass includes all AFL Premiership season matches, the Finals Series plus access to FOX FOOTY content.

 

 

NTFL Press Release:

The 2018/19 TIO NTFL season will start with a bang when defending premiers Southern Districts play a grand final rematch against the Darwin Buffaloes on the first Saturday night of the season.

This is just part of an exciting TIO NTFL Men’s Premier League season that was announced with the fixture release by AFL Northern Territory (AFLNT) today.

The season will kick off on Friday 5 October and is scheduled to culminate with the grand final on Saturday 16 March 2019.

This year the AFLNT Football Operations team worked in collaboration with clubs, with each club given an opportunity to have input and share feedback on last year’s fixture and also put forward key club priorities for the upcoming season.

The visiting team from the USA came up against the Irish Warriors in the final match of their tour on the weekend at Islandbridge, Dublin. The tour has been a huge boost for both national teams and an enormous success. Following is the match report from the AFL Ireland Facebook page, looking both at the game and the recognition of the many people who brought such an event together.

After a rousing 3/4 time huddle, with their backs to the wall, the Warriors came out hard in the last quarter and every player to a man stepped up to claw back the deficit and drive ahead with an outstanding 5 goal quarter. 

USA Revolution players are devastated after coming so close having played their best footy of the tour but the weeks exertions ( 3 games in 6 days) definitely seemed to take their toll in the last 10 mins as the Warriors stepped into overdrive. Still, Revolution fought to the very end and were out on their feet at the final siren.

Irishwoman Aoife O’Gorman (previously known as Aoife Murphy) played Gaelic Football (GAA) and Hurling through school, university and beyond.

She played GAA against AFLW GWS Giants star Cora Staunton in the late 1990s back in Ireland in a number of high-profile matches for their counties.

“We won some big games and lost some; it’s a bit mad to see her playing at the top level out here in footy”, O’Gorman said of her time with County Waterford.

They won’t be playing finals footy in 2018, but the Frankfurt Redbacks have ensured that they secured fifth spot on the premiership ladder with a resounding win against the Württemberg Giants. In the only match for Round 9, the Redbacks gave their home fans the ideal finish to their season.

After crashing out of the starting barriers at breakneck speed with a seven goal to nil opening quarter, the Redbacks simply kept the momentum and pressure going across all four quarters to run out victors by 141 points. With Jay Calder kicking six goal for the Redbacks, and Jonas Petrenz a handy five goals, the Giants were never allowed to build any momentum to get back into the game.

The Redbacks will finish with four wins for the season along with the Rheinland Lions, but with a very poor percentage. The Lions would need to lose their final match by an earth-shattering margin against the rampant Dockers in Hamburg to be overtaken by the Redbacks. Whilst not impossible – the Dockers have been merciless this season – it is unlikely.

In the wake of yesterday’s AFLCNE Grand Final, won for the fifth consecutive season by the Manchester Mozzies (see FIVE..!!! Manchester Mozzies Raise Premiership Bar), the league has announced their Tam Of The Season to recognise excellence across the five competing clubs throughout the 2018 season.

Not surprisingly, the team features six Manchester Mozzies, but all teams are represented. As expected, AFLCNE Best & Fairest winner, Matthew Whiteley from the Huddersfield Rams has been selected as has the competitions leading goal kicker, Andrew Walkden from the Mozzies.

The AFLCNE Team Of The season selections are: