World Footy News

Riley Brettell from AFL Europe reports that the Swedish city of Norrtälje will host the 2019 Euro Cup. The city is home to 2016 SAFF premiers, the Norrtälje Dockers. The decision will be an enormous boost for the game in Sweden, but also neighbouring Scandinavian, Baltic and northern European nations. 

AFL Europe can today confirm the date and location for one of the feature events on the 2019 European football calendar, with the 9-a-side Euro Cup to be held in the picturesque city of Norrtalje in Sweden, hosted by AFL Sweden in conjunction with AFL Europe on Saturday, June 29th. 

 

The harbour city lies one hour north of Stockholm and is known for its small-town feeling, cobblestoned streets and buildings which date back to the 1700’s and will set an idyllic scene for the annual tournament, that will see men’s and women’s national teams from around the continent competing for the crown of European Champions in the heart of the Swedish summer.

As the most improved team in the AFL Middle East competition last season, the Abu Dhabi Falcons might have decided that the season was over and they had earned a rest. Not so. The team decided to have one last hurrah and travelled to Croatia to take on their national team - the Croatian Knights – for the general reason, as the club states (tongue in cheek), ‘because we can.”

As if taking on their own UAE teams – the Dragons, Bulls and Dingoes – was not challenging enough, the Falcons opted to test their strength on a truly successful championship team. The Croatian Knights finished in first place of their Division Two draw at last year’s International Cup in Melbourne. That is on top of having won the AFL Europe Euro Cup in both 2010 and 2015 as well as having been second three times and third three times since 2008. They are a powerful Australian Football nation.

The following press release from AFL England raises awareness of the upcoming event to fight Motor Neurone Disease. Hosted by the Wandsworth Demos at their home grounds at Clapham Common (the ‘C’), the event links to events here in Australia where former Essendon great and Melbourne Demons’ coach, Neale Daniher, is the brave face of the charity across the AFL world.

FightMND Charity Day ‘Big Freeze on the C’ Takes Place 9th June

Event features three AFL London fixtures, and Clapham Cubs Junior Session
June 1, 2018 – On the 9th June, the Wandsworth Demons are hosting their third annual ‘Big Freeze
on the C’ to raise money for Australian charity FightMND. The event will feature three matches,
with the Demons taking on the London Swans in the AFL London Women’s Conference, Men’s
Conference and Men’s Premiership.

Back in 2012, World Footy News interviewed four indigenous teenagers about their football journey and where they might want to be one day (see From Paradise To The Pinnacle Of Success). With the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round of AFL football to take place this weekend across Australia – at grassroots level and the highest in the and – one of those young men looks back at his journey: in football and life, through indigenous eyes.

Josh Kyle now lives and plays footy in Melbourne – seemingly a million miles away from his spiritual and geographical home. His journey has been fascinating, yet it is one that many young indigenous players take to live a dream, and many more want to.

He is a born and bred Cairns boy, from Far North Queensland, first playing Australian football for Pyramid Power in the AFL Cairns competition and being a part of their Under 16 premiership team in 2013. But there is a strong sense that his journey could yet take him further than he ever dreamed.

With the commencement of the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round this weekend, the following videos provide the perfect opportunity to be "standing together to celebrate indigenous excellence" - the binding statement that sums up the identity of the round.

This first video looks at highlights from some of the greatest indigenous footballers to have ever played the game. As a highlights reel, it is an absolute showcase of what makes our game so special. The second video looks at one of the legendary indigenous footballers in Graham "Polly" Farmer, who changed the game forever and forged a path for future indigenous footballers to follow.

[youtube:Vk1rN-EYwIQ]

With the weekend's Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round about to kick off, the AFL has released the magnificent club jumper designs. The following link takes you to the AFL's website http://www.afl.com.au with a specific page dedicated to the designs and stories that go with each club's jumpers.

Included in the snapshot are the design pictures, the name of the artist who deigned them and a small explanation of the symbolic story lines attached.The round starts tomorrow in Sydney when the Swans take on Carlton. The feature match of the weekend will see the Essendon Bombers take on the Richmond Tigers in the match billed as "Dreamtime at the 'G".

To see the designs, go to: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-05-29...r-revealed

One of the healthiest signs for clubs worldwide is the development of talent from within the club. At the highest levels of the game, clubs like Carlton celebrate the Silvagni name. The names of Long, Watson, Fletcher, Hird and Daniher are iconic at Essendon. Gary Ablett returned last weekend to Kardinia Park to keep a famous Cat name alive in Geelong. Collingwood boasts names like Coventry, Collier, Daicos and Moore…and more. The name Cordner at Melbourne is legendary. The list goes on.

At club levels world-wide, the passing of the baton from father to son (or now, indeed, daughter) has seen clubs build around ‘organic” growth as families take clubs into the future.

Now, one of the youngest clubs in England, the Tyne Tees Tigers, have reached the stage where the next generation has arrived. Whilst the club now plays in the AFL Scotland SARFL competition, they are located in Newcastle, England, and their history will forever be built around that connection. This weekend, Jack Martin will join his father as a Tyne Tees Tigers player. It is a significant event in the short history of the club.

Round Five of the AFLG competition in Germany featured everything from hidings to heart stoppers. But, by the end of the weekend, the Frankfurt Redbacks had possibly made the greatest move, finding themselves a game clear inside the top four. Their win at home against the Württemberg Giants has seen them clear away from the Rheinland Lions. They will need to keep winning, however, to keep the Lions at bay as they have a poor percentage.

In their other match of the Frankfurt fixture, the Redbacks went down to the Hamburg Dockers by 57 points. To complete tri-match weekend, the Dockers were merciless against the Giants, romping away to a huge 122-point win.

The closest match of the round was in Munich. Finals hopefuls, the Munich Kangaroos and Berlin Crocs, clashed in essence for the title of favourite to meet the rampaging Dockers on grand final day. The result saw the Kangaroos hold on in a thriller by just four points to grab second place on the ladder.

The upshot from the weekend’s round of matches in Galway for the AFL Ireland Premiership saw the Belfast Redbacks race to the top of the ladder, undefeated with four wins now from four matches. Both the Galway Magpies and South Dublin Swans recorded their first wins of the season, and the Leeside Lions stumbled, losing both of their Galway clashes.

The host team had one of those cardiac days. Their opening match against the Swans was extremely tight and could easily have gone either way. In the end, the locals outlasted the Swans by just one point in a thriller. It was a great start for the Magpies and saw them open their 2018 account with a win.

In the next game, the Magpies proved that the first win was no fluke as they fought and scrapped against the Belfast Redbacks. In another heart stopper, the ‘Pies went down to the Redbacks by just two points, despite having more scoring shots. It was certainly a good result for the Redbacks, keeping them undefeated.

Last weekend saw the St. Petersburg Cup tournament played in the Russian city. Whilst it was scheduled to feature the Lazy Koalas from Moscow in a three way draw – including the St. Petersburg Cats and the visiting Helsinki Heatseekers from Finland – the Koalas were not able to make the journey. Instead, the second St. Petersburg team, the Northern Tigers, took the field.

The opening match featured the two St.Petersburg teams, the Cats and Tigers, playing for the title of “best in the city”. The game lived up to that hype with the Cats holding a determined Tigers team at bay by just nine points.

The next clash saw the visiting Helsinki Heatseekers up against the Tigers. The Heatseekers have been the most powerful team in Finland for the past few seasons, and they brought all of their skill and knowledge to the field to record a big win. In the end it was a 49-point victory to the Finnish champs. It is unclear whether or not they arrived with any Estonians in tow, but those that took the field certainly had their “A” game with them.

A desperate Kingdom Kangaroos made the daunting journey south to Newcastle to take on the Tyne Tees Tigers and chase their first win of the season. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, only ten Roos made the journey to take on a near full-strength Tiger outfit. Not much fun stopping at one challenge when you can have so many more.

But the Roos embraced the day and in the end triumphed over a willing Tyne Tees team by 43 points. The Roos were desperate to get back on the winners list as finals will only see the top three teams involved. The Tigers showed at their last home match that the trip to Newcastle is fraught with danger for teams that are not completely switched on. The Giants found that out just a few weeks ago. The Roos, however, played for their season, rather than being deterred by a road trip.

Final Scores: Kingdom Kangaroos 19 18 132 d Tyne Tees Tigers 13 11 89

The Paris Cockerels have claimed the CNFA Leo Lagrange premiership for the 2017/18 season with a resounding 106-point victory against the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes. It is the Cockerels first flag since their 2014/15 season flag. For the Coyotes, it was a day to forget, and hopefully a catalyst for a determined effort next season to lift their first flag.

The game was put away in the opening quarter. The rampant Cockerels knew the value of a fast start and that is exactly how they went about it, peppering the goals for a 67-13 lead at the first break. It was a huge quarter and immediately placed the Coyotes under massive pressure to worry about closing the gap first, much less winning.

The second quarter was tight, and low scoring after the first quarter fireworks. The Coyotes defence held firm and with more accuracy they would have won the quarter. They didn’t and the Cockerels took the quarter narrowly to lead 80-24 at the main break.