World Footy News

Tom Rockliff's retirement from AFL footy, announced today, might otherwise be just another name in the end-of-year lists of players from all clubs hanging up their boots. However, Rockliff will say goodbye to the game with an achievement not done by any other player, and possibly never to be repeated - though we hope not.

Rockliff's journey of 208 games with both the Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide has been decorated with All-Australian selection, captaincy at Brisbane and a Rising Star nomination in 2010. But he retires as the player who has played for premiership points in three countries - Australia, New Zealand and China - as well as an International Rules match in Ireland.

No other player has had a career with so many overseas games across multiple countries.

2021 Euro Cup Cancelled.

The AFL Europe Commission has reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the Euro Cup 2021 tournament that was provisionally to be played on October 16th in the Netherlands.

"Ultimately, the AFL Europe Commission is not satisfied that a safe travel or playing environment is achievable in the current climate and we believe it would be irresponsible to go ahead with a multi-country tournament in October."

 "AFL Europe appreciates the importance of Euro Cup. Tournaments like the Euro Cup play a huge role in growing the game in Europe and are particularly important after a long period of limited footy. This made the decision to cancel the 2021 event even harder."

"AFL Europe remains committed to helping all participating countries and leagues of Australian Football in Europe, and will support regional tournaments, that comply with local coronavirus restrictions and guidelines, that are held in place of the Euro Cup in October."

"We would also like to take this time to share that we are planning and are hopeful of getting back to our regular events calendar in 2022, which would see the return of international tournaments."

"This would include the return of the Fitzpatrick Cup in February, Champions League in April or May, ANZAC Cup in April, Euro Cup in June and the AFL’s International Cup* in August. If the International Cup does not run in 2022, then AFL Europe will host a European Championships in its place."

*The AFL are expected to make an announcement regarding the next International Cup within the next few months.

 

First Match of Inaugural Bulgarian AFL Season

The Bulgarian AFL has officially begun with the round one match played between Sofia Magpies and Varna Demons on Saturday 26th June 2021, in Aksakovo with Sofia Magpies defeating the hosts to claim the first official points in the Bulgarian league.  Bulgaria AFL kicked off back in 2019 with friendlies with Zagreb Hawks and Festival of Footy matches in Sept 2020. See World Footy News articles: April 2019 & September 2020.

 

Australian Football in Switzerland is back! Round one this weekend

July 1, 2021

With the latest easing of the COVID-19 restrictions, AFL Switzerland have been able to go ahead and confirm the fixtures and structure for the 2021 season.

Since full contact sports in groups of up to 50 people has been allowed for some weeks now, all four Switzerland based clubs have been able to resume regular training and are keen to get back to finally playing some footy.

After two AFLW seasons where she played 11 games, Dani Marshall has been informed she will not be offered a contract next season at the Western Bulldogs.  The long kicking American has a proven goal kicking ability up forward, but has had to spend much of her time in the AFLW as a backup ruck, mostly off the bench.

“We thank Dani for her dedication and contributions to the Club over the past two seasons“  Bulldogs’ General Manager of Women’s Football Debbie Lee said.  “Dani was the first American AFLW player in the league which was ground-breaking.

 Marshall 29, has a good leap, but at 168cm she would be one of the shortest required regularly to take the ruck duties and this has given her little opportunity to lock down a position. 

Make no mistake. For Cairns to remain a viable AFL destination it needed a catalyst match to build a future on. It came last night when their 2021 AFL premiership match saw St Kilda hosting the Adelaide Crows. Whilst skill level was questionable at times, the excitement of a grandstand finish made up for that – setting Cairns alight.

It is already well enough documented that Cairns lost its annual premiership match after their Round 1 fixture in 2018 was almost washed away. Southern rival, Townsville, was handed the 2019 match and Cairns had to pray for miracles to get their match back. It came in the form, ironically, of COVID-19 when the AFL was forced to relocate four premiership fixtures to a new hub and Cairns was ready, eager and determined to grab opportunity when it knocked.

(Image Credit: The Age)

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Whether as a commentator, player, fan, media maestro for the USAFL or any of a myriad of roles within Australian Football, Brian Barrish is a well-respected voice of the game. His views of all aspects of footy are informed, but more than that they are firmly aimed at the growth of the game across the United States of America. In this article, Brian reflects on his own introduction to the game and looks at the growth of the game, with particular interest in women’s footy, the ravages and impacts of COVID-19 and much more.

And now, I’ll hand the microphone over to Brian.

I was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently live in the suburbs with my wife, daughter, and assorted pets. I grew up in a sports-loving family (aside from mom, who likes sports but not at the same level as my dad, my brother and I). We watched a lot of baseball and hockey as kids, but growing up in Philadelphia, you got behind all four (at the time) major sports teams, so that's what I did. I was fortunate to grow up in a city with a number of legendary play-by-play announcers, such as Gene Hart, Mike Emrick, Harry Kalas, and Merrill Reese, and all of that enthusiasm and greatness led me to want to be a commentator when I grew up. I spent many a day commentating on my Nintendo and Sega games as practice. Out of high school, I went to university majoring in broadcast journalism, but ended up switching schools and majors and would eventually go into information technology.

Donnie Hess is already well known to American audiences for AFL social media outlets. His YouTube clips, podcasts, tweets and myriad other promotions of our game have helped enormously to propel the game of Australian football further and wider across the USA. 

In the second of a series of interviews with Australian football lovers across the USA, I threw some questions to Donnie about his own journey to the game, where the game sits now in his country and some ideas about the future. We haven’t spoken heavily about his beloved Sydney Swans, but rest assured, he will talk about them until he is blue in the face if you get him started.

Over the past twelve months, as the world has come to grips with the ravages of COVID-19 and its fallout, Australian Rules Football has had its own journey. Whilst on the home front, footy continued at the highest level (though not really at more grassroots levels), a different story played out elsewhere.

In the United States, local sport ground to a halt. Most people rode the situation patiently waiting for their beloved sports to return to playing fields or cable TV. But many stumbled across Aussie Rules with Foxtel matches live and through replays capturing a whole new breed of fan.

Among those is Rosanna. From a life where our game did not have a place in her life, she now has her own podcasts and social media platforms under the banner of AFL Obsessed where she discusses the game with anyone wanting a chat, and also supports her beloved Essendon Bombers to anyone who will listen - I do! But how is is that a young woman in New York City can become so fixated with our game in a relatively short period of time?

Here is my interview with Rosanna explaining just that.

Third time lucky for the Lions.

They broke the Adelaide Crows hearts, the same way the Crows did to them way back in 2017. 

Brisbane Lions have secured their maiden AFLW premiership, after they went down in their previous two grand final appearances to Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs, defeating the Crows by 18-points at Adelaide Oval.

Image Source: Mark Brake

For most of the match, the Crows were the team with greater possession of the ball, but the Lions stood tough and strong down back each time the Crows sent the ball forward in attack.

It was all the Lions after the scores were tied at quarter time, as they kicked five of the last seven goals to win 6.2 (38) to Crows 3.2 (20).

In the second week of the AFLW finals series, the week off given to the two top sides, the Adelaide Crows and Brisbane Lions proved invaluable. 

Also, the experience of the two sides in AFLW finals shone through in the preliminary finals.

The Lions and the Crows showed that their experience in preliminary finals counts. 

Image Source: Albert Perez

The Crows were determined to defeat the Dees and not have a repeat of round seven when the Dees thumped them by 28 points at Casey Fields. 

Collingwood were the best team going undefeated until round seven and were trying to make their maiden AFLW grand final, but the Lions were able to hold on by four points to progress through to their third AFLW Grand Final.