World Footy News

It has been a tough off-season for the Australian Football League Central & Northern England (AFLCNE). The first blow was the departure of the Newcastle-based Tyne Tees Tigers as they moved to join the AFL Scotland league SARFL for a variety of logistical reasons – the most obvious being travelling advantages. Soon afterwards, it was announced that Sheffield Thunder would not field a team for the 2018 season due primarily to low player numbers.

The double-whammy losses will see the AFLCNE feature just five teams for the season. But whilst there are less teams, most of the players involved last year will be out there again for their respective clubs, so the standard of football is likely to be just as high as before – maybe higher.

In hot conditions the Adelaide Crows were able to hold on to win in the heat by 4 points at the TIO Stadium in Darwin over the Fremantle Dockers. The match was a tale of two halves, because the Crows dominated the first half with there tackling, scoring and overall play. Then the Dockers owned the second half of the match, as they dominated the possession and overall play. In the second half the Dockers were coming hard at the Crows and tried to end the Crows season, but the Crows leaders such as Erin Phillips, Chelsea Randall and Sarah Perkins stood up when needed for their team. As a result, the Crows have a chance of winning back-to-back AFLW premierships.

Image Source: @Adelaide_FC

 Canadian National Football Championships are coming to Toronto aptly on Canada Day in a further attempt to improve the representative performance of Canadian teams. At the recent AFL Canada AGM it was noted that two new positions were added to the AFL Canada board specifically targeting men and women’s national player representation.

Canadian men’s football international performances can be viewed as either competitive against it’s bigger southern neighbor or as not having leveraged the most out of it’s competitive Toronto league, acknowledged as.the best outside of Australia.

On this International Women’s Day we salute the women around the world making footy happen.  Whether it is slogging it out on the training track, showing their skills in the heat of battle or doing all the jobs off the field that make the game happen (presidents, coaches, recruiting, media, development etc.), from a footy point of view they are putting the International in International Women’s Day.  From Suva to Dublin, Paris to Zagreb, Port Malmo to Port Moresby, Cambodia to Calgary, Montreal to Islamabad, Auckland to Austin (and everywherer in between) women’s and girl’s footy is happening.

Increasingly women footballers are making the sacrifices to experience being a women’s footballer in Australia.  In some cases it is to try themselves out against Aussies in Australian competition, in others it is to see if they can make it to the top against the best in the game’s homeland, and for others it is just to experience the game on it’s home turf at an Australian club.  At the end of their journey they will take back a wealth of footy knowledge and experience to share ineir home land.

This year there are players such as Jess Blecher from Portland, Oregon (USAFL) who has just finished at Nightcliff in the NTFL and will play in Melbourne.  Caroline Leduc has travelled from Montreal (AFL Quebec) to play with the East Fremantle Sharks and Alex Saulter (GB Swans and AFL England) is travelling to Australia to play with Melbourne University.

We asked Alex’s good friend and team mate Laura Turner to profile Alex Saulter ahead of her 2018 Australian footy odyssey.

The tremendous work of AFL India may be about to bring the sweetest fruit of all as the AFL considers options to take advantage of the tremendous football platform laid over recent years. The dedication of AFL India, and the uptake of the game across India, may be the “Perfect Storm” needed for the game to really take hold in a big way. 

Nick Bowen from the www.afl.com.au website reports that the AFL are about to engage in further missions to explore the growth possibilities of the game in India, with matches at the highest level being slated again. This is on the back of recent stories from India which have looked at the growth of a local Mumbai-based competition (see Mumbai Footy Cup 2018), and a schools-based footy program in Mumbai (see School Kids Get Footy Lesson In India). Whilst these programs are outside of the AFL India umbrella, they also suggest that Mumbai is developing as the logical city to host an AFL match.

We’re one month into the AFL New Zealand premiership season, and the Central Giants have stayed atop the ladder with two convincing victories in as many weeks. 

Round 3 Recap
Round 3 saw the Giants take on the Northern Suns at QBE Stadium in Auckland. The Suns were feeling confident after a strong two weeks of competition, but the Giants kicked the first four goals of the match to gain a 30-point lead heading into halftime. Once again, the two Jameses -- Bowden and McKenzie -- were dangerous in the forward line for the Giants.

All was not lost for the Suns, however, as they put in a spirited effort throughout the match. Defender Alex Awatere received best on ground honors, and Jackson Clince managed to kick a pair of goals as well. However, the Giants ended up bringing home their third straight victory with a big second half.

 

AFLW's second season is running successfully in Australia and women's footy in South East Asia is following the same trend.

Recently the Vietnam Swans have proudly announced their own women's team.

The Swan's girls effort has been great as they have trained hard for two weeks before Tet (Lunar New Year). The new committee member Chia Sabbatucci told the club website:

The followng is an edited version of the AFL Canada 2018 president’s report by Lachlan Griffiths. As this an AGM report it is primarily looking back over the previous year’s events. I hope to interview Lachlan soon, looking forward about a  new strategic plan which will be released shortly and some other details

The full report can be read here http://websites.sportstg.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-7259-0-0-0&sID=154776&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=61461986.

History has been made in the Colombian capital city of Bogotá with the first match of the inaugural CAFL (Colombian Australian Football League) season being played last weekend.

The Bogotá Bullants go into the history books as the first team to win a match in the CAFL competition when they downed the DC Aguilas by 38 points. Domiant early, the “Bullants managed to clinch it in the end, warding off a fast-finishing Aguilas.”

In recent weeks we have seen some tremendous initiatives to develop the game of Australian Rules football across the world. From player drafts and new urban leagues in Colombia (see Bombers, Bullants and Aguilas Arrive in Bogotá) to school and ministry driven national tournaments in East Africa (see Something Amazing Happening In East Africa) individuals, clubs and leagues are finding innovative ways to attract new players to the game and open up new markets.

Another example of this development is happening in Mumbai India where Reclink India has joined forces with Mumbai Footy to get the game into schools. According to Sumesh Sawant, Co-Founder and National Coordinator from the Reclink India report:

  

For the ninth consecutive occasion, the Southern Districts Crocs have lost a semi-final and after leading the ladder all year they now face the prospect of going out of the NTFL finals in straight sets unless they can reverse their fortunes. Their loss to the Darwin Buffaloes could be costly, but for Buffaloes’ fans, it is manna from heaven as they contemplate the now real possibility of a premiership – just one win away.

It would be the second successive year that the Crocs topped the home and away ladder and won the minor premiership, only to stumble as soon as their finals matches began. The team would be shaken badly by the outcome of their match and its ramifications, but they didn’t finish on top of the ladder for no reason – they are a class act and will bounce back next weekend in the Preliminary Final against the Nightcliff Tigers.

As most predicted, both the Dubai Dragons and the Multiplex Bulls have won their final round matches and will now go on to meet once again in the AFL Middle East Grand Final. The Dragons outlasted a determined and resilient Falcons team in Abu Dhabi, whilst the Bulls hammered the Dingoes to tune up for the big day in powerful style.

The clash between the Abu Dhabi Falcons and the Dubai Dragon was a willing affair. Both sides had points to prove – one to throw the dice once more for a finals shot, the other to assert themselves again as flag favourites. By half -time the Dragons led by just five points, with both teams equal for scoring shots. It was a more dominant Dragons outfit in the second half – but not before the Falcons gave them tough workout. In the end it was the Dragons winning by 43-points to go through the home and away rounds again undefeated.