World Footy News

The Greater Western Sydney Giants keep their finals hopes alive in the second season of the AFLW after they ran out 18-point winners over the Fremantle Dockers at the Fremantle Oval.

Image Source: Twitter @nickowalsh

It was a do or die match for both teams who needed a win to keep there seasons alive. The Dockers came into the match after a loss last round to the Lions and the Giants came off a draw in the wet against the Crows.

The match between The match between the Melbourne Demons and Brisbane Lions at Casey Fields was a game of one per centers with great strong tackling and smothering pressure. This whole match was played with a finals type intensity and a real arm wrestle. The scoreboard at the final siren reflected this, as the Dees only won by 6 points.

The Dees came into this round 5 encounter after they had 2 losses on the road, so they were desperate for a win to keep their 2018 AFLW finals hopes alive.

According to Matt Thomson on the www.afl.com.au website, he AFL will be taking the new AFLX version of the game into Asia on a bigger scale very soon. Whilst the jury is still out to some degree on the success of the game here in Australia with the AFL clubs involved as part of the pre-season schedule, smaller versions of the game have already been successfully adapted across the world through local leagues.

These amendments have included smaller grounds – rugby and soccer fields – smaller player numbers (predominantly using an AFL 9’s format adapted to include normal playing rules) and other adjustments. But the move into Hong Kong (see below) might be the catalyst for more countries to consider adapting further to the seven per side AFLX format.

AFLX appears headed to Asia, with the prospect of a November tournament in Hong Kong on the League's agenda.      

The new season of footy in Mumbai, India, will soon be announced and get underway. Run under the direction of Reclink India and Mumbai Footy, the competition premiered last year featuring teams from across Mumbai – India’s largest city and the capital city of the state of Maharashtra

Co-founder and national coordinator of the Mumbai Footy League, Sumesh Sawant stated, “last year we played Mumbai Footy League which lasted for two months instead of [the] Mumbai Footy Cup. For this year the dates are not out yet for Mumbai Footy Cup but most likely it will be happening somewhere between March to May.”

Last year’s competition featured two older clubs – the Mahim Cats and the Matunga Tigers – with the addition of the Churchgate Lions, Grant Road Bombers, Mumbai Central Giants and the Charni Road Eagles in the first domestic suburban home and away style competition in India.

As the AFL’s JLT Community Series pre-season competition wriggles its way around the country, North Queensland is preparing for its own extravaganza of AFL talent across March as first Townsville and then Cairns host matches. Townsville gets under way this weekend when the Gold Coast Suns and the Geelong Cats met in their JLT fixture. Cairns will then host the Round 1 AFL match between the Gold Coast Suns and North Melbourne Kangaroos.

The city of Townsville was looking forward to the Gary Ablett grudge match. With Ablett leaving the Sun and returning to his native Geelong last trade season, it gave the local fans the chance to watch an old-fashioned stoush between two past and present cat owners. Sadly, a hamstring injury will see Ablett ruled out of the match.

But, the people of Townsville would not be too disheartened. They will still host a great game of footy between the rising Suns from their home state and a Geelong side than has enjoyed an era of success – including three flags – since 2007.

They say history is written by the victors.  In this case the victors are the Kingdom Kangaroos and this version of their historic three-peat was submitted to us by Sandy Bell.

The Kingdom Kangaroos won the annual Preseason Bawbag Cup for the 3rd time in 3 years on Saturday 24th March. The annual warm up tournament competed by the Tyne Tee Tigers, West Lothian Eagles and Fife’s own Kingdom Kangaroos.

The Darwin Buffaloes have taken an enormous stride towards winning their first NTFL premiership since the 2005/06 season by downing the Nightcliff Tigers in the Qualifying Final at TIO Stadium. It sets up Second Semi-Final showdown with Southern Districts Crocs next weekend – the team that won their last premiership the following year in 2006/07.

Nightcliff enjoyed the early running, hitting the scoreboard regularly and heading to the first break with a 17-point lead. The Buffaloes were desperate to bridge the gap, and did so by narrowing the Nightcliff lead to just two points by the half time break. By the final change, score were level in a tight tussle – the ideal finals match.

It was tough going for both the Greater Western Sydney Giants and the Adelaide Crows at Blacktown International Sports Park in Sydney, as they played out the first draw of the 2018 AFLW season in wet conditions.

Image Source: Twitter @GWSGIANTS

Neither of the teams was able to break away with clean disposal and this is what’s expected in wet weather football. It was an extremely physical brand of football by both teams from the first siren to the final siren and it was a credit to both teams to play with such a high intensity and skill for the entire match. This showed at the final siren with nothing separating both teams.

The colloquially, and probably somewhat inappropriately, named Bawbag Cup was played on the weekend at the Leith Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a great day for the Kingdom Kangaroos as they defended the title they won last year in a three-team round-robin competition. The competition was made all the more historic with the West Lothian Eagles taking the field as an official AFL Scotland/SARFL team. It was also the first game for the Tyne Tees Tigers as a new member of the SARFL competition in 2018.

The West Lothian Eagles hit the field first against the more experienced Kangaroos. The final deficit was a four goal loss, but they were not blown off the park. According to their Facebook page, the only things that let the Eagles down was the lack of experience and game knowledge – two areas which will improve almost automatically the more games they play. The club was delighted with the form of the “first gamers” that took the field.

The two clubs that run under the banner of the Paris Cocks fought out their rescheduled Round One match yesterday in a clash hosted by the newly formed Antony Blues in the south of Paris. In an important match for both teams – the Cockerels to stay in the race for top two come finals time, and the Cockatoos to stay in the finals race – it was the Cockerels that were victorious by 21-points.

The Cockatoos were in the hunt at every change, being behind by less than three goals most of the match. But the kicking efficiency, especially near goal, of the Cockerels was superior. This was highlighted by the Cockerels having 19 scoring shots for the match compared to 23 for the Cockatoos, yet still winning by a comfortable margin.

The Pies win in an upset over the Dees by 34 points in hot conditions up in TIO Traeger Park in Alice Springs. In this match the Dees donned their new Indigenous Guernsey designed by their Indigenous player Alisha Newman.

Image Source: @CollingwoodFCW

The Pies started the match very well as they had a lot of the football, but they just could not score. This changed in the second quarter as the Pies did get reward for their effort on the scoreboard and the Pies continued to be all over the Dees in the third term as well. The Pies looked like a totally different team tonight from the previous three rounds with clean and slick ball movement against a premiership favourite in the Dees.

The Brisbane Lions won by 7 points over the Fremantle Dockers in a game of good old fashion wet weather football at the South Pine Sports Complex in Brisbane. This match was a real arm wrestle in trying conditions for both teams who played with high intensity and fierceness.
Image Source: Twitter @lionsaflw

There was one stoppage after another, which made the opening term a real stoppage fest and this is expected when the conditions are wet. It was a very physical brand of football to begin.