World Footy News

With Nauru celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence in 2018, the Jubilee Cup has kicked off the festivities early.

The cup was a round-robin tournament featuring some of the most talented young footballers on the island, with 11 different sides all competing for the cup -- plus island-wide bragging rights. The initial tournament ran from January 17-20, organized into pools A and B, culminating in the grand final on the 27th.

Image Source: AFL Nauru

The AFL Europe Fitzpatrick Cup was played out last weekend, and the following article from the AFL Europe website details the event. Once again, the UC Bombers have proved to be the university to beat, raising the bar even higher in 2018. 

A mixture of rain, wind, hail and sunshine met participants at the 5th Fitzpatrick Cup hosted by the University College Cork (UCC) on Saturday. ‘The Farm’ played hosted to the annual universities tournament for the second year running in what proved a typically mild February day in Ireland. 

Eleven teams made the journey to this year’s Fitz with eight men’s and three women’s varsity teams battling it to be crowned university champions of Europe.

The Irish city of Cork will be the host of the 2018 Euro Cup. Better known to some for the Blarney Stone, Blarney Castle, captivating architecture and the River Lee, the city is also home to two very successful Australian Rules football teams. A bit over 250 kilometres south-west of Dublin, Cork is home to both the Leeside Lions and the UCC Bombers, and the city in the province of Munster might just be the Irish epicentre of footy at the moment.

The Leeside Lions are the current ARFLI titleholders, going back to back last year. Last weekend, the UCC Bombers also went back to back in the men’s and women’s competitions at the 2018 Fitzpatrick Cup for universities.

The AFL Europe website stats that, “AFL Europe is excited to announce that this year’s Euro Cup will be held in Cork, Ireland.”

After the weekend’s round of matches, three clubs will be fighting for two remaining finals berths as the battle for finals hots up. St Mary’s, Waratah and the Tiwi Bombers will go into the final two rounds of the home and away season very aware that if they blink they can miss finals. What makes it even more compelling is that each of the three play against at least one of the others in the run home.

The Bombers have two cutthroat games to make the finals. They play both St Mary’s and Waratah – their rivals for a finals spot. St Mary’s have perhaps the better run home, playing against the Bombers next weekend but then meeting the Palmerston Magpies in the final round and a chance to lock away another finals challenge. Waratah have the toughest draw, up against ladder leaders – Southern Districts - and then a final round clash for likely fifth spot with the Bombers. It is a fascinating script.

The Bulldogs were victors over Freo by 26 points Sunday afternoon in front of 8,500 fans at the home of the Western Bulldogs the Whitten Oval. A woeful Freo were only able to trouble the scorers in the third term, as they were only able to score their first goal at the 3 and a half minute mark of the third via Amy Lavell.

Katie Brennan starred for the home team with 3 goals and Lavell slotted 2 goals for the Dockers. Ellie Blackburn was the leading possession winner for the Dogs with 23 touches. 2017 best and fairest winner Dana Hooker along with Kara Donnellan had 12 disposals each for the Dockers.

This match showed the rest of the teams in the AFLW competition that the Dogs will not be a team to be taken lightly this year.

Through the passion and drive of people like Tommy Purcell and his team, Australian Rules football is continuing to make headway in growing across a growing number of African nations. Back in 2014 matches were being played between teams from both Kenya and Tanzania. That competition has now grown to include Uganda in a three-nation rivalry.

In July the next instalment of the tournaments will take place when the Kenya Buffaloes, Tanzania Simbas and Uganda Simbis meet at the Brother Beausang Catholic Education Centre in Embulbul, 20 kilometres to the east of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Sometimes pure statistics can be a very useful tool in assessing performance and predicting results. On other occasions, statistics are an idiot – telling nothing more than what the reader wants them to say. But a brief look at the stats surrounding the fourth round of AFL Middle East matches are enough to confirm that the Dubai Dragons will once again contest the grand final, and only a disaster or upset of Hollywood proportions will stop the Multiplex Bulls from joining them in a fourth consecutive decider.

The Dragons have four wins from four outings after their demolition of the undermanned Entertainer Dubai Dingoes. They are not guaranteed the minor premiership just yet, but cannot be overtaken now by the third or fourth placed teams – the Falcons or Dingoes. The Bulls downed the Falcons, which puts a two game buffer – and a whopping 100% percentage differential – between second and third place. The Bulls WILL reach the grand final, they just need another win to wrap it and tie a bow around it.

The Lions took home the chocolates in their Grand Final rematch against the Crows at Norwood Oval in front of 11,120 fans at the home of the Crows on Saturday evening. This match was a tight tussle like the previous two matches to open the 2018 AFLW season.

The Lions did not want a repeat of last year’s Grand Final and to ensure that history did not repeat itself they kept the Crows scoreless in the last stanza to win by 12 points.

Chelsea Randall ended the match with 18 disposals and led the possession count for the Crows and Jamie Stanton from the Lions accumulated an impressive 21 touches. Jess Wuetschner from the Lions was the only multiple goal scorer on the ground with 2 goals and Chelsea Randall, Eloise Jones and Ruth Wallace each kicked a goal apiece.

Tash Gunawardana interviewed marquee AFLW Brisbane Lions player Sabrina Frederick-Traub. Frederick-Traub played for the Lions last night in the Grand Final rematch against the Adelaide Crows at Norwood Oval and took home the four points against the reigning premiers..

You were born in England, what is your awareness of footy in the UK?
I am aware of both the male and female teams that compete in the International Cup.

Do you consider yourself English, or Aussie?  Is there any identity clash when the Ashes are on?
I consider myself English, although I left when I was 7 my family still kept me immersed in the British culture and I go back a fair bit – Hahaha I support Australia when they are playing any other country apart from England , I am loyal when it comes to my home country.

 Image Source: womens.afl

AFLW Round 1 Melbourne vs GWS

Venue:Casey Fields Date: 3/2/18 Time: 5:05pm

The Melbourne Demons won in a cracker of a match against the 2017 bottom placed GWS Giants this afternoon at the Casey Fields, the home of the Melbourne Women's Football Club. Both sides put on an entertaining see soaring contest from the first ball up till the end of the match.

For the whole match you could not pick a winner in this match due to both teams playing with a high amount of intensity and pressure. It was a great spectacle of women's football for the 5,100 fans who were there to see it. In particular many of the Melbourne fans who came to support their beloved Dees ladies play in their opening round match.

Before the match the young Melbourne Demons fans formed a guard of honour for the Melbourne players to run through. The Giants team ran through the banner first before the Demons who had two African drummers play the drums before there team song blasted through the grounds speakers. When the Melbourne theme song started playing the home crowd became loud to cheer their ladies onto the ground. The two captains Daisy Pearce and Amanda Farrugia tossed the coin in the centre and the Giants won the toss. Farrugia chose to kick to the left of the ground with the breeze and the Dees to the right of the ground.

Cora Staunton and Laura Corrigan-Duryea will go head to head today and Irish eyes will be smiling.  But Staunton will also renew acquaintances with Daisy Pearce.

Sure we are excited to see two Irish players line up in today's AFLW match.  But still have a time to wait before we see women that have learned the Australian game in Ireland make it to this competition however.  Today's meeting though could be some petrol added to the fire of local development in Ireland that is already on the up after winning this year's women's International Cup title.

Laura Corrigan-Duryea found the game in Australia, learnt it in suburban Melbourne and mastered the game at Diamond Creek before finally donning the number 11 for Melbourne in the AFLW's inaugural season.  She backed up the AFLW season with a VFL season that saw her with a Grand Final runners-up medal around her neck and a championship medal for the International Cup (as co-captain of her nations footy team).