World Footy News

The AFL's release of the news that Nicole Livingstone has been appointed as the Head of Women's football came through early this morning via press release.

I am glad to see that a woman has been appointed to the position. I think that there are perhaps many women with a better understanding of women's football and may have been a better choice, but am prepared to see what Nicole can do.  She will bring a high personal profile and national recognition to the position.  I respect and have enjoyed what she has done in sport and in the media. 

The cynical side of me says that she may be a puppet of the AFL commission in place to head nod to their agenda overall rather than to represent the interests of women's footy. But that's not really my biggest concern.

In the statement, where she was directly quoted it appears that she sees the game only as Australian.

“The growth of women’s AFL has been extraordinary. Every Australian girl can now actively pursue footy as their passion, past time or career. Importantly girls can now follow their dreams and as they do, we will continue to break down any barriers that may exist. 

“I’m excited by the challenge of growing the sport from a community grass roots level right through to high performance along with ensuring the league is commercially sustainable.

“There are many passionate AFL people around the country, all wanting to see the AFLW find its place in the hearts and minds of Australians and I look forward to connecting with them,” she said. 

AFL Media Release

The AFL is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicole Livingstone OAM as the new Head of Women’s Football.

A three-time Olympic swimmer, respected sports administrator and commentator, Ms Livingstone will join the AFL on December 4 charged with the responsibility of growing and managing the NAB AFL Women’s Competition and female football participation.

AFL Chief Executive, Gillon McLachlan today said the league was delighted to add someone of Ms Livingstone’s calibre to the senior management team.

“Nicole is a champion in every sense – as an athlete, an administrator and an advocate for women in sport,” Mr McLachlan said.

  

In a little over a week, the AFL world will be lauding the latest number one draft pick. The Brisbane Lions hold the pick this year and are already considering how to use it. At the same time, they will be hoping it will bring the dawning of a new area rather than being a poisoned chalice. To some, the gaining of the number one draft pick is a chance to obtain greatness, but history shows that isn’t always the case.

AFL/VFL history is littered with failures – admittedly most from the era when drafting was a very inexact science. But names like Richard Lounder (Richmond, 1987), Anthony Banik (Richmond, 1988), Stephen Hooper (Geelong, 1990) and John Hutton (Brisbane, 1991) never reached the highest of expectations that came with the pick.

On the other hand, Nick Reiwoldt (St Kilda, 2000), Luke Hodge (Hawthorn, 2001), Brendon Goddard (St Kilda, 2002), Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs, 2003), Brett Deledio (Richmond, 2004) and Marc Murphy (Carlton, 2005) have gone on to be revered names in the game.

Coverage of the second of two IRS Tests between Australia and Ireland will kickoff at 4.45pm in Perth on Sunday local time.

The match will be broadcast on limited overseas networks. It will also be streamed live on the Watch.AFL service, available by subscription.

The full schedule is as follows.

Here's your chance to win the perfect gift for the Bombers or Cats fan in your life, or yourself, while supporting footy in Portland (Oregon)!

On December 16th, during our PAFC Holiday Party, we’ll be raffling off team-signed Essendon and Geelong jumpers, with the drawing streamed online on Facebook Live. Proceeds will support the Portland Australian Football Club as we head into the 2018 season.

Both jumpers are signed by their respective full 2017 senior teams, including all-Australians Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood for Geelong, and Joe Daniher, Michael Hurley, and Zach Merrett for Essendon. Each jumper will be raffled off separately; tickets can be purchased online using the forms below through noon PST on December 16th. Then, at 6:30pm PST on the 16th, head to our Facebook page to watch as the winners are drawn.

To order your tickets head to the raffle page here. 

Winners located anywhere in the United States will be shipped their jumper via USPS 2-Day Priority Mail. Winners located in Australia will be charged $15 USD to cover international shipping.
 

In the blinking of an eye, the NTFL season is one third complete with Round 6 being played out last weekend. It won’t be long now before we are genuinely talking finals, but many teams took strides towards the business end of the season across the round.

The Nightcliff Tigers downed St Mary’s in an absolute thriller, the Darwin Buffaloes kept their hopes alive with an important win over Waratah, Wanderers downed Palmerston to strengthen their position and the Southern Districts Crocs took a stranglehold on top spot whilst taming the Tiwi Bombers.

In the Friday night clash, Wanderers did enough to keep a pesky Palmerston at bay. Helped along by their new recruit, former Port Adelaide Power forward Brett Eddy with four goals, Wanderers broke a quarter time deadlock to move away over the next two quarters to effectively secure the game. A five goal to two rally by Palmerston wasn’t enough and Wanderers won their fourth game of the season by 21 points.

The Nathan Blakey Movember Cup will enter its seventh season in Manchester on Sunday. The event honours former high-flying Mozzie, Nathan Blakey, who passed away in 2011 after a battle with cancer. The event is designed to raise funds for and awareness of men’s health, specifically cancers. The event is run in conjunction with the Movember Foundation and will feature plenty of men with moustaches. Women are under no such obligation, but will also be playing for the cause.

This year’s event will feature two round robin divisions with finals decided by pool winners. Pool A will feature the Manchester Mozzies, Wolverhampton Wolverines, Glasgow Giants from Scotland and one of two University of Birmingham teams. Pool B will include the Nottingham Scorpions, Huddersfield Rams, Wandsworth demons from London and the second University Of Birmingham team. There will also be two combined women’s teams playing across the day.

Apologies for the delay, mostly an editor (Brett Northey) availability issue.  Story text is by the editor.

Here we present the WFN World Rankings from immediately after the 2017 AFL International Cup.

Australia retains its notional #1 ranking as unarguably the leading nation, and PNG's victory at IC17 kept their #1 contender position intact.  In fact the top 5 positions were unchanged.  The big changes were Croatia rising 5 places to 7th and China up 6 to 13.  Perhaps unfairly France fell 3 spots to 17th courtesy of playing in the tough Division 1 (compare with Croatia's rise from dominating Division 2).  We'd love to see more cross-over matches with sides touring outside of IC years which would help address that; a modified rankings system is not imminent.  South Africa's slow decline continues.  We welcome Indonesia and Pakistan as fully ranked for the first time (playing the necessary 8 games) and Sri Lanka's debut sees them onto the provisional list.

 

 

It was just a fraction over two years ago that the Strasbourg Kangourous won their last CNFA match – a 123-point walloping of the Perpignan Tigers. They didn’t win another match that season and their final outing saw them walloped themselves by the Paris Cockatoos by a nasty 118 points. The club did not field a team in the 2016/17 season and it was anyone’s guess when or if they might return.

Well, the Kangourous are back, and their victory on the weekend against a combination of German teams – the Freiburg Taipans, Stuttgart Emus and Dresden Wolves (a team that, amazingly, travelled 600 kilometres to play) – suggests the team is well on the path back to CNFA status.

Played in Strasbourg, a French city 400 kilometres east of Paris and almost on the Rhine River where it marks the French German border, the city is relatively close to both Stuttgart and Freiburg. It makes geographical sense for the Kangourous to have a closer football connection with these two nearby teams – Stuttgart around 150 kilometres away and Friedburg just 90 kilometres away.

The Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes have come from the clouds to defeat the Paris Cockatoos in their home clash in Pontoise. The match was a double header hosted by the Coyotes, with the Paris Cockerels downing the Bordeaux Bombers in the other match.

Early in the match, the Cockatoos jumped the Coyotes and led by 20 points at the first break. From then the Coyotes kept creeping back into the game, but still trailed by two points at the final change. But a powerful final quarter, and a defensively brilliant effort to keep the Cockatoos to a solitary behind, saw the Coyotes run out 19 point winners.

The win keeps the Coyotes well in finals contention, though the Cockatoos now have won one of their two games to date and need to find some consistency headed deeper into the season.

A solid group effort and a big second half lifted Australia to a 10-point victory over Ireland on Sunday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval.

There were a lot of variables in play coming into the first 2017 International Rules test match -- the Aussie team hadn’t practiced formally up until the week of the match, the weather conditions weren’t in anyone’s favor, and the Irish team dealt with several players falling ill earlier in the week. A couple of late withdrawals for Australia -- primarily Toby Greene and Gary Ablett -- left a few question marks in the lineup.