World Footy News

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.

In hot and mostly overcast conditons at Adelaide Oval the Australians scored 2 goals, 13 overs and 12 points (63 ) to Ireland's 1 goal, 13 overs and 8 points (53) to take a 10 point lead into next week's second test at Subiaco Oval.

The Irish lead at quarter time but the Australians worked back to a one point lead at half time. The Australians then dominated the second half of the match despite the constant scoring efforts from the likes of Murphy and McManus for Ireland.

Scott Pendlebury looks to have suffered a possible broken hand and may miss for the Australians in Perth.

A full match report from Frederick Shaibani to follow.

There was something quite congruent and in-synch about having two teams of young girls play as a curtain-raiser to an AFL Masters carnival. So many ways the two could be linked – old and new, past and present, a vision of the future through the eyes of those who have already been there.

But, however you look at it, two groups of players separated by generations took to the field yesterday in Cardwell, North Queensland, and all were proud warriors. The fact that these matches were played on Remembrance Day just added to importance of the event – and every player stepped up accordingly for the occasion. Young local kids from Mission Beach and Innisfail stopped their Auskick Clinic for the minute’s silence, then launched back into their scratch match with giggles and cheers of delight.

The first of two IRS Tests between Australia and Ireland will kickoff at 3.40pm in Adelaide on Sunday local time.

The match will be broadcast on limited overseas networks (not including North America). It will also be streamed live on the Watch.AFL service, available by subscription.

The full schedule is as follows.

The Baltimore Washington Eagles have announced they will amicably split the club into two new entities. Following a very successful year on and off the field in the club located in two cities, it has been agreed that each location will now have their own team. The new Washington based entity the DC Eagles will retain the club mascot and colours (and support of the AFL's West Coast Eagles) and continue to play in the nations capital.

The Baltimore Dockers Australian Rules Football Club announced themselves on Facebook this week with a post stating "We are excited to announce the Baltimore Dockers Australian Rules Football Club! After growing the sport in the DMV area and playing as the Baltimore Washington Eagles Australian Rules Football Club for 20 years, we been able to establish independent football clubs in DC and in Baltimore. We're looking forward to your support and seeing what the 2018 season has in store!"

They hope to garner the support of AFL club Fremantle and emulate the Eagles/Dockers rivalry that thrives in the city of Perth, Australia.

A full statement on the split can be read here - https://eaglesfooty.com/2017/11/09/baltimore-washington-vote-to-expand-to-two-clubs/ 

Australian Rules football in the Middle East is unique – and at times problematic. Unlike most leagues that play their games with teams from within a country, AFL Middle East (Like AFL Asia) is a competition played amongst nations. The traditional nations in the league – United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain – have held the league together through many formats over the years depending of the availability of teams for that season.

But the political, economic, social and geographical challenges involved across this part of the world have conspired to halt the progress of some clubs – the latest being the Doha Kangaroos from Qatar. Just three seasons ago, the Kangaroos claimed their maiden AFL Middle East premiership. Now, after a period of travel instability across the region, mainly political in nature, the Kangaroos will sit out the remainder of the 2017/18 season.

Almost fittingly, the Essendon NGA team has taken out this year’s Under 14 Michael Long Cup in Darwin. The annual tournament showcases the next generation of young talent from across the Northern Territory and pits local junior Darwin teams against teams from Alice Springs as well as throughout Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands.

 

After the round robin matches to decide finals, the tournament was won by Essendon NGA over Collingwood NGA. Geelong NGA finished third ahead of the Cenral Redtails. Final scores:

Essendon NGA (Tiwi & East Arnhem) 5 4 34 d Collingwood NGA 3 4 22 ( first v second)

Geelong NGA (Gove Island) 8 7 55 d Central Redtails (Alice Springs) 8 3 51 (third v fourth)

St Mary’s 4 4 28 drew with Palmerston 4 4 28 (equal fifth place)

 

The event is named in honour of Essendon great, Michael Long. The  AFLNT details the event as follows:

The Waratah Warriors have produced the upset of the NTFL Round 5 fixture, knocking out the Nightcliff Tigers by 27 points. The result, along with wins to Saints and the Tiwi Bombers, have seen three of the bottom half teams defeat three of the top half teams in a round that has completely changed the race. The Southern Districts Crocs sit undefeated atop the ladder and two games clear of the pack, whilst the Palmerston Magpies now inhabit bottom place – a game behind the field.

In between, just a game and percentage separates second place from seventh as this NTFL season shows how much more even the competition is for 2017/18.

The round opened with a thriller between St Mary’s and Wanderers in a grand final replay. In a tight game it was Wanderers leading at half time and at the final change. But the indefatigable Saints team would not be denied and stunned Wanderers with a four goals to one final quarter to get over the line by just three points. A last gasp shot at goal by Wanderers missed, handing Saints the valuable four points and consecutive wins after a slow start to the season.