In the season which has already seen NTFL clubs, Wanderers and waratah, celebrate their respective 100th years, the Darwin Buffaloes will celebrate this weekend – the club having come into existence in 1917. The following press release from the AFLNT details the remarkable Darwin Buffaloes achievement. 

This week, in Round 16 of the 2016/17 TIO NTFL season the Darwin Buffaloes Football Club celebrates its 100 year anniversary when it takes on another founding club in the Wanderers, at TIO Stadium at 2.00pm on Saturday. 

 

Festivities for the weekend include a special pre-game ceremony and centenary ball and subsequent naming of the Darwin Buffaloes team of the century on Saturday night.

We are pleased to confirm the the AFL Women's matches will be streamed live  and free around the world. Locally in Australia a number of the matches will be shown live on Channel 7 and the rest of the matches streamed live. 

The AFL today told us "Fans can watch AFLW matches live via WATCHAFL, the AFL’s international OTT streaming service and also follow all the action on afl.com.au. Fans will need to log on, but the service is free of charge." 

 

 

The 2016/17 NTFL season is getting very close to the pointy end as teams now jostle for their finals positions, or at least their best possible finishes. Interestingly, the top two teams are already decided, as are the two bottom teams – though not their actual finishing positions.  Most of the interest, however, will centre on the final positions of the middle four teams.

 

 

The Top Two – Nightcliff still sits atop the ladder with 14 wins for the season. They have only lost one game – to St Mary’s – and play two of the bottom teams in the final two rounds. That sets up a wonderful match next round when they again meet the Saints. The winner of that match will almost certainly go on to claim the minor premiership. Saints have the harder run home (against Tigers, Crocs and Waratah – all likely finalists) but have proved they have the ability to beat all of those opponents. 

Rick Hanlon is an iconic name when it comes to the development of the game of Australian Rules football in Cairns and throughout Cape York and the Torres Strait islands. His influence has been felt far and wide, and many young men and women have benefitted from his vision, energy and determination. The following article from AFLQ (AFL Queensland) looks at Rick’s background and the amazing body of work which preceded the award over many years.

Cape York Regional Manager Rick Hanlon has been recognised with an Order of Australia Medal in today’s Australia Day honours for his services to Australian Rules Football. 

Following a successful Australian Football career in Tasmania, Mr Hanlon moved to Cairns in 1998 as the AFL’s North Queensland Regional Manager before shifting his focus to the Cape York region.

This weekend sees an historic occasion for football in the Northern Territory when two of the founding clubs clash to celebrate 100 years of footy in the NT.  The following media release from the AFLNT details the event and its significance.

 AFLNT Media Release

This week, in Round 15 of the 2016/17 TIO NTFL season the Wanderers Football Club and Waratah Football Club both celebrate their 100 year anniversary in a historic ‘Foundation Cup’ clash at Gardens Oval at 4.00pm on Thursday.

Other planned festivities for the week include a centenary ball and the naming of respective teams of the century on Friday for Waratah and Saturday for Wanderers. 

 

The North Queensland city of Mackay sits on the cusp of a day of redemption. Last season the hopes of the local community were dashed by Mother Nature when a week long deluge of rain washed out their scheduled match at Harrup Park, the epicentre of Australian Rules football in Mackay.

Locals were disappointed when the unceasing downpours washed out the highly anticipated pre-season AFL match between St Kilda – featuring local hero, David Armitage – and the Brisbane Lions.

But this year the tropical city could be on the verge of one of the most exciting and important games of the pre-season. In a little over a month’s time, the Gold Coast Suns will take on the Essendon Bombers in a match where both teams have much at stake, even if it is the JLT Community Series rather than a premiership season match. Mackay effectively replaced Townsville as the northern Queensland centre for pre-season matches, but got off to a very wet and soggy start.

After successive years being held in the tropics of Queensland, this year’s National Diversity Championships will move to western Sydney. Blacktown will become the hub of entertainment after Townsville hosted the event in 2016 and Cairns in 2015. It is the first time the event has been in New South Wales since being held in Coffs Harbour in 2014.

According to the http://www.afl.com.au website, “the National Diversity Championships encompass the National U15 Kickstart and the National U15 All Nations Cup. The 2017 National Diversity Championships will be held in Blacktown, Sydney from Saturday 8th to Thursday 13th of April.”

“The championships provide the pathway into our Flying Boomerangs and World Team programs.”

(Picture: Western Australia took out both titles in 2016)

An AFL Evolution is coming in 2017 when the AFL and the AFL Players’ Association release an exciting new video game featuring the best male players from the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

 

AFL Evolution is currently in production with AFL licensee Tru Blu Entertainment and in conjunction with Wicked Witch Software. It will be available on next generation consoles PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC Steam.

  Due for release in the first half of 2017, AFL General Manager Commercial Operations Darren Birch acknowledged the importance of video games as a tool to enhance entertainment for fans. 

 

Round Three this year and the Southern Districts Crocs downed St Mary’s by three goals. It was the Saints’ second loss in three rounds, going down in the season opener to Nightcliff, and only a big last quarter saw a win against the Darwin Buffaloes. Last year’s premiers were looking shaky, and attention turned to the all-conquering Tigers as they dominated all teams.

But Crocs had just poked the bear.

Since that day, Saints have gone on a rampaging seven match winning streak. That in itself is nothing new – plenty of teams have achieved that. But what is actually frightening is the carnage they have created in doing so. Their seven wins have seen them play most teams in the league (so far only thee Buffaloes have been spared in this current streak), and along that journey their average winning margin is over 100 points – that is frightening in any football league.

The Australian Football League (AFL) today announced it would partner with Australia-wide Insurance Broker JLT (Jardine Lloyd Thompson) for the pre-season competition for the next three years, with today’s launch of the JLT Community Series in Melbourne. 

AFL General Manager Clubs and AFL Operations Travis Auld joined with JLT Chief Executive Leo Demer to announce the fixture for the 2017 JLT Community Series, which will see all 18 teams play three matches across a four-week stretch between Thursday February 16 and Sunday March 12, to lead into the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. 

‘JLT is the National Insurance Broker for the AFL, our 18 clubs and the State Associations across the country, with a relationship now of 13 years with football from the grassroots through to elite level of the game,” Mr Auld said