Early last year two primary schools in Cairns, Queensland, faced off in the final of the Gold Coast Suns Cup. After a classic encounter, Freshwater State School defeated Gordonvale State School by a solitary point. After the presentations, the opposing coaches, Kristen Knight and Wesley Hull, floated the idea of a follow up.

The result was later dubbed the “1st Annual Women In AFL Challenge” match.

Whilst the official “Women In AFL” round is recognised nationally at the end of June, the schools could not play a game then as they were still on mid-year holidays. The decision was made to play the round in August, mid way through the school term, as a way of recognising the role of women in all aspects of Australian Rules football, whether that be as players, umpires, administrators, mothers, sisters or daughters.

Darebin have defeated rivals Diamond Creek 14.7 (91) to 6.6 (42) in the 2013 VWFL Premiers Grand Final to end a record unbeaten season with the Susan Alberti Cup and the title of VWFL Champions.

The remarkable feat marks the return to glory for the former VWFL powerhouse who recently suffered subsecutive grand final defeats. The game was played at Coburg City Oval in front of packed stands of fans and was also streamed live on the VWFL YouTube channel

The VFL's Williamstown Seagulls held their inaugural Asian Community Football Day this weekend, with VAFA side the Southern Dragons taking on the Williamstown Asian All-Stars as a curtain-raiser to the match between the Seagulls and AFL club Geelong's reserve side.

Instigator for the event was Grant Dooley from Williamstown FC, who previously had also worked as Consul General for Australia in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where he helped establish the South China Australian Football League together with other local clubs and the assistance of Tony Woods and the AFL.

Williamstown FC last year announced a $10,000 sponsorship of the South China AFL, which will go towards development of the competition and recruitment of young Chinese athletes to join their clubs.

The day was hailed a great success - the Dragons eventually triumphing by 4 points, despite the All-Stars having Chinese import Chen Xiaoliang take the field for them - and Dooley hopes the event can become an annual fixture on the Williamstown FC calendar. Read on for a report from the AFL Victoria website.

The following media release from the AFLNT details the upcoming national schools AFL championships being held in Darwin. This carnival is a great breeding ground for future AFL stars, and for many the schools program is every bit as important as regular competition.

Commencing Sunday, TIO Stadium will host around 500 students from around Australia for the annual School Sport Australia 12 and under, 15 and under Boys and 16 and under Girls Championships.

School Sport NT CEO Helen Taylor is extremely excited at the prospect of hosting the championships again in 2013. “We look forward to hosting a successful event in the NT as AFL has always been close to our hearts, with numerous participants going on to the big time more recently Jake Neade and Jed Anderson to name two.”

“We have heard that the Victorian team especially are keen to escape the cold but are excited about the prospect of playing at TIO Stadium for the first time.

The Championships not only provide a great sporting spectacle but are expected to provide a great economic benefit to the NT with over 20 teams from across Australia converging on Darwin.

AFL Northern Territory and Netball Northern Territory in conjunction with Federal Minister for Sport and Recreation Don Farrell today announced an ongoing commitment of Federal funding totalling $900,000 over a three year period to support grass roots sport development by both codes.

AFLNT CEO Tony Frawley welcomed the decision to confirm the ongoing funding that has been set in the Federal budget and will go toward the continued development of AFL in the NT specifically AFLNT’s community enhancement football programs in Central Australia.

The AFL today released the seventeenth AIS-AFL Academy squads.

The 61 players will receive an AIS-AFL Academy scholarship and will come together four times over the next 12 months for training camps. Both squads will also travel overseas again, one to NZ and one to Europe.

The Level One squad was selected following the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships. They will be coached by AFL Engagement and Talent Co-ordinator Chris Johnson.

West Adelaide and East Fremantle will contest the Grand Final for the 2013 FOXTEL Cup at AAMI Stadium tomorrow night, August 6, for bragging rights as the best state-league team in the national knock-out competition.

West Adelaide, under the tutelage of former Hawthorn premiership player Andy Collins, are currently third on the SANFL ladder after qualifying for the Foxtel Cup by reaching last year’s Grand Final, while East Fremantle, under former All Australian captain Steve Malaxos, are also in third position on the WAFL ladder.

The Foxtel Cup brings together the best state league teams from each state across the country and West Adelaide is bidding to be the first SANFL winner after Williamstown (VFL) won the inaugural competition in 2011 and Claremont (WAFL) claimed victory last year.

The Victorian Women’s Football League Executive and its clubs have voted to transfer the governance and maintenance of the league to AFL Victoria. The transfer will be competed by the 1st of November, 2013.

The vote is the culmination of more than a year of work between the VWFL, AFL Victoria and the Transitional Working Group. The TWG was formed in May 2012 to develop a future competition model for women’s clubs.

AFL Victoria’s General Manager, Grant Williams, said that the changes would be a positive step for women’s football in Victoria. He pointed to the current collaborative approach and the recent successes of the state team as an example of how the women’s game will further develop in Victoria. He also thanked the VWFL Executive for their input into making the vote happen.

As part of the transfer, the existing VWFL, which features a premiers and reserves metro league with two country leagues, will be restructured to form a true state level competition. Williams believes that this will help further develop the pathway for female football players in Victoria and enhance initiatives such as the AFL Victoria VWFL Academy.

VWFL President Naomi Hurst said that the new structure would be more efficient and effective for administering the women’s leagues in Victoria. She also said that the considerable expertise and resources of AFL Victoria would provide invaluable support and guidance in managing the development of the women’s game into the future.

Collaboration with state AFL organisations has been very successful for women’s football leagues in the Rugby League heartlands of New South Wales and Queensland, whilst the women’s leagues in the smaller states of ACT and Tasmania, both of which did well at the recent Women’s National Championships, would not exist without AFL support.

The city of Cairns is currently in preparation mode for our next AFL match on Saturday. Whilst we are a little concerned about whether we will see more premiership matches here in 2014 and beyond (something which will be discussed at all levels post-game), the people of this far northern city and looking forward to a tremendous match.

 In 2009, the Gold Coast suns ran down the Essendon VFL affiliate, the Bendigo Bombers, with a goal in the dying seconds to steal the match. The match in 2010 provided one of the season’s genuine upsets when the Suns defeated the highly fancied Tigers by making better use of the howling gale that day. Then last year, the amazing Karmichael Hunt goal after the siren to win the game left an impression in everyone’s mind of what a great game was being bought to the city.

This latest press release from the AFL provides more details, as well as providing some momentum for future matches in Cairns from next year onwards.

 

North Queensland will once again become the focus of the AFL world when Cairns hosts its annual Gold Coast Suns versus Richmond Tigers match at Cazalys Stadium on Saturday at 4.40pm. This is the main event, following on from the earlier NAB Cup match in Townsville pre-season between the Suns and Kangaroos.

This is a huge match for Cairns. Two weeks ago the northern city played host to the 2013 Women’s National Championships. Now the Gold Coast, undefeated in Cairns after three starts (they defeated the Bendigo Bombers as an AFL side in 2010), get a chance to enhance their own slim finals chances and seriously threaten those of Richmond. Following is a media release from the AFL giving the details.