The new season of footy in France is getting closer and the draw has been released for the 2019/20 season. As well as key matches to watch out for, the biggest changes see a former grand finalist having a rest for a season and their place being taken by a new kid on the block.

It was only early last year that World Footy News reported on the formation of a new club in the southern suburbs of Paris – the Antony Blues. (See story Antony Blues Set To Grow In Paris). In a short space of time, the Blues have already performed well enough on and of the field to convince the CNFA that they are ready.

Their historic first match will be against the Cockerels in Paris. Their first home match will be in the second round when they host the Stade Toulousain 2 team. It marks a great reward for the many people who have worked so hard to get the fledgling team up and running and continues the changing face of the league clubs over recent years.

Despite largely being a two-horse race, the SAFF (Stockholm Australian Football Federation) competition is heading for what could be a huge finish. Whilst the Solna Axeman would be pleased the 2019 season is now over and the Årsta Swans will be long-priced underdogs in their Qualifying Final, it is the Norrtälje Dockers and Södermalm Blues that will generate the most interest.

The final two rounds of the SAFF season showed both the distance between the top two teams and bottom two. It also showed just how close the top two teams are.

Round 9 saw the Dockers trounce the Axemen by 127 points, whilst the Blues hammered the Swans by 116 points in an afternoon of one-sided results in Norrtälje. Then last weekend, the Blues and Dockers faced off in a Grand Final preview.

In a massive first for Estonia, the city of Tallinn will be the venue for the 2019 Baltic Cup. AFL Estonia, which is still at a stage of developing off field as it grows the game, will receive a huge boost to develop the game in the country with the opportunity to market the game and work to attract some interest for fans, businesses and prospective players.

Coming to Tallinn for the event will be the St Petersburg Cats from Russia, the Helsinki Heatseekers from Finland, the Polish Devils and the Norrtälje Dockers. The invitation exists for more nations to teams to join. Estonia will not have their own team, though should a local want to join in with one of the teams they most likely could.

The event will be held at the Nike Arena in Tallinn, adjacent to the Estonian Football Federation (Soccer) headquarters and fields to the south of the city.

The AFL Finland Grand Final teams are decided after last weekend’s final round of matches in Vaasa. Unfortunately, the host team, the Vaasa Wombats, will not play in the big match. The Helsinki Heatseekers and Turku Dockers have made their way there after the completion of the Finnish home and away season.

Following is the excellent Chairman’s Report after the last round of matches, reproduced on behalf of AFL Finland.

Chairmans Report, FAFL round 3, Vaasa

FINLAND AFL·WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019

The third round was kicked off in fantastic weather, the sun was shining and the temperature a humane 18°C.

The games at the awesome Kaarlen kenttä venue was a truly exciting round 3 of Aussie rules in Vaasa.

The DAFL season in Denmark is fast approaching finals with just three games left to complete across two remaining rounds. The Port Malmö Maulers feature in two of those matches, which makes the fight to the finals very interesting.

In recent weeks, the Farum Cats have flexed their muscle with important wins over both the Maulers and the Odense Lions. A narrow win over the Maulers in Limhamn followed by a big win over the Lions sees them sitting pretty with a match to go in first place. With a match to go against bottom team, the Aarlborg Kangaroos, the probably cannot be beaten now for the minor premiership – barring some form of miracle.

However, the Maulers have a game in hand and will most likely finish in second place going into the finals.

Last weekend saw the AFLG semi-finals played in Frankfurt, with both the Hamburg Dockers and Berlin Crocodiles going through to the Grand Final. For the Dockers, they get to retain their title won last year. The Crocs will go to their fourth successive premiership decider.

The Dockers have been the best performed team across the season and will go into the match as strong favourites. Recent form back in Round 9 saw the Dockers down the Crocs by 29 points at home.

Earlier in the season, in Round 7, it was again the Dockers too good for the Crocs to the tune of 45 points. Their Round 2 clash also went the Dockers way by 19 points. When combined with last year’s victory for the Dockers over the Crocs, it is hard to see the Crocs finding whatever they need to reverse trend.

After another flawless season, the Belfast Redbacks have achieved their goal of winning back to bag Irish premierships by downing the Leeside Lions last weekend. In a close and tough encounter, it took until the final term for the heavily fancied Redbacks to shake off the persistent Lions to run out 29-point winners.

The margin seems significant, but probably does little to really show how gallant the Leeside Lions were in defeat, and how hard the Redbacks had to work to defend their title and complete a second successive undefeated season.

The Lions certainly came to play and by half time actually trailed by just seven points. The fact that they also dominated the scoring shots for the half – 11 to 8 – was cause for concern in the Redbacks camp. The Redbacks held sway largely through a better conversion rate on the scoreboard – in general play things were far more even.

Reigning SARFL premiers, the Edinburgh Bloods, had a tough road to negotiate, but they came up trumps last weekend when they downed the Glasgow Sharks in the Scottish Grand Final.

After going down to the Sharks in their semi-final, the Bloods had to negotiate the Tyne Tees Tigers in the Preliminary Final to gain another shot. They did, and after their 44-point win on Saturday, they have retained their title as the best team in Scotland.

In a game “played in great spirits”, the Bloods got away early but only held a four goal lead just after half time. The Sharks could have closed the gap. However, the Bloods sensed danger and by three-quarter time had pulled away to a 42-point lead, effectively ending any chance of a Sharks' revival.

The Edinburgh Bloods have the chance to defend their AFL Scotland/SARFL premiership title when they go on to meet the Glasgow Sharks next weekend in the 2019 Scottish Grand Final. Their solid victory against the Tyne Tees Tigers this weekend confirmed their booking and gives the Bloods a chance to go back to back.

In a tight match, scores were locked to three-quarter time. According to the Edinburgh Bloods Facebook page, “the Bloods are in the Granny! Very hard fought win in horrible windy conditions today. The game was all square until the fourth quarter where we managed to pull away with several unanswered goals. Thanks to the Tigers for a great game and all the best for next season.”

The Bloods and Sharks live on to fight another day for the 2019 premiership, but in many ways the story of the weekend could be the Tyne Tees Tigers. Whilst they would be disappointed to have lost a chance to reach their first ever Grand Final, they should also revel in the success of their best season to date.

 

The Leeside Lions have pulled off an upset result by defeating the Galway Magpies in the AFL Ireland Preliminary Final to book a place in the 2019 Grand Final. After a solid season from the Magpies, and an at times indifferent season from the Lions, the game proved that history matters little and the best team on any given day will win.

According to the Leeside Lions’ Facebook page, “last Saturday saw the Lions take on the Galway Magpies in the Preliminary Final with the Winner advancing to take on the reigning premiers the Belfast Redbacks in the Grand Final.” 

 

“The Lions hoped to put their disappointing end to the regular season behind them and with the head to head standing at 1 each this season against the Pies the third instalment was always going to be a tight affair.”