Most people enjoy a feel good footy story where a football team that has fallen off the radar for whatever reasons rises again like a phoenix and returns. The story is even better when that club goes on to enjoy great success. For the Aarhus Bombers in Denmark, that s exactly what has been happening in the background – the phoenix is rising and time will tell if that success follows.

But according to Morten Merhøj, founder of the Odense Lions and currently driving the Bombers to rise again, his version of the Aarhus Bombers will be bigger and better that previous models.

“[The] Aarhus Australian Football was started back in 1996. Before then you had to travel to Aalborg or Copenhagen to play. After a meeting at the local Australian bar, the Billabong Bar, the club was founded. Many people were at the meeting, but three men was the driving forces: Grant, Jason and Dean.”

The AFL Europe Fitzpatrick Cup was played out last weekend, and the following article from the AFL Europe website details the event. Once again, the UC Bombers have proved to be the university to beat, raising the bar even higher in 2018. 

A mixture of rain, wind, hail and sunshine met participants at the 5th Fitzpatrick Cup hosted by the University College Cork (UCC) on Saturday. ‘The Farm’ played hosted to the annual universities tournament for the second year running in what proved a typically mild February day in Ireland. 

Eleven teams made the journey to this year’s Fitz with eight men’s and three women’s varsity teams battling it to be crowned university champions of Europe.

The Irish city of Cork will be the host of the 2018 Euro Cup. Better known to some for the Blarney Stone, Blarney Castle, captivating architecture and the River Lee, the city is also home to two very successful Australian Rules football teams. A bit over 250 kilometres south-west of Dublin, Cork is home to both the Leeside Lions and the UCC Bombers, and the city in the province of Munster might just be the Irish epicentre of footy at the moment.

The Leeside Lions are the current ARFLI titleholders, going back to back last year. Last weekend, the UCC Bombers also went back to back in the men’s and women’s competitions at the 2018 Fitzpatrick Cup for universities.

The AFL Europe website stats that, “AFL Europe is excited to announce that this year’s Euro Cup will be held in Cork, Ireland.”

Tash Gunawardana interviewed marquee AFLW Brisbane Lions player Sabrina Frederick-Traub. Frederick-Traub played for the Lions last night in the Grand Final rematch against the Adelaide Crows at Norwood Oval and took home the four points against the reigning premiers..

You were born in England, what is your awareness of footy in the UK?
I am aware of both the male and female teams that compete in the International Cup.

Do you consider yourself English, or Aussie?  Is there any identity clash when the Ashes are on?
I consider myself English, although I left when I was 7 my family still kept me immersed in the British culture and I go back a fair bit – Hahaha I support Australia when they are playing any other country apart from England , I am loyal when it comes to my home country.

 Image Source: womens.afl

Cora Staunton and Laura Corrigan-Duryea will go head to head today and Irish eyes will be smiling.  But Staunton will also renew acquaintances with Daisy Pearce.

Sure we are excited to see two Irish players line up in today's AFLW match.  But still have a time to wait before we see women that have learned the Australian game in Ireland make it to this competition however.  Today's meeting though could be some petrol added to the fire of local development in Ireland that is already on the up after winning this year's women's International Cup title.

Laura Corrigan-Duryea found the game in Australia, learnt it in suburban Melbourne and mastered the game at Diamond Creek before finally donning the number 11 for Melbourne in the AFLW's inaugural season.  She backed up the AFLW season with a VFL season that saw her with a Grand Final runners-up medal around her neck and a championship medal for the International Cup (as co-captain of her nations footy team).

With most of the European footy leagues gradually moving towards the beginning of their respective 2018 campaigns, the crew at AFL Europe have commenced an excellent series of articles that look back at the formation of national leagues across Europe, where they are now and what the future holds. So far the series has looked at footy in Denmark, Scotland and most recently Switzerland.

To view these articles, you can visit the AFL Europe website at www.afleurope.org and follow the menus, or you can go to the individual articles via the following links:

Scotland’s newest Australian football club, the West Lothian Eagles, has been granted the opportunity to compete in the SARFL, AFL Scotland’s national league, for the 2018 season on the agreement of being a developmental club. Whilst the club would be a touch disappointed that they did not receive full admission for 2018, they have received a great opportunity to build throughout 2018 ready for possible full inclusion in 2019.

In many ways, their fate is in their own hands. Given a set of criteria by AFL Scotland, the club has already agreed to the opportunity and immediately implemented goals and targets around issues such as player numbers and retention, non-playing personnel, financial stability and all other aspects of club operation.

The Tyne Tees Tigers, formerly a part of the AFLCNE competition, based across northern and central England, have made a monumental decision to leave that league and travel north to be a part of the AFL Scotland league, SARFL. Whilst on face value the question might be raised as to why a club in England would join a league in Scotland – geography justifies the decision. Based in Newcastle, in the north of England, the Tigers are closer to the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow than most of their former AFLCNE opposition.

According to Tyne Tees Tigers club president, Phil Martin, “we took the decision to change leagues based on travel involved. With the exception of the Huddersfield Rams, all the AFLCNE clubs are a greater distance from us than the SARFL clubs. Historically, due to this, we have always had a solid link to the Scottish clubs with strong representation at Tyne Cup over the years, with the pre-season Bawbag Cup between the Kingdom Kangaroos and ourselves (and last year included the Eagles as well) and also with pre-season friendlies. The time felt right to take the step [to join SARFL].”

The football scene in the SARFL (Scottish Australian Rules Football league) may be about to change if a bid by the West Lothian Eagles to join the league as a full member team is successful. Club founder, Mikey Allen, has fired off a submission for the club to be the fifth team in the SARFL for the 2018 season.

The club was founded in 2016 when Mikey identified the potential for another Australian Rules football team. Since that time the Falkirk Silverbacks club has ceased, further opening up the prospects for a new team – located between Edinburgh and Glasgow. If successful, the team would join the Greater Glasgow Giants, Glasgow Sharks, Edinburgh Bloods and Kingdom Kangaroos as part of the national league.

With the start of the new AFLW season getting closer – the Round One clash between arch rivals, Collingwood and Carlton, on February 2nd – Adam Curley from the www.afl.com.au website reports that the GWS Giants have a new weapon up their sleeve ahead of the new season – Irish legend, Cora Staunton.

ONE OF Ireland's most decorated athletes, Cora Staunton, is looking forward to being just another Greater Western Sydney player when the NAB AFL Women's season starts in February.

Staunton is a Gaelic football legend in her country, a dominant forward who just last month was named an All-Star – the equivalent of the AFL's All Australian honour – for a record 11th time. 

The 36-year-old is a household name in Ireland, having first represented her county Mayo in 1995, aged just 13, and is one of the game's biggest stars, so she told AFL.com.au just days after arriving in Sydney that she's happy to leave the spotlight behind to concentrate on learning her new code.