(Photo:James Crombie - INPHO) 

The AFLG’s initial tournament of the 2016 season, the 9’s format, is two thirds complete with the Round 6 matches played last week in Dresden. The format, introduced last season, sees two Hamburg teams (Swans and Pirates) as well as the Frankfurt Redbacks, Munich Kangaroos, Berlin Crocs, Rheinland Lions, Freiberg Taipans, Stuttgart Emus and Dresden Wolves battle out the honours over 10 rounds of 9’s format, with a Grand Final on September 10th.

The 9’s home and away format finishes with Round 7 and Round 8 played concurrently in both Munich for southern German teams and in Hamburg for northern teams. After that the 16’s competition will commence with a four team competition over four rounds between July and September featuring the Munich Kangaroos, Hamburg Dockers, Berlin Crocs and Rheinland Lions.

The new 2016 ARFLI (Australian Rules Football Ireland) is underway with round two of the series of round robin carnivals having been played at Cork, home of the Leeside Lions. The revised format has been designed to ease some of the travel burden and associated costs for clubs. Each carnival will also feature a women’s clash with local and/or travelling teams involved.

The concept will see each team play two matches of two twenty minute halves, which constitutes two rounds of the season. So after two carnivals (four rounds), the Leeside Lions are the only undefeated team and lead the way so far. For a full view of the 2016 ARFLI fixtures, go to: http://www.arfli.com/2016/04/04/2016-...announced/

The opening carnival was hosted by the South Dublin Swans at Bushy Park, Tenenure. The Lions won both of their clashes, as did the Belfast Redbacks.

 

Last week saw the  commencement of the new AFL Norway season with the first round of the Kenguru Cup being played at Voldslokka Stadion in Oslo. The following article from the Oslo Crows website details the opening round.

 Oslo’s Eastside squad proved it will be the team to beat in Kenguru Cup 2016 after scoring strong wins in a high quality round one under sunny skies at Voldslokka.

 

Playing with a mixture of new and old faces, the East shrugged off an indifferent start against Oslo West in the first game to run out convincing winners 61 to 18.

The new FAFL season got under way on the weekend with the first two rounds of the season played out across a three game round robin style format, amended and adapted for the new season. After a season in 2015 where factors impacted a consistent draw, the new measures allow for a better level of round by round action.

The three Finnish teams this year are the Helsinki Heatseekers, Turku Dockers and the Vaasa Wombats. The opening rounds were held in the nation’s capital, Helsinki.

Whilst the Helsinki Heatseekers are the current title holders, the Turku Dockers have already proven they are back with a vengeance, winning both of their matches on the weekend. In a promising sign, the Vaasa Wombats have struggled for numbers for a couple of seasons, but it is heartening to see them play both games and pushed the Heatseekers in their match.

Footy in Russia is no longer a one horse race. The domination of the Lazy Koalas (albeit a brief domination) has ended and Moscow is now being challenged as the Russian powerhouse of Australian Rules footy with the St Petersburg Cats winning their latest match.

The Cats were the home team this time around, having gone down to the Lazy Koalas in Moscow a few weeks ago. The lazy Koalas have been up and about as a club for a couple of seasons, but it is only this year where the St Petersburg cats have entered into a regular competition.

It is roughly 650 kilometres between the two Russian cities (very roughly the same distance from London to Edinburgh, a little more than Los Angeles to San Francisco and a little less than Melbourne to Adelaide). Due to the distance, regular tournaments are problematic, but becoming more frequent – and desired.

Like any brand new club starting from scratch, the AFLCNE’s newest club, the Merseyside Saints, have had a tough initiation into the “big league”. They knew there would be tough days at the office, but they would also have had confidence that time, patience and belief would help alleviate any one-sided scorelines.

By going down to the Sheffield Thunder last start by 49 points, they continued a positive trend from negative results. Hammered mercilessly by the Wolverines early in the season by 289 points, then by the Mozzies by 265 points, the scoreline against the Tyne Tees Tigers receded to a 108 point loss, and now 49 points to Thunder.

Granted the scorelines are relative to the opposition played, but that doesn’t change the fact that the deficits are headed in the correct direction and is a positive sign of growth for the fledgling club. There will be more tough days, but each game has been a learning experience and the Merseyside Saints are learning at a rapid rate.

In the most exciting game of the round, and possibly the season to date, the Wimbledon Hawks have drawn with the London Swans in their Round 4 match last weekend. In a match that was important to both – for Hawks to consolidate their place in the top four, and for the Swans to get their first win of the year – the draw didn’t exactly deliver either, yet both teams gained something, such is the way of drawn matches.

The result sees the Swans still on the bottom of the ladder and the Hawks still in fourth place, but both have the advantage of half a game in hand later in the season if things get closer. The draw also highlighted the luck of the Swans, going down by just 3 points to Putney last weekend. In both games one extra straight kick could have changed their fortunes.

With the Toulouse Hawks forfeiting their final round match against the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes, the Coyotes have finished the home and away rounds of the CNFA (French) Australian Football season. Sitting on 25 points after all but one match of Round 9 have been completed, the Coyotes cannot be knocked from the spot regardless of the result of the final match between the Paris Cockatoos and the Strasbourg Kangourous.

It is a huge result for the Coyotes, meaning they will contest their semi-final against the Toulouse hawks. Whether by win or forfeit, the highest the Cockatoos can finish is third due to a lesser percentage than the Cockerels, meaning they will contest the other semi-final against the Paris Cockerels in a Paris derby.

For two weeks in a row the Wolverhampton Wolverines were chalking up cricket scores in their AFLCNE matches. Then, last weekend, they came up against a brick wall called the Nottingham Scorpions. In a tough match, the Scorpions kept the pressure on the previously undefeated Wolverines and pulled away to notch an important victory for the club.

The result keeps the Scorpions well within reach of the Wolverines (second on ladder) and the Manchester Mozzies (first) in the early race for league supremacy.