The 2015 Euro Cup is now but a memory and the players, officials, supporters and families have started the journeys home. In another year from now we will start again, somewhere. But now we have a chance to look at how each nation performed at the event.

 

Denmark:

As close to faultless as a team could get. Won their Pool B matches against Austria and the Peace team by huge margins, then mauled the host team, Croatia, in the semi-final stage. Gave England a decent headstart in the final before powering home and away by 21 points. Little more could have gone right to make this two years of Danish dominance.

 

The women’s team fell only at the final hurdle, proving too good for Norway, Croatia and France, However, they went down heavily in the final to England suggesting a gulf between their own best and the best women in Europe.

 

The Danish men’s footy team has etched themselves into the history books by becoming just the third team to win back to back titles after England (2008/09) and Ireland (2011/12). The Danes were terrific in taking out the title in Umag. The women’s title was taken by the England Vixens, defeating the Danish girls in their final.

 

In a tough final, heavily effected by strong winds, the England team raced to an early lead before the Denmark team charged back into the game, eventually running out comfortable winners by 21 points.

 

 

Host nation Croatia held on in a thriller against Ireland for the third place battle. Germany finished in fifth place, taking out the Euro Bowl by defeating the team from France in another thriller by just three points. The Netherlands defeated the European Crusaders in the battle for ninth place to be the winners of the Euro Plate.

The Sydney Swans tonight announced they have signed Irishman Colin O’Riordan as an International Category B rookie.

O’Riordan, who turns 20 next week, is an exciting prospect who hails from Irish county Tipperary.

The 187cm talented junior was recently named Gaelic football’s young player of the year and he’s also an All-Ireland minor winner in both hurling and football and has twice earned All-Ireland honours.

Irishman Tadhg Kennelly is a favourite son of the club in modern times and along the way they have also had Brendan Murphy, Chris McKaigue and Tommy Walsh come to the club from the Emerald Isle.

Kennelly oversaw the talent combine in Ireland late last year that was the first step in getting O'Riordan into the AFL system, but all clubs have the chance to both be at the combine here as well as see O'Riordan at the combine in Melbourne.  With Internationals the draft does not come into play in terms of who gets to sign them, it is first to sign them can then officially take them in the national draft.

 

As the AFL season in Australia moves into the trade and pre-draft stages, two more young Irish prospects have announced themselves at the current  NAB AFL Draft Combine. At the end of last season AFL clubs willingly added Irish talent to their 2015 lists with Conor McKenna going to Essendon, Sean Hurley to Fremantle, Padraig Lucey to Geelong, Cian Hanley to Brisbane and Paddy Brophy to West Coast.

 

Whilst the North American experiment is in a state of limbo with Eric Wallace being delisted by North Melbourne and the possibility of Mike Pyke retiring, the Irish contingent continues to blossom. The following article from www.afl.com.au introduces the progress of two more Irish candidates.

 

 

IRISH prospects Darragh Joyce and Colin O'Riordan have created plenty of interest at the NAB AFL Draft Combine, with the teenagers considered strong chances to earn international rookie contracts

The reality is that the best prepared and performed team on any given day, at any given event, will take home the titles. The talent and determination in the team list will go a long way to deciding events as will the collective desire to focus for the sustained periods required and get the job done.

But can past performance be used as a guide to how the teams will go at this year’s Euro Cup in Umag, Croatia. This is far from an exacting science, but it does make an interesting exercise to see what journeys each nation has been on in the preceding years.

Following is a team by team analysis of past performance as a guide to how they might perform at this year’s Euro Cup.

Copenhagen Australian Football tell us "there is a lot of effort put in the video (below) and we believe it does a good job of representing footy in Europe and in Copenhagen." We agree, encourage you to watch and enjoy.

 [youtube:vI7uRtiBvkE]

With the Axios Euro Cup for 2015 now just days away interest is turning to the teams that will compete this year. Whilst there is much excitement over how the host team, Croatia, will go, whether or not Denmark can defend its title or whether the Irish or English teams will bounce back, one team which has fostered much interest is the Peace Team.

Simon Fink has been working to put together this team and is one of the people responsible for seeing the team materialise at this year’s event.

According to Simon, “The current Peace Team is comprised of Israeli's and Palestinians living in and around Jerusalem. The composition is 50/50. We have Muslims, Jews and Christians playing together.”

Whilst the football world’s collective eyes are quite rightly locked on Melbourne this weekend for the AFL Grand Final, a week later the European “Grand Final” of footy nations will take place in Umag, Croatia. On Saturday 10th October, twelve men’s and six women’s teams will contest the Axios Euro Cup.

The men’s draw will have twelve teams competing. As well as the host nation, Croatia, there will be teams from England, Ireland and Scotland representing Great Britain. The Scandinavian contingent will be the teams from Norway and defending champions, Denmark. France, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands are the other stand-alone teams.

Additional to these are the European Crusaders team for those players coming without their national team in tow and also the Peace Team, of which more details will be released shortly.

West Coast Eagles’ International Rookie Paddy Brophy will give cause for Irish footy fans to pay attention during the half time break at this year’s AFL Grand Final. Brophy who has played his footy this year with East Perth in the WAFL will line up in the Grand Final Sprint.
 

The man from County Kildare in Ireland will have to beat out a strong field which includes Sudanese born ruckman Majak Daw and Hawthorn’s pacey defender Angus Litherland.

Just a week after taking out the SAFF (Stockholm Australian Football Federation) premiership when the downed the Solna Axemen (see story Södermalm belt Solna to claim 2015 SAFF Premiership, the club has won its second flag of the season winning the inaugural Swedish League Elitserien (Elite Series) to be the Swedish national champions.

The competition, set up to be the nation’s elite competition above and beyond the regional and urban leagues across the country, kicked off for the first time earlier this year. The competition featured the Södermalm Blues, Stockholm Dynamite, Port Malmö Maulers and the Helsingborg Saints in a six round competition designed around the other league draws.

After five rounds the Blues were clear leaders, undefeated, but still had to negotiate the second placed Maulers for the title. The game was being played at the, Limhamnsfältet IP, Malmö ground which evened up the competition.