The winter break is nearly over for the CNFA competition in France with the annual Coupe Du Sud (effectively the Southern Cup or Cup of the South – or more exactly South Cup) to be held in Pau, home of the fledgling CNFA hopefuls, the Pau Bears. The tournament will be held at the Stade Asptt Rugby ground in Pau this Sunday, 7th February.

The history of the event can be traced from this translation of the description of the Football Australian (CNFA) website:

“Created in [the] winter [of] 2010 [by]the club Perpignan Tigers, this competition has established itself in the [CNFA]schedule to host the winter break. Indeed, despite the cold, some southern clubs had the opportunity to play and have easier access to ground through a milder climate than the so-called northern clubs.

The second Fitzpatrick Cup for Australian Rules football playing university teams in England and Ireland takes place today at the University of Birmingham. The previous inaugural event was held in Dublin late in 2013. It was contested by the NRC Eagles from Northern Ireland, DCU from Dublin, the visiting Oxford University team and was won on the day by the UCC Bombers from Cork.

The second incarnation of the event will see the defending champions, UCC, and fellow Irish team the DCU, up against a larger field which includes the host team, University of Birmingham and the teams from both Oxford and Cambridge universities.

The event is fast becoming an important fixture in the calendar of university based teams, not just for the bragging rights that go with victory against other fellow teams, but for the experience that players can gain and the prestige and confidence that go with victory.

Cristiano Colizzi has played since 2009 for Roma Football Club in Italy, as well as handling media and a host of other things for AFL Italia. Also known as “Pint” (as in a pint of beer), he has provided World Footy News with a rundown of footy in Italy for the second of our “Through The Looking Glass” stories examining how footy has been going, and where to next for the game in countries and leagues across the world.

“As you remember AFL in Italy started in 2010 with four teams: Roma Football Club, Milano Footy Eagles, Genova Dockers and Lugano Bankers. Unfortunately in 2012 we lost Lugano Bankers (they quit playing AFL 9 per side) and in 2014 we also lost Genova Dockers who had just 5 or 6 players remaining.”

“So the Milano Footy Eagles acquired a few players from both Lugano and Genova. They have a great team for now! But the history says....not enough!”

With previous attempts stumbling, Poland may soon see a new team (or two) if Gareth Smith can bring his project to fruition. Most recently the Polish Bisons were put together in Poznan, but after recent contact the only remaining Bison admits that the club is now inactive.

Gareth, however, has the love of the game and the drive to kickstart the game in a nation which he believes has the latent talent to take on the game and excel.

“I have lived in Bydgoszcz for over eight years now but still love footy! I am a massive Cats fan and have been since I was a kid. I kick the footy in the park almost every day with my kids in summer and I still feel the old competitive juices flowing, so I tried to find an Australian football team here in Poland.”

AFL Europe has commenced the call to action for players to compete in this year’s ANZAC Cup in France. The match will again be played in the now historically linked venue at Villers Bretonneaux, part of the Somme Department in northern France, some 20 kilometres from the city of Amiens.

As reported on the AFL Europe website, “2015 sees the 7th edition of the ANZAC Cup on the battlefields of Villers Bretonneux in France. Thanks to the work of previous organisers the CNFA and ABA this event continues to grow into a real highlight on the European calendar. This year’s event will be held on the 25th April.”

“Playing abilities are not the focus, we are more interested in personal connections to the area or the armed forces and the ANZAC’s special history. In the tradition of the ANZAC spirit Kiwi’s are more than welcome to apply.”

The Russian city of St Petersburg is the nations second largest city behind Moscow. With a population of close to five million people, the city sits on the Neva River where the water flows gently into Neva Bay, then the Gulf of Finland and eventually the Baltic Sea.

The city, previously known as both Petrograd and Leningrad, has a rich history. It is also the new home of Australian Rules football in Russia with the inception of the mighty St Petersburg Cats football club.

Viacheslav (Slava) Belov is one of the driving forces behind the new club. According to Slava, "Our club was founded on the 10th June 2014 sitting at a pub on the banks of the Neva River at our IGM. We elected our president, treasurer and secretary." And so, the club was formed.

With the news of another Australian Rules football club coming to life in St Petersburg, Russia, another club has also emerged closer to the current Russian “heartland” of the game in Moscow. The Lazy Koalas are the latest addition to the footy scene and their co-founder, Mikhail Artemyev, was kind enough to answer some questions about the club’s creation.


Mikhail began by saying that “the second in August 2014 is considered to be the founding date of the new Australian Rules football club the "Lazy Koalas". In Moscow there are 5 or 6 teams and there is also one team (we know of) in St. Petersburg. From the moment we created our team, we were able to take part in two cups under the auspices of AFL Russia.”

The team is always looking for opportunities to play, but sometimes the weather or other factors intervene. “Competitions are held in Moscow every 2 to 3 months, but due to adverse weather conditions during the period from December to April, the team only trains on individual plans of each team.”

Today, 1st January 2015 the Adelaide Advertiser (page 65, Sport Section) published an article about the search for footy players in Europe extending beyond Ireland.
The Advertiser's distribution readership covers all of South Australia and beyond to Broken Hill in NSW. Following is that article:

THE AFL is set to cast their foreign draft net beyond Gaelic footballers to find new talent in local leagues playing the game elsewhere in Europe.

Four Irish rookies were signed up for the 2015 season by AFL clubs in Australia including Essendon, Geelong, Fremantle and West Coast.