Hannah Thomson, writing for SBS, has provided an excellent account of the growth of our Australian game in Scotland. From the McCracken influence at Essendon to the Scottish football scene today, Hannah examines the growth through the eyes of those currently playing or involved in Australian Rules football in Scotland.

When you think of Scottish sports, AFL won’t be the first thing that comes to mind.  However, when Aussie rules first began in the mid 1850’s, the Scots were more involved than you imagine. When John McCracken and his two sons, originally from Girvan in the West of Scotland, moved to their new home in Melbourne in 1871 they established the Essendon Football Club.

Now, more than 140 years later, the game is beginning to flourish in the McCracken’s ancestral home.

Tomislav Vlaović is the current president of the newly founded Aussie Rules club, the Slavonski Brod Tigers, from Croatia. Hot on the heels of the current drive in Croatia to have a full sized field built at the Zagreb University, the Tigers represent another compelling piece of evidence that Croatian footy is growing.

Following is Tomislav’s story about his own background and that of the Slavonski Brod Tigers, who will lock horns with the Zagreb Hawks, Zaprude Giants, Velika Gorika Dockers and their Austrian brothers the Styrian DownUnderDogs.

 “I was born and raised in Melbourne until the age of 14 when my family and I permanently moved to Croatia to live. I always preferred [Australian Rules]footy to soccer because simply footy is more dynamic and attractive to play. Where every player is ready to cross that line of no return, where there are no calculations. Where a Collingwood supporter can sit next to a Carlton supporter and not panic. That's why I love this game.”

The lads from the Great Britain Bulldogs got together with some of the players from Wasps rugby club to talk about the differences and similarities of their chosen sports. And former WFN scribe Adam Bennett gets to shows off his skills.

Article courtesy of Anthony Nolan of the Tyne Tees Tigers

The old saying that “Aussie Rules is a man’s game with no rules” was well and truly kicked over the boundary line by Newcastle based Aussie Rules team Tyne Tees Tigers ARFC when they held a taster session for women in the area at their Shieldfield training base.
 
A total of eighteen women fronted for the taster session, run by the club on Saturday. Ageing from 13 through to a few 30+ year olds (a women never reveals her age I’ve found!) and displaying skills that led one male player at the club to ask “Do the girls qualify to play in our team?”
 

 

The Caledonian Australian Football League in Scotland is showing no signs of slowing down on its growth and now they have launched their social media outlets its only going to get better.

With their website http://www.cafl.org.uk/ they hope to reach a bigger audience and grow even more.

CAFL has one of the highest percentages in Europe of locals playing the sport of Australian Rules Football and this has been increasing year on year with figures showing that 83% of CAFL 2013 participants were Scottish. So what does such a high figure mean to the sport here in Scotland and the CAFL itself?

A sample of footy from Stuttgart Germany from April 2013 for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.stuttgart-emus.de/

This is the exciting story of the “Croatian Knights quest to build the first Aussie Rules field in Eastern Europe.” The Croatian Knights have started an information and sponsorship drive to try to make their dream a reality – a proper Australian Rules football ground of their own.

As stated in their prospectus brochure, “In 2013 an opportunity arose for the Association of Australian Football - Croatia to build the first Australian Rules football oval in Eastern Europe. For years our players dreamed of having locker rooms and being able to train and play on a flat grass field. For years we dreamed of kicking in front of real footy posts.”

Back at training in Melbourne after the Christmas and New Year break the Hawthorn squad looked primed to carry on 2014 the way they left 2013. Most of the squad had a tour of South Africa under their belt and their opponents might have hoped that the Hawks were showing some serious battle scars from their premiership campaign.

New recruits and draftees were out on show. International Rookie Kiwis Heatherley and Tatupu were on deck too - Kurt looking quick and skilled, Shem looking a bit underdone and reportedly not long out of a moon boot.

But Hawks fans out at the Ricoh centre were wondering who the slim red headed kid was?

Last weekend’s victory by the Toulouse Hawks over the Bordeaux Bombers has completed the pre-Christmas/New Year part of the season as winter tightens its grip over Europe. The results so far this season, however, will ensure a very tight finish when footy resumes again in mid-February.

With Toulouse Hawks defeating the Bordeaux Bombers 84 to 43, and the Fire Sharks Montpellier upsetting the Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes 110 to 100, the top four has started to take shape.

Irishman Zach Tuohy has become an important defender for the Carlton Football Club usually taking on the small forwards such as Luke Breust, Dustin Martin and Lindsay Thomas. His long kicking is very useful from defence but also comes in handy when he can pick off the ball when zoning off around the team's attacking 50m arc and kick some very handy goals.

The video below shows off some highlights of his 2013 season.