Colm Begley and John Heslin talk to Irish radio Newstalk about the homesickness and the early return home of Irish international rookies recruited to the AFL. 

This discussion is quite timely, just last week Irishman Daniel Flynn who was recruited by the Port Adelaide Football Club had flown back home to be with his family as his grandfather battles a serious illness.

Daniel, who joined the club as a rookie in November 2013, has taken a leave of absence and there is speculation that he may not return to the club at all. 

The GIANTS will add a touch of green to the sea of orange at Spotless Stadium for the Battle of the Bridge against the Swans on March 15.

To celebrate St Patrick’s Day on March 17, the GIANTS have launched a special ticket offer for all Irish fans in Sydney.

It includes a reserved seat in a dedicated Irish “Green Bay”, a green GIANTS t-shirt and a beverage voucher (600ml drink or beer) for just $25.

Award winning Irish band Tolka will kick off the festivities and there will be demonstrations of hurling and Gaelic football before the main game.

When the AFLCNE (Australian Football League Central & Northern England) made the decision to admit the Tyne Tees Tigers for the 2014 as a fully-fledged eighth team they may not have foreseen the small football revolution that the Tigers would bring with them.

Since their admission to the league in their own right, the Tyne Tees Tigers have also managed to develop their own women’s team as well as initiating their first regional expansion team, the Wearside Wallabies.

This team, which initially will join in with localised games and events in the Newcastle on Tyne district, has tapped into the Aussie Rules interest generated by the Tyne Tees crew around the Sunderland, Durham and Washington area south of Newcastle.

It certainly appears that the admission of this team in north-east England to the AFLCNE competition, spread mainly across the north central corridor may have even greater long term benefits to the league that first envisioned.

A recent chat with Tyne Tees Tigers club president, Ian Baxter, sheds light on the expansion and the visions of a 10 year plan which are starting to come together.

The Irish Warriors will receive a nice present to take home with them when they visit Melbourne for IC14. Courtesy of Zach Tuohy's super goal during the NAB Challenge match on the weekend (video below).

NAB are giving away $500 worth of Sherrin footballs to the junior club of the player who kicks a supergoal during the NAB challenge. However with Tuohy having no junior Aussie rules club the AFL Media Manager Patrick Keane has confirmed that the balls will be presented to the Irish team and then taken back to Ireland for use in development there.

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/