Week 2 of the 2016 AFL NAB Challenge series kicks off this Thursday night with the GWS GIANTS hosting the Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval in Canberra. 

Please see below for the local and international broadcast schedule.  Note that all programming is subject to change and may occur without notice at the whim of the broadcast networks. Please check local guides for confirmation.

With six games already played in this season’s NAB Challenge, plenty of debutants, rookies and peripheral list players from AFL clubs have had their first hit outs of the new season. Their hope would be to string together enough game time to impress selectors between now and Round 1.

Many of those players are the international contingent – players that have either come to the game from overseas, or were born overseas and adopted our game – the international and multicultural players by AFL definitions.

A quick look through the performances to date sees some heartening performances.

(Image - Rueben William (Brisbane Lions) and Mabior Chol (Richmond Tigers) pre-draft in Queensland colours - Courtesy AFLQ)

 

The following story from the Essendon Football Club website details the club’s support for the “Racism. It Stops With Me” campaign. Heading the push on behalf of the club is Cairns born Bomber, Courtney Dempsey, who played junior football here in the northern city for Manunda Hawks.

 

As a coach of another Cairns-based club which has 92% indigenous players, I also strongly support this initiative. Having coached from Under 14 to Under 18 age groups at the Pyramid Power club, and though schools since 2001, I have personally seen, and been directly involved in, the  ugly, damaging side of racism. Not all people are racist. The overwhelming majority of supporters at local level are people with the knowledge of, and acceptance of difference. But the damage done by a bigoted minority can be devastating, and I have sadly dealt with this personally and do not want to again.

 

 

Thank you to the Essendon Football Club for this article.

 

As reported by Peter Ryan at the www.afl.com.au website, the number of teams for next year’s inaugural national women’s competition is likely to now be eight, with Victorian clubs fighting hard for just four licences and the other four going to clubs in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. Clubs have already been lobbying hard and this will continue now as the reality of the 2017 season gets closer.

 

EIGHT women's teams aligned with AFL clubs could form the new women's national competition planned for 2017.

 

 

The AFL is considering running a national competition in February and March next year that includes four teams from Victoria and one each from Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.

The 2016 AFL NAB Challenge series kicks off this Thursday night with reigning premiers Hawthorn playing wooden spooners Carlton in Launceston. 

Please see below for the local and international broadcast schedule.  Note that all programming is subject to change and may occur without notice at the whim of the broadcast networks. Please check local guides for confirmation.

Often lost amongst the crash and bash of senior based footy – men’s or women’s – is the layer of talent that stands to receive the baton after the existing playing groups have become too old to keep running. In so many ways, the kids are THE most important people in the game. It is all very well to have great players, administrators, umpires and so forth now. But ensuring that the pipeline runs deep into the future is vital.

That is why there is nothing quite like seeing the smile on a kid’s face when they have a footy in their hands. The future is so much more secure when we can see the love of the game growing in the next generation – and the next.

 

We are reproducing Matt Zurbo’s training manual for those that are challenged by small numbers out on the footy track. This series first appeared in The Footy Almanac.