The Dulwich Dragons will this year enter the AFL London's Conference (2nds) Division, after playing in the Social (3rds) League since their formation in 2008.
Club stalwart Alistair Chisholm explains that the Dragons were created by two footy enthusiasts who decided the London league needed to spread away from the traditional Aussie expat areas in the city's west.
Two years later, the Dragons have over sixty players on their squad list and will be playing in both the 2nd and 3rd divisions on the AFL London, after a strong showing in 2009 despite some early fixturing hiccups.
Chisholm says the creation of the club began with a couple of blokes walking into a bar. "One bloke got the drinks, the other said 'mate, AFL needs to spread in London, why don't we start ... More...
The AFL Middle East Grand Final "Prematch" was played last week, with the Heat edging out the Falcons in a thriller. Just two points separated the top two teams at the final siren.
The league’s Football Operations Manager, Cameron Hotton, kindly provided the following review:
In windy conditions at The Sevens ground in Dubai, Abu Dhabi came out ready to play and showed that it was possible to kick goals against the strong breeze – matching it with the more fancied Heat in terms of goals scored, but were two points behind on the scoreboard.
The second quarter saw the Falcons outplay the Heat yet again but probably didn’t kick as straight as the would have liked, kicking 3.5 for the quarter to the Heat’s 1.2. Both sides went in at half time with the Falcons holding a significant 13 point lead in a reasonably low scoring game – 42 points to 29.
The third quarter saw much of the same as the first half with the wind stil... More...
The readers of USFootyNews.com have chosen the 2009 Coopers Goal and Mark of the Year. Congratulations to Seattle and Portland's Martin Coventry on kicking the Goal of the Year and to Calgary's Dane Rolfe for taking the Mark of the Year.
Portland Power and Seattle Grizzly, Martin Coventry, took out the 2009 Coopers Brewery USFootyNews.com Goal of the Year. Thanks to all the USFootyNews.com readers, Portland and Seattle fans for voting! Thanks also to Coopers Brewery for providing the prizes.
Although Coventry's huge kick in the 2009 USFooty National Championship was not enough to win the National... More...
Continuing the explosive growth of new clubs in England, the Guildford Crows are warming up for the 2010 season, and are on the lookout for friendly matches against other southern clubs to get underway.
Located around halfway between London and England's south coast, Guildford is the traditional centre of County Surrey and is only a few kilometers from the town of Woking, which was home to the old BARFL's Thames Valley Magpies in the early 1990s.
Leading the Crows is Tom Drake, a Briton who discovered Australian rules football while traveling in Australia, joined the Aberdeen Dingoes while studying in Scotland, and went on to represent the Scotland twice in 2009.
Drake says that although he'd heard of Australian rules football, he didn't really know anything about it until traveling in Australia in 2008. "I was introduced to the game by a fri... More...
Among the sides running out onto Whitten Oval in this year's Harmony Cup will be Team Israel, who will be hoping to regain the title they won at 2004's inaugural Multicultural Cup.
Although the Australian Jewish community is not often associated with producing star players, it has provided us with such high profile off-field personalities as the late Carlton president Dick Pratt, Melbourne FC's merger saviour Joseph Gutnick, current Bulldogs chief David Smorgon and colourful 80s-era Sydney Swans owner Dr Geoffrey Edelsten.
Fans of international footy will be familiar with the Peres Peace Team, a side of Israeli and Palestinian players that came together for the 2008 International Cup with the support of the Peres Centre for Peace and a number of Australian business supporters. A social Aussie rules scene al... More...
The US Revolution kicked off their 2010 season with a winter camp in Austin, Texas. New head coach, Matt Bishop, was keen to get the team together with a series of camps throughout the year culminating with the big game against the Canadian Northwind in Toronto in early August.
There were a number of new faces looking to impress the Revo coaching staff, including Minnesota's big man, Andrew Werner. Werner spent much of 2009 playing footy in the Western Australian country leagues and is looking forward to contributing to the Revos.
According to Werner, "I think the year looks really good. We have a few guys coming back this year after playing a year in Australia, and it will be great to have their enthusiasm for the sport introduced into an already dedicated Revolution team. It seems as if there are a lot of guys who are interested in being named... More...
No you didn't read that wrong, South America. While the AFL club the West Coast Eagles have been involved in footy development in the African nation of South Africa, it is now the South American continent that is drawing their attention.
Eagles Chief Trevor Nisbett told www.foxsports.com.au "There seems to be a lot of talented athletes coming out of there and most of them are obviously playing soccer and rugby," he said. "If we are looking at other players, why not look there. A lot of the guys over there are super well-built and are super athletes. From our point of view it's certainly worth looking at."
The Eagles have linked up with high profile player agent Peter Jess to set up assessment camps. Of the South Americans Jess said "because of the enormous cultural differences he expected South Americans to adapt more quickly to ... More...
The Surrey Park Panthers, a club playing in the fourth division of Melbourne's Eastern FL, will this year play host to a new league-within-a-club, aimed at introducing Indian migrants and students to Australian rules football.
Coordinating the project is WFN writer Ash Nugent, who says the competition is both about promoting Australian rules football, as well as building understanding between the Australian and Indian communities. The main target group for recruitment is Melbourne's large Indian student community, who come to Melbourne for tertiary studies after completing secondary school in India.
Initial sessions based around teaching basic skills, then kicking off a competition described as "a serious league but with a strong social element", that will also provide opportunities for players to move into senior football with the Panthers.
Nugent s... More...
The Cincinnati Dockers, two-time defending USAFL Division 4 National Champions, have announced their schedule for the 2010 season.
They will kick off the season on the road at the John Harrell Memorial Cup Tournament in Louisville, KY on May 8th, play at home twice in a 7-match schedule, then return to Louisville in October for the 2010 USAFL Championships.
Based in Fairfield, Ohio and established in 1996, the Dockers are the oldest footy club of its kind in the United States. The match scheduled for September 25th this year between the Dockers and Kentucky's Louisville Kings will be the 14th anniversary of the first-ever Australian Rules Football match between two US teams.
Cincinnati will kick off their campaign at the annual pre-season tournament in Louisville, where last year they went 1-1. They will follow up with three straight road matches at Chicago on June 5th, St. Louis on either June 19th or 26th (date TBD), and M... More...
The small town of Chichester, with a population of just over 20,000, is home to one of Britain's newest universities - the University of Chichester only being founded in 2005. The town is also home to one of Britain's newer university Australian football clubs, with the Chichester Cougars kicking off proceedings late last year.
Since being founded by members of the nearby Southampton Titans, the Cougars have played matches against Chippenham, Portsmouth and Birmingham Uni, recently breaking through for their first win.
Cougars founder Martyn Hinchey spoke to WFN about his club.
Hinchey started playing two years ago, after a fellow student encouraged him to have a run with the Southampton Titans. "A friend of mine, Mark Todd, who has now left university, attempted to set up a team at Chichester but didn't get much interest. However, I enjoyed ... More...
AFANA have given us details of how the North American TV coverage of AFL matches is shaping up for the 2010 season. Firstly there is no NAB Cup coverage. The primary US coverage will be via internet broadband on ESPN360.com. This is free if your ISP has a deal with ESPN [about 50% of US homes] or if you live on a university campus or US military base. AFANA have coverage schedules for virtually the entire AFL season and will be posting those soon.
Round 1 will have Richmond v Carlton, Geelong v Essendon and Western Bulldogs v Collingwood live. Three matches live per round for the balance of the AFL season.
ESPN360 will change names on 4 April to ESPN3 but otherwise remain the same just with an upgraded web page. ESPN2, a broadcast outlet, will carry 4 AFL matches during the course of the season including the Grand Final (live). The first match will be the Round 15 Geelong v Hawthorn match on a delayed basis. Two more will be selected at a later date.
Secondar... More...
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