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EC16 Team Preview – German Eagles

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AFL Europe Championships Team Preview – German Eagles

Every three years the AFL Europe Championships take place for teams to assert their dominance and claim bragging rights against their European counterparts as well as gain valuable 18-a-side match practice in the lead up to the International Cup the following year.

In the lead up to this year’s AFL Europe Championships in London we’ll be focusing on each team and previewing their chances of taking out the top prize.

The next team preview is of the German Eagles. They’ll be raring to go in the 18-a-side tournament especially after claiming the Bowl at last year’s Euro Cup.

How have the German Eagles been going since Euro Cup 2015?

The Eagles have been slowly building a group of passionate, focused and tough footballers over the past 10 years, as the sport grows along with it in Germany.

The Eagles finished Euro Cup 2015 in Umag, Croatia as winners of the Bowl. This highlighted the growth and development in Germany.

At Euro Cup 2015 a new management team was introduced, they continued to work on the principle of national team growth, whilst adding in a new intensity to the group.

Who’s in for the AFL Europe Championships in 2016?

Mark Woods will continue coaching the Eagles into the Championships in 2016. Woods is an Australian who currently plays in the AFL Germany competition with the Munich Kangaroos. His in-depth knowledge of the local German players will be invaluable come August. He brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge but more importantly has a passion to develop the game outside of Australia.

A full squad will be on the plane to London for the August tournament. The list will be very new and have many fresh faces. With their usual captain and half a dozen first 18 players missing from the squad this could prove a difficult tournament. With experience lacking there is a chance to blood some new players which can only strengthen the Eagles in the long-term.

Pulling on the German jumper is always a great honour for the players and each player knows their roles to help the Eagles compete strongly.

The Eagles squad comprises players from all over Germany. Most AFL Germany clubs are represented with Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Freiberg, Frankfurt and Munich all providing players to the national squad. This squad will also include some players from England and the Netherlands.

Pre-Tournament Focus

The Eagles have met for a 2-day training camp during the mid-season AFL Germany break and proved a key lead up camp prior to the AFL Europe Champs.

The team is a mix of youth and experience and have established six team pillars they want to be renowned for in the competition. If all players stick to these team pillars they’ll be successful come August.

One key area of focus for the Germans in the lead up has been their ability to work hard without the ball in hand. They believe that this will be a key feature and highlight of their game style.

The Eagles are well-known for their team balance and drive. They are driven to do their country proud. They aren’t here to make up the numbers by any means and want to be the best team in Europe. They are lucky because their players are able to play in any position across the ground and are willing to put themselves on the line for their country.

However, their limited time together will prove challenging and the quicker they gel as a team the more dangerous they’ll become to their opposition.

Who has the X-Factors?

The Germans are strong across the park and are blessed with the ability to play their players in any position. A few names to keep an eye out for are big bodied midfielder/defender, Florian Naumann, who can take a strong mark overhead and hits very hard. Ruben Streicher is a raw talent who plays as a tall forward or ruckmen. He was named in the Euro Cup team of the tournament last year in Croatia and is only going to improve. Jakob Jung is one to watch for the opposition. He has all the attribute of a top-quality midfielder with his speed and skills, he’s also tough as nails so will be hard to stop in the Champs.

Players who have shown significant improvement for the Eagles are Jan Husken and Simon Assmus. Both will be hoping to continue their rapid develop and shake up competition.

The coach’s thoughts – Mark Woods?

“In Euro Cup 2015, Germany played their first matches under a new coaching style and set of team rules. The team had only come together two days before the cup. Yet when we played to the rules and stuck to our style, we played very well. We lost only one game for the day, against Ireland, and that by only a small margin, having been thrashed by them in previous years.

With this in mind, we are looking to continue to grow as a country squad. I will be most proud when we stick to the game plan and the team rules. We will play hard (and of course fair).

This being said, all of the players want to win. I want to win.”

Team List

  1. Florian Naumann
  2. Jonas Nebel
  3. Simon Assmus
  4. Martin Schuttoff
  5. Jakob Jung
  6. Jan Ostrawsky
  7. Johannes Mast
  8. Constantin Pixa
  9. Martin Krichler
  10. Markus Preib
  11. Martin Bauer
  12. Sebastian Esche
  13. Rob Macher
  14. Ruben Streicher
  15. Jan Husken
  16. Johannes Orlowski
  17. Sven Bonus
  18. Henrik van de Stay
  19. Jonas Jakobeit
  20. Matthias Schmitz
  21. Tobias Menzel
  22. Moritz Herthum
  23. Jascha Jung
  24. Karl Haigh
  25. Tristan Thormann
  26. Rob White
  27. Uli Schmoll
  28. Johannes Binninger
  29. Waldemar Schlundt
  30. Richard Meisenheimer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Around the Grounds

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Hawks make history and raise funds for St Barnabas House

The Wimbledon Hawks made history at the weekend at their annual Ladies Day. The Hawks took on the North London Lions across all three grades which saw their Premiership and Women’s sides getting the victory and their Social men’s drawing. These results confirmed all three sides making the finals for the first time ever at the same time.

Massive congratulations to the Hawks who also raised an astonishing £800 for St Barnabas House as part of the Ladies Day. A great achievement both on and off the field for the Wimbledon club.

Wimbledon Hawks

Berlin Crocs prove too strong for the traveling Lions

The first round of the AFLG Premiership saw the Berlin Crocs dominate the Rheinland Lions finishing 109 point victors in the Capital. A seven goal to zero opening term all but put the game on ice for the Crocs with forward Luke Edwards finishing up with 8 goals to his name. The final scorecard reading 18.12. 120 to 1.5. 11.

The AFLG Championships also kicked off at the weekend with a huge win by the Hamburg Dockers over the Dresden Wolves, as well as the Frankfurt Redbacks flexing their muscles against SpVgg Freiberg Taipans/Stuttgart Emus.

Crocs v Lions

New Scottish sports star on the horizon

She may have moved from Scotland at the age of 9 but we’ll claim her here at AFL Europe. Jemma Abbott is an up-and-coming AFL Queensland Youth Academy member who has her eyes firmly placed on a spot in one of the AFL Women’s league sides when the national league kicks off next year.

Having represented the Queensland Youth Girls Academy at the National titles in Melbourne earlier this year Jemma could light up the Gabba in the years to come.

Read her full article here:

http://www.aflq.com.au/from-scotland-to-the-gabba/

Jemma Abbott

Bloods share the top with Giants in SARFL

It’s heating up in the Scottish Australian Rules Football League (SARFL) with the Edinburgh Bloods knocking off top placed Greater Glasgow Giants by 80 points at the weekend. This result puts the Bloods level on 16 points with the Giants, with only percent separating the two.

It’s going to be an interesting last couple of weeks in the SARFL with the final makeup of the top four yet to be determined.

Check out the ladder below (as of 9/7/16):

SARFL Table

AFL Europe Umpires Course comes to Sweden

On the 23rd of July AFL Sweden in conjunction with AFL Europe are putting on an Umpiring Course to aid those aspiring to become accredited umpires. Shane Hill will be making the journey from London to run the day which comprises both theoretical and practical elements.

This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in developing their knowledge of the game and is not to be missed. For further details, jump over to the official Facebook event linked below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1621615481500922/

 

 

Match of the Round

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Berlin Crocodiles v Rheinland Lions  

It’s the first game of the German 16-a-side Premiership. Rheinland Lions are making the trip to Berlin to take on the Berlin Crocodiles in what is set to be an intriguing battle between two sides who didn’t meet in the 9-a-side tournament earlier in the year.

The Crocodiles finished that tournament by winning 11 out of a possible 12 games to finish second behind the Munich Kangaroos. The Lions had an indifferent tournament and lacked consistency winning 50% of their games to finish fourth with a 6-12 record.

This weekend’s fixture in Berlin earmarks the start of the 16-a-side Premiership which runs up until the 10th of September when the season culminates with the Grand Final. This year’s format will see 3 teams competing in the larger format which also includes the Munich Kangaroos. The Kangaroos will go into the season as early favourites due to their dominance in the earlier 9-a-side Championship were they didn’t drop a game.

The weekends clash has added importance as the winner will go through to play the Kangaroos in what is effectively a preliminary final with the winner going straight through to the grand final in September.

Berlin 2

The Crocs have improved rapidly in the past few seasons and account this to the development of their internal 9-a-side Berlin tournament which consists of four teams, as well as the commitment from their first home-grown German coach, Constantine Hoher. This will be their first 16-a-side game in over two years which could prove difficult and how quickly they adjust will be key to winning this game.

The key players for the Crocs are their four big recruits for the year in Rhys Ironmonger, Mitch New, Luke Edwards and James Sunderman. All four have played reasonable football back home in Australia and have added real depth and talent to the Berlin list.

Berlin 5

The Lions have had an indifferent season thus far coming into the 16s Premiership and attribute some major team changes since their Premiership season and Champions League appearance in 2014/15 as a major factor for their inconsistency. The positive for the Lions is the fact that their team is made up primarily of young Germans. Despite their inexperience they’re enthusiastic, fit, strong and pushing hard for an all-out assault on the 16s Premiership.

The key players for the Lions are the midfield generals Julian Wichmann and Tobias Menzel. The latter has arrived back from a year exchange in Australia where he further developed his skills and tactics. Richard Huggard is one to look out for as well. Despite living in Australia, Huggard, returns to Germany every 2 years and pulls the boots on. Huggard should provide extra motivation for the young squad by showing his commitment to the team with the great lengths he travels to pull on the mighty Lions jumper.

It’s set to be a blockbuster to open the Germany 16-a-side Premiership season with plenty on the line for both sides. The winner books themselves a place against the Munich Kangaroos and a chance for automatic entry in the Grand Final. If that doesn’t get the two teams excited for this weekend’s blockbuster, then I don’t know what will.

Best of luck to the Berlin Crocs and Rheinland Lions, we look forward to hearing the result of this one.

Coach’s thoughts – Constantine Hoher (Berlin Crocs)

“I’m looking forward to the final and excited to see how we will go in our first 16-a-side match since 2014 (due to the comp being restructured to a 9-a-side format last year). We have a lot of height in our team this year and we are planning to use this to our advantage. So despite the fact they have been a strong team in the last few years I think we can give them good competition at our home ground and hopefully come away with a win.”

 

Coach’s thoughts – Kristopher Marsh (Rheinland Lions)

“The season has been quite up and down for the team so far. Even though skills have improved tremendously since the previous season the team has not always lived up to their potential. However, the squad is in good shape and has been training hard over the past days to work on their consistency. Certainly, motivation won’t be an issue since the boys are looking forward to their favourite away game in the capital.”

German umpiring on the rise

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By Nilss Lode

Australian Football in Germany often faces challenges as far as finding ideal playing venues in a central location as soccer is the dominant sport which requires significantly smaller playing areas. In the past, most games were played in open parks where locals, often taking their dog for a walk or going for a leisurely stroll, proceeded through the football field without noticing that an AFLG game was in process, which was an interesting situation for umpires. The times have changed now and 4 out of the 5 clubs in the AFLG this year have organized official sporting venues to host the games. The leading venue, in my opinion, is in Berlin which is located on the grounds outside the Olympic stadium. The stadium was renovated for the 2006 soccer world cup keeping the original structure, is a majestic monument as a backdrop to a game of Australian rules football. The playing surface is proper turf and large enough for a full size ground. I umpired at the venue in round one this year and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Umpiring in the German league can be demanding when new players to the code first start playing in the first division (AFLG Bundesliga)  as the skill level and knowledge of the rules is significantly less than experienced payers . The AFLG addresses the issue of first game players by the annulment of a law breach once, for each law in the first game. The umpires also quickly explain what the law is and why it was violated.  The ball is thrown up by the field umpire instead of a free kick.

AFL Europe with the help of Shane Hill have helped me to improve my confidence and consistency in decision making  this year through monthly telephone conferences and the opportunity to ask questions about certain incidents which occur during games.

I have been assigned the inaugural role of umpire coordinator for the AFLG this year with the aim of improving the overall standard of umpiring in the AFLG via a development program. Key umpiring focus areas are communicated to all umpires in the AFLG before every round. The players are also informed of the focus areas before the game by the field umpires.

Individual development of the umpires is done when I travel to the clubs during the year and we umpire together on game day. This involves a lot of travel on the morning of the game as the clubs are based in Munich, Berlin. Hamburg, Köln and Stuttgart. The train ride from Munich to Berlin takes 6 and a half hours.

In order to improve the players knowledge of the rules, an umpiring colleague (Harit “Hazza” Khanna) and myself have prepared a footy quiz comprising of 25 multiple choice questions based on the laws of the game. The questions have been formulated to include basic general play questions for new players as well as more advanced (tricky) questions for senior experienced players. The questions were handed out to the Munich Kangarros players on Saturday and raised lots of discussion regarding the answers! Hazza and myself are currently marking the individual responses.

A prize will be given to the player with the highest score, as well as a random ballot from everyone that completed the quiz which was voluntary. The quiz will also be distributed to other clubs once the first trial with the Roos is completed. The players had a 4 hour limit to complete the quiz and should be aware that the umpires need to make these decisions in a split second!

I’m really looking forward to umpiring at the AFL Europe championships in London later this year.

#umpiresweek #betterumpiresmeansbettergames #thethirdteam

AFL Europe Umpires’ Profile

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Pictures: Derek Clarke

By Michael McCormick

JOSH DAVEY

What does Dr Karl Kennedy and a street party in Geelong have in common? They both played a significant role in introducing the game of AFL to WARFL Umpiring Coordinator and AFL Europe Umpire, Josh Davey.

Davey, a former player turned umpire, admitted that his first memory of AFL was seeing Dr Karl Kennedy playing it on Australian soap opera, ‘Neighbours.’

It wasn’t until recently however that he explored his interest further by becoming involved with a local club.

“I saw a video online of what seemed like the whole of Geelong out on the street partying after their Grand Final win,” stated Davey. “I then watched a couple of videos on YouTube, discovered I had a local club and went and had a go.”

Davey’s umpiring career began when he volunteered with his local league during weeks in which he was injured. He then took the opportunity to be involved in the 2013 European Championships in Dublin.

“I offered my services to AFL Europe as a volunteer,” explained Davey. “There I discovered they were holding a Level 1 Umpires course and decided to get involved with that.”

Davey continued to grow as an umpire and went from strength to strength after the European Championships.

Being selected as a field umpire for the AIS-AFL Academy vs European Legion Easter Series game stands out as one of his finest moments.

“Having played for the first Legion I knew the skill level of the players would be extremely high and to be considered good enough to umpire them was a huge honour.”

The dream for many European AFL aficionados is to travel to Australia and play the great game at a professional level. Davey however has slightly different endeavours.

“Whilst some players stay after the International Cup to try and work their way up to the very top as players, I’d love the chance to do the same as a whistle man.”

Davey described Australian Football as an exhilarating game to spectate due to its fluidity and the athleticism of the players.

“It is such a beautiful game to watch, and the very best place to watch it is from the middle of the park.”

For those who want to have the same seat on the ground as him, Davey offered these words of wisdom;

“Be confident in your actions and abilities and don’t be afraid to blow your whistle. Think about mistakes after the game, but on the ground, show presence and the players will respond positively.”

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NILSS LODE

Nilss

Taking marks on other players’ shoulders is what makes Australian Football the greatest game in the world, at least according to AFL Germany Umpiring Coordinator, Nilss Lode.

Melbourne born Lode, who grew up playing Australian Football in his lunch breaks at primary school, began his umpiring career as a result of an AFL Europe initiative to develop local umpires.

“I initially didn’t even consider attending or umpiring,” he said. “One of my team mates enjoyed umpiring more than playing, and that kind of sparked enough interest to see what it is all about.”

During his Level 0 course he was thrown in the deep end, being made to umpire a practice match for the German national team.

“There were so many decisions to be made quickly and I really enjoyed the challenge and decided that I wanted to pursue umpiring further.”

Since that initial experience, Lode has improved his skill and expertise to the point in which he is now sought out for major events across Europe.

A high level of commitment and an eagerness to learn at the highest level has enabled his steady improvement.

“Umpiring at three Euro Cup tournaments enabled me to work alongside more experienced umpires than myself and learn from their advice.”

Lode is currently working towards Level 2 accreditation to further develop his own skills and those of the umpires he coordinates.

He encourages aspiring umpires to go to a local match as a spectator and make the umpiring decisions in their head to compare with what the umpire decides.

“Know the actual official rules, rather than what commentators explain on TV as they are, in my opinion, often wrong.”

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NIELS SCHONNEMANN-ROSBERG

Niels

Combining a passion for travel and a love of the great game makes umpiring Australian Football more than just a hobby for Danish umpire, Niels Schønnemann-Rosberg.

He came across Australian Football after a chance meeting with his cousin at the ripe age of seventeen.

“I bumped into one of my cousins during the summer of ’99 and he invited me down to the local footy club,” he said. “The rest is history.”

His history as a player is extensive however his umpiring career is still in its infancy.

“I started to umpire full time in 2010 as I needed a challenge other than playing football,” he stated.

“I wasnt quite ready to leave, so I thought that umpiring could be a way to stay in the game.”

As most local games in Denmark are umpired by players in their bye rounds, the professionalism of umpiring isn’t a major focus.

Because of this, Schønnemann-Rosberg had to make special efforts to progress his umpiring ambitions.

“Andrew Jones and Shane Hill helped me go through the AFL level 1 program via some travelling and a lot of skype sessions.”

After completing his Level 1 AFL Umpiring course, Schønnemann-Rosberg has been called upon for some of the biggest events in Europe and the world.

“My initial goal was to umpire at the 2011 International Cup, which I did,” he said. “I then got to umpire the Grand final of the 2013 Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux.”

Despite being a rising star of the umpiring fraternity, Schønnemann-Rosberg remains humble about his ambitions.

“At the moment I like to umpire locally and then travel to the European tournaments where I receive feedback from other umpires on my performance.”

Despite having already accomplished a great amount, he doesn’t underestimate the importance of continuous learning and refining.

“Your performance will improve significantly if you learn and apply great positioning and communication to players and officials during a game,” he said.

“They will trust or at least respect your judgement, if you do this.”

#umpiresweek #betterumpiresmeansbettergames #thethirdteam