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European Crusaders at IC17

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The International Cup is played every three years. No expatriate Australians are eligible to play. Teams are comprised solely of amateurs who must be nationals of the countries they represent. This year’s International Cup is taking place from the 5th-19th August in Melbourne.

In 2014, there were 25 teams (18 men’s and seven women’s) that represented 18 different nations. Papua New Guinea won the men’s final while Canada won the women’s final.

For the IC17 AFL Europe will be supporting 9 teams from Europe. Two of those teams will be a men’s and women’s European Crusaders.

The European Crusaders are team’s made up of players whose home nations are unable to send a team of their own. It provides players from Europe with the opportunity to experience the International Cup and compete against the best teams from around the world.

The women’s European Crusaders team is taking shape nicely with Thomas Urban and Berengere Portal of France heading up the organisation of the trip. They currently have 15 women confirmed to attend the tournament.

The men’s European Crusaders team has had a slow start with multiple nations initially trying to compete as individual teams. Brett Peterson of Sweden and Slava Belov of Russia has been herculean in his efforts to get the ball rolling and now it is time to formalise the process.

The next stage is formalising expressions of interest from players. I have copied links for expression of interest forms if you wish to play for the European Crusaders.

Players who experience the International Cup will return to their country as ‘champions’ of the sport and act as the driving force to get their national team to future European Championships and International Cups.

Players need to be self-funded for the trip with potential sponsorship and fundraising initiatives being organised by the respective management teams. For more information on the estimated cost breakdowns please email ben.durance@afleurope.org.

Women’s Form Link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBXrrnxAb-UqVmsE81-Hc6T2e7aWzLYrfGLIl7d86-yaHMfA/viewform?usp=fb_send_fb

Men’s Form Link:

https://www.formget.com/app/form/share/WJLU-233181

 

 

 

Around the Grounds

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Paris Cocks edge out Bordeaux Bombers to claim the 2016 French Cup

The Paris Cocks have claimed the 2016 French Cup in Perpignan at the weekend. The win came after a slow start to the championship season for the Parisians and should do them the world of good as they launch into the second half of their championship year.

They were met in the final by the ever-improving Bordeaux Bombers who went down by 24-points after only losing to the Cocks by 4-points in the group stages.

The Cocks were standout performers throughout the competition with big wins during the group stages.

Congratulations to all teams who competed at this year’s tournament

french-cup

French Coqs name their IC17 squad

Following the fixtures at the French Cup, French Coqs Head Coach Andrew Unsworth, announced his initial 40-man squad for the upcoming International Cup in 2017.

Massive congratulations to all players named in that squad. Such a great achievement for you all. Continue the hard work as final squads will be named early in the new year.

french-coqs

Falkirk Silverbacks raise money for Ash Palmer

Great work by the Falkirk Silverbacks who played in a charity match at the weekend to raise money for Ashley Palmer who suffered serious injuries in a road traffic incident earlier in November.

Congratulations to the organisers of the match and to everyone involved in the fundraising efforts as close to 1300 pounds has been raised thus far highlighting the great community spirit.

Well done and best wishes to Ashley and his family.

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GB Swans wishing us all a merry Christmas

The GB Swans have been spreading the Christmas cheer with their 12 days of X-mas ‘Up and Go’ series but it’s their recently released ‘Merry Christmas Every Swan’ debut single that is gaining serious traction on Facebook with 1.8k views.

Check it out!

Merry Christmas EverySwan! 🎅🏽🎶 Roll on 2017…. #WeFlyASwan

Posted by GB Swans on Sunday, 11 December 2016

New king crowned at Sodermalm chess and beer championships

The Blues have been keeping their minds sharp and belly’s full over the off-season with their chess and beer championship over the weekend. 5 players took to the boards with Murf, Larry, JR, Rappa and Bobby Love headlining the event.

A delayed start due to calibrating chess clocks allowed the players more time to think strategy. JR jumped out of the blocks early.

A break in play allowed for the annual Sodermalm home-brewing champion to be crowned. In the end, it was O’Larry’s brewery with their ‘Ruby Tuesday’ that took the gong. Special mention to LCB’s ‘Heavy Metal Lager’ that gets a special mention for head retention. See below.

heavy-metal

Murf went on to claim the chess championship in a 1-min speed game against Larry.

Congratulations to all the winners on the night and for keeping the guys ‘active’ over the off-season.

murf

AFL Europe signing off for 2016!

This will be the last of our social media series for 2016 and we’d just like to thank everyone for contributing great stories, player profiles and match previews throughout the year. We hope you’ve enjoyed the new content introduced this year. We’ll be back bigger and better in 2017.

Have a happy and safe festive season from all of us here at AFL Europe.

AFL Canada comes to London!

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May 2017 brings a whole new exciting event to the already bursting AFL Europe Women’s Calendar. We are excited to announce that the Midnight Suns, the Canadian National AFL Women’s development squad will be flying over the Atlantic to play against the Great Britain Swans, the Irish Banshees and an AFL London All-Stars team.

AFL Canada decided that in 2017 they will only be sending one representative side, the Northern Lights, to the International Cup in Melbourne, unlike 2014 where they, and the USA, sent two teams each. This decision therefore meant that AFL Canada wanted to present an opportunity of progression to their development team, the Midnight Suns. With the Great Britain Swans heading to the International Cup for their debut along with veterans of the competition, the Irish Banshees, having Canada’s development squad as a warm up game will be extremely beneficial for the two teams, and vital 18-a-side practice. The London All Stars team will be made up of the best players from the four women’s teams in the capital, to bring strong and experienced players together to present a tough challenge to the three national teams.

On the back of this decision the male representative sides of AFL Canada, Great Britain and Ireland have come to a similar arrangement with Great Britain hosting a 4-way tournament between the three sides, and a yet to be named 4th side. With the male game also bursting in Canada, and the European nations looking for more competition in the months leading up to IC17, the Canadians, like their female counterparts, were looking for a place to send their development squad. The decision was made for their male team to follow their Women’s lead and the European nations followed suit.

AFL Canada’s President Lachlan Griffiths had this to say, “We are very grateful to AFL Europe, AFL England and the Great British and Irish National Teams for coming together for this tournament next year. We have been looking to provide our players with more high quality games, and are excited by the opportunity to play against two very strong football nations. It is going to provide our development squad players with a first-hand look at the level of football required to compete at the International level, with the hope that these players will go on to represent Canada in future international games and press for selection at IC20”.

The Canadian teams will touch down in London on Wednesday 17th May for 5 days; with games being played on the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. The Women’s games will simulate International Cup formats as close as possible, and each team will play one other only once with the winner being the one coming out with the most points, with percentage taking account if required. The Men’s tournament will follow the same format with each team playing each other once.

On the back of early conversations between the team managers of Great Britain and AFL Canada there is talk of a desire to reinvigorate a yearly competition (going forward outside of International Cup years), like that of the old Atlantic Alliance Cup. While AFL England Head of Performance and GB Team Manager, Jason Hill, didn’t confirm exactly how the competition would take place or when, he did confirm that there had been talks and that GB did plan to travel to Canada in 2018.

Further details of game locations & times will be released in due course.

If you would like to assist the event in any capacity, please get in contact on GB.Swans@gmail.com and for more information please visit www.aflengland.org, www.aflcanada.com and www.arfli.com

Around the Grounds

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AFL Umpires stop in for a chat

Last night a handful of the AFL Umpiring squad gave up their time whilst on tour to sit down and have a chat about all things umpiring with several our current AFL Europe Umpiring team.

The boys shared stories of how they got into officiating the game and provided a great insight into some of the challenges they face in the recruitment and retention of high quality umpires. A massive thank you must go out to Shane Hill, Head of Umpiring, for arranging the get-together.

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L-R: Hayden Charles, Gary Gila, Matt Stevic, Chris Goodman, Shane Hill, Ian Kafka, Jordan Bannister, Steve McInerney, Shaun Ryan, Josh Davey

Stay tuned on the www.afleurope.org for information on umpiring courses being held here in England in the new year.

 

Can you top the TruChallenge?

I’m sure that by now you’ve noticed the GB Swans and their TruChallenge taking over social media. If you think you and your club can top the ‘flick and kick’ challenge, then follow the link and post your video on Facebook. Be sure to tag AFL Europe!

https://www.truchallenge.co.uk/v/bGPMLb

 

ARFLI 7s kicks off

The first ARFLI 7s session was held over the weekend with 3 teams contesting the reduced format game. The County Lions, City Lions and UCC Bombers took part in the inaugural tournament in what was a great success.

ARFLI will be running several sessions around the country throughout the winter months. The full results from the first session are as follows:

County Lions 6.6.6. 102 to UCC Bombers 3.10.7. 97

City Lions 6.8.5. 113 to UCC Bombers 2.6.6. 62

City Lions 5.12.7. 129 to County Lions 7.5.11. 111

 

UoB and Oxford battle it out in a thriller

The boys from the University of Birmingham clinched a thrilling 3-point victory over rivals, Oxford University, in an incredible display of Aussie Rules.

Testing conditions didn’t stop the intensity of the match with a supremely competitive contest experienced throughout. A strong Oxford side were unrelenting in their pressure and they’ve set the scene for a big year of university football.

In the women’s match, the Oxford girls proved too strong for their opponents. Both matches were played in great spirit with massive congratulations to all players involved. We’re looking forward to the return fixture between these two university football powerhouses.

uob

 

Talent Combine uncovers stars of the future

The 6th AFL Europe Talent Combine was held at the weekend under the watchful eye of the AFL’s International Talent Manager, Tadhg Kennelly. 23 boys from Ireland and France were selected to attend the combine and were put through a range of fitness and skills tests over the course of the weekend.

Massive congratulations to all the boys who tested as well as their parents for attending the information session on the Saturday afternoon. Tadhg and his team ran another smooth combine and will have a very tough decision to make when selecting the boys to take part in the AFL AIS Tour of Florida next year.

Read our full Combine review below:

http://afleurope.org/afl-europe-talent-combine-review/

 

Tuesday Around the Grounds

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Demons ‘Freeze the C’ for MND

Despite going down in all three grades on the weekend the Wandsworth Demons had major success off the field. The big ‘Freeze at the C’ took place with an array of homemade cupcakes, beanies, hats and raffles seeing the Demons raise over 2300AUD for the Cure for MND Foundation. A simply amazing result.

Special thanks goes out to the great support of the opposition West London Wildcats, Jimmy Perrett, Ash Walsh, all the girls who helped at the stall and last but not least, Gaby Duncan. Days like these go to show how amazing football clubs are.

Amazing initiative Demons.

Demons

 

Cock fight ends in a thriller between the two Parisian sides

It was a changing of the guard in the French capital at the weekend. 2015 CNFA premiers, the Paris Cockerels, went down in a thriller to their little brothers, the Paris Cockatoos, 18.5. 113 to 13.8. 86.

The French league is certain to crown a first-time premier in two weeks’ time with minor premiers, Cergy-Pontoise Coyotes winning through in their semi-final by claiming a 4-point win against Toulouse.

The CNFA is fast developing into one of the premier competitions across Europe and no doubt the AFL Europe community will be keeping a close eye on the Grand Final in Bordeaux on the 25th of June. Watch this space for a match preview of that game.

COCK!

 

Port Malmo go back-to-back to claim the 2016 Swedish Cup

The Port Malmo Maulers continued their dominance in Sweden claiming the Swedish Cup in Norrtalje for the second consecutive year. The day was a huge success with the tournament getting a full page spread in the local paper. A big shout-out to all those who put this amazing tournament together.

Final standings for the day were as follows:

  1. Port Malmo Maulers
  2. Sodermalm Blues
  3. Norrtalje Dockers
  4. Oslo Crows
  5. Mixed Bags
  6. Arsta Swans

Swedish Cup 2

 

GB Swans meet in Birmingham and name their first 17 for AFL Europe Champs in August

British girls from all across the country made the trip to Birmingham at the weekend for a fantastic training session in the lead up to the AFL Europe Championships in August. The first 17 girls were selected to represent Great Britain following the session.

Congratulations to the following girls on making the GB Swans side:

Beth Bailey

Jen Bennett (Wimbledon Hawks)

Freya Blount (University of Birmingham)

Lea Cobham (North London Lions)

Lousie Darby (Wimbledon Hawks)

Charlie Eales (Wimbledon Hawks)

Chloe Hall (University of Birmingham)

Stacey Hughes (Glasgow Sharks)

Lucy Jones (University of Birmingham)

Rose Lewis (Wandsworth Demons)

Laura Mackay (University of Birmingham)

Rania Ramadan (North London Lions)

Alex Saulter (North London Lions)

Danni Saulter (North London Lions)

Caroline Sellar (Glasgow Sharks)

Laura Turner (North London Lions)

Lisa Wilson (Wimbledon Hawks)

GB Swans

 

Johan clocks up 100 of the best

Sodermalm Blues didn’t quite get the win at the Swedish Cup at the weekend but that didn’t dampen their spirits. Club stalwart Johan was elevated to legend status are clocking up his 100th game for the Blues. An absolutely amazing achievement Johan, well done.

 

Lisbon, Portugal announced as Euro Cup location

AFL Europe last week announced Lisbon, Portugal as the location for this year’s instalment of the Euro Cup. The Euro Cup is the premier 9-a-side national tournament for season 2016 and is set to be an incredible weekend in Portugal.

For more information regarding the tournament please email sarah.ongarello@afleurope.org

http://afleurope.org/euro-cup-2016/

 

AFL CNE top of the table blockbuster doesn’t disappoint

AFL CNE is the most competitive it’s ever been in season 2016. The weekend saw the two top sides the Manchester Mozzies and Wolverhampton Wolverines go head-to-head with the winner asserting their dominance coming into the backend of the regular season.

The Mozzies came out on top in what proved a scintillating contest in wet condition with the game staying within two kicks for the duration. The final score read 11.20. 86 to 10.13. 73 in favour of the Manchester boys.

 

Benjamin Durance