UNIVERSITY AFL CROWNED AUCKLAND CHAMPIONS 2006

Dec 17 2006 - New Zealand

The University Blues AFL have completed another unbeaten season and taken out the 2006 Auckland Australian Football League Premiership in fine style. It was huge weekend for the club as the Reserve Grade team also won the Premiership for the first time since 2000. For the Blues it was all one way traffic from the start as they took on the young Waitakere Magpies who were making their first Premier Grand Final. The final score of 19.10.124 to 4.2.26 was a true reflection of the class & skill of a more experienced and determined University team who also went through the season unbeaten. The Reserve Grade team set the tone for the day by sneaking past Manurewa 2.6.18 to 1.3.9 in a hard but well deserved victory. The Premier team started as hot favourites and never gave an inch. The Blues banged on 7 goals in the first term with Froggatt cashing in with 3 straight to set the tone for the rest of the match. By halftime it was all University with Player/Coach Taverna, VC Monaghan and skipper Power all dominating the centre and providing a wealth of ball up front for gun full forward Froggatt. The second half was again dominated by University with the backline of Hunter, Hills, Alexander, Cory-Toussaint keeping the Magpies out of goal and setting up attacking opportunities at every encounter. With more goals to Froggatt, Mundell, Brons, Taverna & Wiltenberg the Magpies were slowly running out of steam and the fitter & faster Blues kept on rolling. The final quarter never saw the Blues let up and they kept the scoreboard attendant very busy. Froggatt, Taverna & Buckthought all registered majors as the Blues came home with a wet sail and finished off a fantastic season which ended in Premiership Glory. Steve Froggatt booted 8 goals straight for the Blues and James Monoghan was awarded the Bryan Wells medal for Best on Ground. The University Blues would like to thank all their sponsors, supporters & players for another Premiership season in 2006.

Africa cricket link is AFL's big pitch

June 22 2006 - South Africa

From the Age

AUSTRALIAN football has entered into a partnership with cricket in South Africa's north-west in a step that could be the most significant in the code's attempt to establish a meaningful presence beyond these shores.

The arrangement, recently agreed to by AFL South Africa and the North-West Cricket Association, gives Australian football access to the cricket fields of one of the country's biggest provinces — a breakthrough that has the AFL contemplating a significant increase in development funding to AFLSA.

Beyond the access to suitably sized playing fields — the absence of which is one of the biggest

impediments to the game's international prospects — the two sports will share office space and training facilities. They can enter into joint commercial deals to share sponsorship and income from signs at grounds and even co-host AFL exhibition games in South Africa in the future.

The chief executive of the North-West Cricket Association, Jacques Faul, spent two days in Melbourne last week and was a guest of the AFL at last Friday night's match between St Kilda and Adelaide at Telstra Dome.

The AFL's general manager of game development, David Matthews, said South Africa represented the most promising international opportunity for Australian football and that the partnership between AFLSA and cricket provided a genuine opening for strong grass-roots development.

"At the moment, there is something like 2500 locals, not expats, playing the game across 18 leagues. The participation base of the North-West Cricket Association is about 50,000 — people who through the arrangement can be exposed to and encouraged to play Australian football," Matthews said.

"There's no doubt that with an enormous population, cricket grounds everywhere, a favourable exchange rate and local government investment that the AFL has an opportunity that it should explore further."

Matthews said the AFL currently provided $100,000 a year to AFLSA — money that helps fund four full-time employees — but that until now much of the pioneering work in the country had been done by others, such as former Melbourne player Brian Dixon and the gaming company Tattersall's, who worked to have Australian football added to the North West Academy of Sport curriculum in 2001.

"The AFL itself hasn't had to put significant money in so far because of the amount of local investment but certainly there will be a debate over the next month or so about how much more we put in," Matthews said.

"As long as we're investing substantially and appropriately in our domestic position, why wouldn't we also invest, on a relatively small scale, in an international opportunity? I would think that fans of Australian football, from club presidents to volunteers, would like nothing more than to see another country embrace the game as the South Africans are."

Football's partnership with cricket in South Africa comes months after a three-match tour of the country by a squad of junior indigenous players, led by Michael Long, Adam Goodes and former Fremantle coach Gerard Neesham.

An exhibition match between the Brisbane Lions and Fremantle was played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town in 1998 and St Kilda held a pre-season camp in Potchefstroom in 2004.

It is understood that Fremantle and West Coast have expressed interest in training and playing pre-season or practice matches there in the near future.

AFLG to kick off with a French Flavour

Feb 21 2006 - Germany

The draw from the AFLG of 2006 has been released with a few changes. Firstly the Düsseldorf Lions have expanded and will now play under the name Rheinland Lions.

And in some exciting news a French team will compete alongside the other 5 German teams in the AFLG with Strasbourg joining the competition. This is will know doubt help the game in both Germany and France, for the Germans it means that no team will have to have a bye every couple

of weeks so therefore their standard of play will increase and hopefully lead to more players being recruited and in the end a stong league and national team. For the French it is that start of something great, you could compare this to what happened in Denmark and Sweden. When the DAFL was set up there was just the one Swedish team and they struggled for numbers but now Sweden have their own league and have a number of new teams being founded each year.

All in all it is great news from both Germany and France and will hopefully lead to a strong presence of football in Europe.

Also in Germany a training camp will take place in March, the Fulda Training Camp in which all of the AFLG teams will attend for a weekend training and workshops together. The camp was a great success in 2005 and the main aim is to foster communication between the AFLG clubs exchange training tips and methods.

The 2006 camp will also feature umpire courses as the foundation of future AFLG umpire organisation.

Auckland AFL crowned champions of New Zealand

Feb 15 2006 - New Zealand

The Auckland AFL have been crowned champions of New Zealand after claiming the National Champions on the weekend. The 4 regions all competed - Auckland, Wellington, Cantebury and Waikato.

On day one of the nationals each team played 2 games with with Auckland defeating Cantebury 19.9.(123) to 7.3.(45) and Waikato 17.16.(118) to 2.5.(17). While Wellington defeated Waikato 13.10.(88) to 6.11.(47) and

Cantebury defeated Wellington 9.14.(108) to 4.10.(34).

On the second and final day Cantebury defeated Waikato by 32 points to claim second spot while Auckland remained undefeated and wrapped up the championships with a 79 point victory over Wellington.

Overall James Bowden of Cantebury was the leading goal kicked with 12 goals and also claimed best and fairest honours for the tournament.