Recent news

By Frank Ienco reporting for AFANA from Sydney

Fremantle’s chances of playing Finals football in September appear all but over after they succumbed to a 28-point defeat at the hands of the Sydney Swans in their Heritage Round clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The 11.23 (89) to 9.7 (61) loss leaves the Dockers two games outside the top Eight with only eight rounds to play and

Canadian fans will get footy this year!  Rogers Sportsnet will carry Australian football on a delayed basis each week beginning with this weekend.  The matches will be tape delayed coverage from Setanta and the matches will parallel those aired on Setanta for US fans each week.   We do not know at this time if any coverage will be live in subsequent rounds.   The schedules posted at the Rogers Sportsnet web site previously listed the coverage only under "rugby" but now have a "Aussie Rules Footy" category.   Initial schedules show coverage on the Ontario feed of Sportsnet and on the HD feed but not on that for other regions (we've been advised that for now, the programs will only be on the Ontario and HD feeds).  At this time we believe the HD feed will simply be an "upconverted" version of the regular feed not an original HD feed since the source coverage is not in HD (to our knowledge).  Our TV page will carry the schedules as we are able to get them from Rogers and include them as far out as they become available.  We will post further details as we have them and update all of our web pages over the next several days.    We expect the coverage to continue until the end of the 2007 season including the Grand Final but that is yet to be confirmed.  We apologize for not announcing this sooner however we were asked not to do so by the AFL and networks and promised notice of when we could make an announcement.  However, no notice was forthcoming prior to the posting of the schedule by Rogers.

AFANA's photojournalists covered the Round 14 matches in Melbourne.  This was the AFL's Heritage round celebrating the 1970's.  We have a great selection of photos from the matches available in our photo gallery: Western Bulldogs v Port Adelaide from the Telstra Dome;  Collingwood v St. Kilda from the MCG.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

Young Tiger forward Jack Riewoldt, who debuted in Round Nine, earned a recall from the VFL this week. He comes in for Chris Hyde who missed this week after injuring a knee at training.

By Janet Linn reporting for AFANA from Subiaco Oval

A 40,763 strong home crowd was stunned as the unfancied Brisbane Lions outplayed and outwitted the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval on Saturday night. Not only had the Lions lost their last seven games in a row, they had not beaten West Coast in Perth for the past six years. After hitting a mid-season slump and losing top place on the AFL Premiership ladder, the Eagles regained some form in Round 13 against Adelaide and were widely tipped to beat the Lions handsomely on their home ground. So confident were the locals in the week leading up to the clash against Brisbane that there was little attention paid to the upcoming game. Instead most talk focused on the return of Ben Cousins after his suspension and subsequent stay in rehab.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

In 1975, a massive brawl broke out during a game between Carlton and Essendon with no one really knowing what sparked the mayhem. On the eve of the Heritage Round, former Bomber Neville Fields has finally confessed he is the one who may have instigated the brawl which resulted in eight players being reported.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

In 1989, the AFL saw fit to award retrospective Brownlow Medals, to players who were eligible. The medals were given to those who had tied with the eventual winners but lost under the old countback system (whereby a tie was broken by tallying how many 3-votes, 2-votes, and 1-vote players accumulated).

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

Brendon Fevola was suspended by the club last week for his poor performance against the Dockers. The club told him to go away and think about his football future and how he could improve as a team player. In last week's game, he kicked only one goal and gave away two successive 50 meter (55 yards) penalties.