Recent news

by Lisa Albergo, reporting for AFANA from Chicago

Mal Michael, who told the Lions in early October that he wanted to retire, has done an about face, saying he wants to return to football. To that end, he has already signed a two year deal with the Essendon Bombers.  The Dons have committed to selecting him in the preseason draft. However, the move has infuriated Brisbane and the Lions have called on the AFL to block Essendon's bid.

Michael still had one year to run on his Brisbane contract, but the club did not pay him out and thus the Bombers and Michael believe the Lions have no claim on him.

by Lisa Albergo reporting for AFANA from Chicago

GEEL   5.3   8.5   10.7   13.10 (88)
PA     3.1   6.3    8.6   10.7  (67)

GOALS: GEEL - Gamble 4, Egan, J.Hunt, Byrnes, Bartel, Batchelor, Stokes, McCarthy, Prismall, Milburn; PA - Cassisi 2, Mahoney 2, D. White 2, Bentley, Willits, Ebert, Giles.

BEST: GEEL - Bartel, Prismall, Stokes, Gamble, S.Hunt, West, Playfair; PA - Pearce, Salopek, Wakelin, Ebert, Mahoney

INJURY: PA - Wakelin (hamstring)

Port Adelaide registered the game's opening goal through Greg Bentley, but the Cats responded with the next 5 for a comfortable lead. Port clawed its way back with two late goals to trail by 14 points at 1/4 time.

by Johnson Leung, reporting for AFANA in Melbourne

Schedules for the 2007 AFL premiership season and the pre-season National Australia Bank Cup have been revealed in Melbourne. The main features of next year's regular season are the re-introduction of Sunday twilight games and Rounds 15-22 will not be repeats of Rounds 1-7, meaning some teams will clash twice within seven weeks. The 2007 fixture was compiled using state-of-the-art scheduling software which is also used by the National Football League in the US.

2007 NAB Cup Schedule
2007 AFL Draw (schedule)

Sunday twilight matches, last held in the early 1990s, will be played on every weekend of the home and away season for the first time (23 in total), a move aimed squarely at building the AFL's television audience.

by Johnson Leung, reporting for AFANA in Melbourne

Last month's AFL Grand Final between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles soared into the list of top ten most popular programs for 2006, with an astonishing 91 per cent of people watching commercial television at that time tuning to the game broadcast on Channel Ten.  The GF attracted an average audience of 3.15 million, with 1.184 million watching in Melbourne, 765,000 in Sydney (23 per cent drop from last year's decider), 330,000 in Brisbane, 326,000 in Adelaide, and a record 550,000 in Perth.

With the peak audience of 3.944 million viewers, the Grand Final is the second highest rating program on Australian television during 2006 (to date),

by Johnson Leung, reporting for AFANA in Melbourne

Overseas footy fans will be able to continue to listen to Saturday afternoon matches on Radio Australia, as part of a new three-year radio rights deal. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's international shortwave service will broadcast a combination of first and second choice matches on Saturday afternoons, despite ABC Managing Director Mark Scott's public concerns about the government-funded broadcaster being relegated to a "secondary caller" on Saturday afternoons.

by Lisa Albergo,  reporting for AFANA from Chicago

Ross Lyon has been appointed as the new Senior Coach for the next 3 years. Ross Lyon played 127 games with Fitzroy and 2 games with the Brisbane Bears before his career succumbed to injury in 1995. After his playing days, Lyon worked part time as an assistant to Robert Walls at Richmond (1996-97), focusing on the defense. In 2000, he went to Carlton as an assistant and coached Carlton's VFL side the Northern Bullants. He held that position until 2004, when moved to Sydney to be midfield coach for the Swans. 

by Johnson Leung,reporting for AFANA from Melbourne and Rob de Santos, reporting from the USA

Telstra has signed Australia's biggest "new media" content deal ever with the AFL, paying A$60 million over five years for the exclusive right to show match footage on mobile phones and the Internet.   This likely means increased costs for North American subscribers to the AFL web site. 

The deal was announced as part of Telstra's major strategy update and the start of a major expansion of high speed Internet access in Australia.    Telstra's BigPond internet service will offer customers (including presumably viewers outside Australia) full match video replays 12 hours after the final siren, instead of 24 hours after the game currently.