Recent news

by Johnson Leung, reporting for AFANA from Melbourne

Top 4 Clubs Deserve Home Finals: Demetriou

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said on Monday that he had no problem with the fact that there are no finals being played in Melbourne this month -- two of the four finals were played at the MCG, but the venue will not host another match until the grand final on September 30 after interstate clubs filled the Top Four places on the ladder.   Demetriou said the clubs who finished in the top four - West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle and Sydney - deserved the right to host finals.   "I just think we do a great disservice to the clubs that play all year, for 22 weeks, that get the right to host a home Final, that we bemoan the fact that the MCG will be vacant in weeks two and three," he was quoted as saying.

Entertainer Steve Irwin, 44, known to many as the "Crocodile Hunter", was tragically killed in an accident off the coast of Cairns, Queensland on Monday September 4.  He was filming segments for a new documentary and his daughter's TV show.   Sources in Australia including the Australian Associated Press and news.com.au have reported that Irwin's chest was pierced by a stingray barb.  His crew immediately attempted to rescusciate him and called for assistance. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The story appeared online and in news reports before the family could be notified.  His American born wife, Terri, and two young children were hiking in Tasmania at the time and are now believed to be in transit to Cairns. 

American TV star and Director Emeritus of the Columbus (OH) Zoo, Jack Hanna,

By Frank Ienco, reporting for AFANA from Sydney

Sydney will enter next weekend’s finals series exactly as they did last year- with a crucial double chance and a guaranteed home final after their seamless 92-point thrashing of Carlton at the SCG on Sunday. The 21.10 (136) to 6.8 (44) defeat also consigned the hapless Blues to their second consecutive wooden spoon and third in five years.

While Carlton could have been forgiven for having one eye on Mad Monday celebrations, and at times they looked it, the Swans had everything to play for. Despite the opposition, they played an exciting and attacking brand of football that they have only shown glimpses of before in a rare 20-plus goal display. The omens for the next four weeks look good for Sydney, least of which is a repeat of last year’s qualifying final next week against West Coast at Subiaco.

As did last week against Brisbane, the Swans were simply expected to win and win well.

The league has won its court case and can now permanently prohibit the media from publishing the names of the players it obtained who allegedly returned two positive drug tests.  However, the court ruling came too late to stop the names being bandied about in the media and through the football industry, but operations manager Adrian Anderson said that their careers have been damaged. According to Anderson, the AFL clubs still do not know the identity of those players and that everyone was assuming that the names leaked to the media were the correct ones.

By Tim Stone reporting for the AFANA @ Subiaco.

Fremantle has silenced its critics in 2006 by finishing third on the ladder, breezing past Port Adelaide by 79 points in their final match of the 2006 home and away season.

Fremantle has now earned a double change by claiming a spot in the Top Four, and will fly to AAMI stadium next week to do battle with the Adelaide Crows for a place in the Preliminary Final. A club that counted just 6 wins after 13 games has now won its last 9 games on the trot to be the form team going into the Finals. They will now appear in the Finals for only second time in their 12 year history as an AFL club.

Before the bouncedown of the Round 21 derby between West Coast and Fremantle, the Dockers were the younger colt in a 2 horse town. As the final sounded, Fremantle had not only earned the respect of West Coast, but the attention of the entire AFL community.

Fremantle humbled the top of the table and Premiership favourites in West Coast by an astonishing 57 points only one game away from finals, and in doing so has broken all kinds of club and derby records.

by Lisa reporting for AFANA from Chicago

New Plan For Telstra Dome
The AFL, Telstra Dome management, and its turf supplier have been working together for the past 2 years on a new plan to improve the playing surface at the Telstra Dome. Experiments with new turf have been conducted in secret at Essendon's training ground Windy Hill. The controversial Telstra Dome playing surface could be replaced as early as the end of this season.

It is believed that Telstra Dome manager Ian Collins, who has traveled extensively to Europe and the USA to learn about turf management, will soon head to Germany to look at stadia used during the recent World Cup Soccer games.