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Welcome to CAFL

15 Nations found European Australian Football Association

Jakub Kromerak and Mark Pace representing Czech Republic (CAFL) along with delegates from 14 Australian Football Leagues around Europe converged on Frankfurt in February 2010 to officially found the European Australian Football Association, the long-awaited first pan-European governing body for the sport of Australian rules football. Read more...

Welcome to the 2010 CAFL Australia Rules Football season

Hi footy fans, and welcome to the 2010 Australian Rules Football season.

Training has already kicked off with indoor sessions at Slavia Sport Hall "Eva", Thursday nights from 18:30 to 20:00 throughout the rest of February and March. All returning and new players are welcome. Details can be found under Contacts below.

Outdoor training will begin late in March at Sparta Rugby Club, close to the Ceskomoravska metro. Again, all new and returning players are welcome.

New Teams

The big news in 2010 is the expansion of the CAFL League to 4 teams!! The All-Stars and Marauders, the pioneers of the CAFL League in 2009, have a new look, the All-Stars now the Vinohrady Hawks and the Marauders have transformed into the Prague Cats.

Vinohrady Hawks

Vinohrady Hawks

Formerly known as the "All-Stars" the new "VINOHRADY HAWKS" will enter the 2010 CAFL Season full of confidence and eying off back to back premierships this year.

2009 Coach of the All-Stars and now 2010 Coach of the "HAWKS", Mark Pace, has selected what he believes to be the "cream of the crop" to hold up the 2010 premiership CAFL Cup.

At the top of his list were selections:
Sam Lalloue (France) -  2009 CAFL best and fairest winner who will lead and Captain the Vinohrady Hawks in 2010.
Honza "Jan" Brynch (Czech) - 2009 "Best Czech Player" who was unbeatable in the ruck last year.
Pavel Smolen (Czech) - Coming back from an injury plagued 2009 season will be looking to cement full back this year for the Hawks and the Czech National team.
Paul Venturo (USA) -  Trusty rock solid back pocket with countless years of experience in American football to his advantage and also the rest of the team. (Paul will also be the specialist tackling coach)

Jarda Simek and Jiri Saic (Czech) - both new recruits have looked great though out the pre-season so far. Jarda's fitness level will be second to none this year and will be eying off a spot in the midfield and Jiri's zipping pace and upper body strength will be down back helping out Pavel and Paul.

There is no doubt the Hawks are aiming high in 2010 with a top 2 spot being the target.

Recruiting so far, has been done via word of mouth and getting friends to training, however, most importantly more players are welcome and needed to achieve success in 2010.

All are welcome to join the Hawks in 2010 and the focus being on: educating, awareness and teaching new players about Aussie football, improving skills - kicking and handball, building team spirit, having a bit of fun and most importantly winning the 2010 Cup.

Prague Cats 

Formerly the Marauders, the new look "PRAGUE CATS" will be one of the four teams fighting it out for honours in the 2010 CAFL season. The Cats have already started preseason training with weekly runs around Prague 7 park Stromovka. The first run on the 25th of January was completed in -5c, when 5 cold cats braved the weather for the 9km run.

Recruitment will be aimed at 2 Prague Universities; CVUT (Prague Technical University) and Charles University, with presentations to be held in the coming weeks before lectures. Current players are also actively recruiting workmates and friends to be involved. The aim is to have a group of 15-20 players for the start of the outdoor season starting in April 2010. Currently the team contains players from Australia, Czech Rep, England, South Africa and New Zealand.  

 

Two brand new teams have come out from under the winter snow and will try their luck in the expanded CAFL League in 2010.

Prague Dragons

Prague Dragons

The "PRAGUE DRAGONS" will be led by David Vetvicka and have been formed with some young Czech talent and have already recruited some promising new players, keen to pit youth and enthusiasm against some of the older footy heads in the other CAFL teams this season.

The Dragons hope to recruit 2 new talls in 2010 for strong competition for centre ruck knocks. David considers strength in the centre line will be pivotal to the success of the Dragons in 2010.

Prague Kings

Officially approved in a team meeting on Thu 25th February, the second new team has been officially named the "PRAGUE KINGS". The team will consist of 2 Australian players plus a combination of Czechs and other nationalities including English, Dutch, Slovak, Irish and Belorussian. The key focus for the team this season will be for the players to develop the basic skills of the game - kicking/handball - as well as learning how to work as a team and getting the hard ball at ground level. 

 

Contacts for the teams:

 

VINOHRADY HAWKS

markpace11 [at] gmail.com

Mark Pace 776 05 83 62

PRAGUE CATS

gjhooray [at] hotmail.com

Greg Johnson 724 67 30 38  

PRAGUE DRAGONS

praguedragonsfooty [at] gmail.com

David Vetvicka 604 33 60 83

PRAGUE KINGS

michael.gouteff [at] gmail.com

Mike Gouteff 603 167 910 

 

PRESEASON TRAINING 

Thursday evenings, 18:30 > 20:00, SK Slavia

Bring training shorts, t-shirt, training shoes and a bottle of water - NEW GUYS WELCOME!

All 4 teams will train together during the preseason.

 

Watch this space for more information.

  

 

Welcome to CAFL

Hope everyone is doing well and winter has been kind to you. As the new Czech AFL season is now upon us (training is underway on Thursdays - see top of page for details) it is time we welcomed back all the returning players from last year, plus all the new players who will be joining us for the first time this season. So far the turnout has been sensational, with no less than 20 players attending preseason training at each of the Thursday sessions so far.

Focus for 2010

In previous years CAFL has been focused on putting together a team from Prague to play matches against teams from other countries such as Austria and Croatia in various international tournaments. Whilst this is still planned for 2010, our major focus will be to further develop the CAFL League competition with regular games here in Prague. We will be showcasing League games with 4 teams for the second season of the Czech League. These games will be played on weekends at the Sparta Rugby Ground with a quiet refreshment afterwards.

2010 CAFL Committee

Mike Gouteff continues the honour of CAFL President and is looking forward to seeing a continued growth of this sport in the Czech Republic.

Fees

Unfortunately, putting together a league, getting together equipment etc., does cost a fair bit of money. For this reason it will be necessary to charge playing fees.

The price for the 2010 season will soon be announced. Included in this price are all training sessions and all Czech League games. This upfront price averages out slightly cheaper than paying per session.

For those who join later in the season a reduced prorata rate will be charged depending how far into the season they join. Also for new players who come down to try the game out there will be no charge for the first 3 sessions. If, after that, they decide they would like to become a regular then a partial prorata fee for the remainder of the season will be required.

Social Events

Finally as part of building an all round club atmosphere we will be also planning more CAFL social events which will not just be for players but for anyone who would like to join in, ie: friends, wives, girlfriends, spectators, anyone. Information about these events will be sent out by email well ahead of time and posted on this site.

Kind regards and all the best for the 2010 Aussie Rules Season.

Mike Gouteff
CAFL President

 

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