The big change this year is that the structure has been changed from 3 regional divisions to 2 regional divisions – IAFL North and IAFL South. These divisions will have 5 and 6 teams respectively as opposed to either 3 or 4 under last years format. This change gives a better balance between the divisions.  Consequently there will be some changes to the play-off structure. The top team in each division will host a Semi-Final.  Each 3rd placed team will travel to the 2nd placed team in their division in the Wildcard round.

As with last year, each team will play 8 regular season games. Most teams will play all the teams in their division once and a selection of teams in the other division. This is a change from last years format whereby teams played home and away against all divisional opponenets. However, the change gives teams a greater variety of opponents as well more common opponents.

There are 4 doubleheaders scheduled for the upcoming season where four teams will play at one venue on the same day. Each of these should be great day out for IAFL supporters.

The schedule and divisional standings can be found below. Please note that there are a small number confirmations to be made, so please check this site regularly for updates. One of these confirmations is the annual Colours match between Trinity College and UCD.

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	IAFL North	Pld	W	L	T	Pts
	Carrickfergus Knights	0	0	0	0	0
	Belfast Trojans	0	0	0	0	0
	Craigavon Cowboys	0	0	0	0	0
	West Dublin Rhinos	0	0	0	0	0
	Dublin Dragons	0	0	0	0	0

	IAFL South	Pld	W	L	T	Pts
	Dublin Rebels	0	0	0	0	0
	UL Vikings	0	0	0	0	0
	University College Dublin	0	0	0	0	0
	Trinity College	0	0	0	0	0
	Cork Admirals	0	0	0	0	0
	Tullamore Phoenix	0	0	0	0	0

2012 IAFL Schedule

N/A	University College Dublin			@			Trinity College	Trinity College Sports Grounds, 8:29am
Week 2
Feb 26	Trinity College			@			UL Vikings	UL Sports Grounds, 1pm
Week 3
Mar 4	Carrickfergus Knights			@			University College Dublin	Belfield, Dublin, 1pm
Mar 4	Cork Admirals			@			Dublin Rebels	Sportslink, Dublin, 1pm
Mar 4	Dublin Dragons			@			Tullamore Phoenix	Tullamore RFC, 1pm
Week 4
Mar 11	Belfast Trojans			@			Craigavon Cowboys	Bronwlow, Craigavon, 1pm
Mar 11	Tullamore Phoenix			@			West Dublin Rhinos	Castleknock College, 1pm
Mar 11	Dublin Rebels			@			Trinity College	Trinity College Sports Grounds, 1pm
Week 5
Mar 18	University College Dublin			@			Cork Admirals	CIT Stadium, Cork, 1pm
Mar 18	Carrickfergus Knights			@			Trinity College	Trinity College Sports Grounds, 1pm
Mar 18	Craigavon Cowboys			@			UL Vikings	UL Sports Grounds, 1pm
Week 6
Mar 25	Belfast Trojans			@			West Dublin Rhinos	Castleknock College, 1pm
Mar 25	University College Dublin			@			Dublin Rebels	Sportslink, Dublin, 1pm
Mar 25	Cork Admirals			@			Dublin Dragons	TBA, 1pm
Week 7
Apr 1	UL Vikings			@			Carrickfergus Knights	Carrickfergus RFC, 1pm
Apr 1	Trinity College			@			Dublin Dragons	Lucan Community College, 1pm
Apr 1	Craigavon Cowboys			@			Tullamore Phoenix	Tullamore RFC, 1pm
Week 8
Apr 15	Tullamore Phoenix			@			University College Dublin	Belfield, Dublin, 2pm
Apr 15	Carrickfergus Knights			@			Craigavon Cowboys	Brownlow, Craigavon, 12pm
Apr 15	Dublin Dragons			@			Belfast Trojans	Brownlow, Craigavon, 3pm
Apr 15	West Dublin Rhinos			@			Dublin Rebels	Sportslink, Dublin, 2pm
Week 9
Apr 22	UL Vikings			@			University College Dublin	Belfield, Dublin, 2pm
Apr 22	West Dublin Rhinos			@			Cork Admirals	CIT Stadium, Cork, 2pm
Apr 22	Tullamore Phoenix			@			Trinity College	Trinity College Sports Grounds, 2pm
Week 10
Apr 29	Craigavon Cowboys			@			Belfast Trojans	Malone Road RFC, 12pm
Apr 29	Dublin Rebels			@			Carrickfergus Knights	Malone Road RFC, 3pm
Apr 29	Cork Admirals			@			UL Vikings	UL Sports Grounds, 2pm
Week 11
May 6	West Dublin Rhinos			@			Dublin Dragons	Lucan Community College, 2pm
May 6	Tullamore Phoenix			@			Belfast Trojans	Malone Road RFC, 2pm
Week 12
May 13	Dublin Dragons			@			Craigavon Cowboys	Brownlow, Craigavon, 2pm
May 13	Carrickfergus Knights			@			Cork Admirals	CIT Stadium, Cork, 2pm
May 13	Dublin Rebels			@			UL Vikings	UL Sports Grounds, 2pm
Week 13
May 20	Belfast Trojans			@			Carrickfergus Knights	Carrickfergus RFC, 12pm
May 20	University College Dublin			@			Craigavon Cowboys	Carrickfergus RFC, 3pm
May 20	Trinity College			@			West Dublin Rhinos	Castleknock College, 2pm
Week 14
May 27	Trinity College			@			Cork Admirals	CIT Stadium, Cork, 2pm
May 27	Dublin Rebels			@			Tullamore Phoenix	Tullamore RFC, 2pm
May 27	Dublin Dragons			@			UL Vikings	UL Sports Grounds, 2pm
Week 15
Jun 3	Craigavon Cowboys			@			West Dublin Rhinos	Castleknock College, 2pm
Jun 3	Cork Admirals			@			Belfast Trojans	Malone Road RFC, 1pm
Jun 3	UL Vikings			@			Tullamore Phoenix	Tullamore RFC, 2pm
Week 16
Jun 10	West Dublin Rhinos			@			Carrickfergus Knights	Carrickfergus RFC, 2pm
Jun 10	Dublin Dragons			@			University College Dublin	Sportslink, Dublin, 12pm
Jun 10	Belfast Trojans			@			Dublin Rebels	Sportslink, Dublin, 3pm

Members of the IAFA have been given an exclusive opportunity to purchase tickets for the 2012 Emerald Isle Classic game between Navy and Notre Dame. The game is due to take place at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 1st September 2012. This game is a NCAA BCS Championship regular season game and feature two of the most historic teams in US college football.

IAFA members can obtain their codes by contacting their team manager or the secretary of their organisation.

Members of the public will be able to purchase tickets in March 2012. People affiliated to the various European Federation of American Football organisations across Europe will be given a chance to purchase tickets in a second pre-sale to take place in advance of the March general release.

Players from Trinity College Dublin  visited the young patients and hardworking staff at Temple Street Childrens Hospital on Thursday 15th December. The visit served as an opportunity for young kids in the wards to meet American Football players who turned up for the occasion in full helmets and shoulder pads, but also gave the opportunity for Trinity Football to deliver 130+ childrens toys donated through it’s second annual toys for tots drive.

This year saw the rivalry of Trinity College(TCD) and University College Dublin(UCD) set aside as both teams played on Dec 3rd in a game organised as a focal point for this years toy drive. Players, coaches and spectators turned up with childrens toys to donate as the price of admission to the game. The game saw TCD come out 7-0 victors over UCD with RB Rob McDowell scoring the winning touchdown and Peter Quinlan kicking the PAT.

 The real winners on the day however were the kids staying in Irelands national childrens hospital. Coach O’Toole and his players turned up at the hospital laden with bags of toys, with presents ranging from rattles for infants, to dolls for young girls, to Transformers and xbox games for the older kids who will be staying in the hospital over the Christmas period.

 Coach O’Toole said “We wanted to do something to give our players a sense of perspective and of giving back to the community. Where we don’t have financial means to assist, I realised coaches do have great influence, so the toy drive was born. I reached out to Coach Collins and his team who embraced the toy drive and really helped make it a success. We are also very thankful of the people who turned up on the day to donate and watch a great game of football.Today our players got to see how they can make a real positive impact both through donating the toys and by spending time with some fantastic kids who we hope get well soon.” 

Terry Lynch, Cillian Smith and Russell Kerley were re-elected to the Board for the 2012 season. They are joined by Ciaran O’Sullivan, who has previously served on the Board and Alan Orr who will be serving for the first time.

The biggest change arising from the AGM is that the league will be adopting a new structure which is largely based on the recommendations of the scheduling workshop held in September. There will be two divisions -  IAFL North and IAFL South. The regular season will start in early March and conclude in early June with the Shamrock Bowl taking place in the first half of July. The full schedule will be circulated to member teams within the next 2-3 weeks.

Three new teams have applied to join the DV8s league: South East Strongbows, Rathangan Soldiers and Mullingar Minotaurs.

The DV8s League is aimed at new teams who are low on experience and player numbers. It is also suitable for areas whereby there are not yet enough players to put together a full squad of players for 11-a-side football. Typically, when new teams start up, they have small squads of new players and the management/coaching staff are often new to those positions. DV8s allows teams to get on field experience in a safe environment, against teams of similar standard, while they build their player numbers. Typically teams will spend two years in DV8s before moving into the main IAFL League. A first year DV8s team will typically kit up 12-15 players per game.

The 2012 DV8s league will start in early Summer. It will include dedicated DV8s teams as well as some rookies teams from IAFL League sides.

All interested parties should contact Cillian Smith on or before 28^th November 2011 at cillian@americanfootball.ie

Trim Bulldogs (white) and Drogheda Lightning (dark blue) - both teams joined DV8s in 2011.

The event is in aid of local girl Caoimhe Duffy, who has cerebral palsy. Funds raised will be put towards sending Caoimhe to American for potentially life changing surgery.

The format of the event will be an All-Star game in which players from any IAFL team can participate in alongside the Trim Bulldogs squad. The event is expected to attract a lot of interest in the local area. Players will all IAFL teams are invited to attend as participants or simply to support the event.

Details:  www.helpcaoimhewalk.com

Contact: Garland Drake – bulldogs@americanfootball.ie

Some of the workshop participants discuss options for the 2012 season at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry.

On Saturday 17th September 2011, the Irish American Football League (IAFL) held a meeting in Dublin to discuss the structure and timing of the league season going forward. This was a workshop style meeting where the participants discussed a variety of proposals and ideas before deciding on some recommendations.

Key considerations included ensuring that all teams have a competitive schedule, travel costs and future flexibility. There was a strong desire from the participants to recommend a structure that can be flexible going forward in terms of the number of teams participating and can accommodate increases in the number of regular season games played if desired beyond 2012.

The key recommendations of the workshop were as follows:

The IAFL should have two regional divisions of similar standard – IAFL North and IAFL South. Teams should play all their divisional rivals annually with the balance of games being against teams in the other division with opponents determined by the previous season’s rankings.

Consideration should be given to playing the Shamrock Bowl earlier in July, possibly to coincide with 4th July. Depending on the number of games scheduled per weekend, this may mean a earlier start to the season with some games played in February.

DV8s should be played after the end of the IAFL regular season so that more IAFL teams can enter 2nd teams in the DV8s league, thus making it bigger and more competitive.

Youth Kitted football (U19) should be played during the same timeframe as the DV8s to capitalise on synergies and make both more financially viable e.g. ground sharing for games. Initially Youth Kitted will use reduced numbers of players to allow as many teams as possible to participate.

The IAFL Board will be reviewing the recommendations and over the coming weeks and incorporating the feedback into its draft plans for 2012.

Workshop Attendees:
Carrickfergus Knights
Cork Admirals
Craigavon Cowboys
Tullamore Phoenix
West Dublin Rhinos
UL Vikings
IAFL Board Members

Dublin Rebels also forwarded feedback.

Irish American Football Association,
19 Castle Park,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22,
Ireland.

All post should now be sent to this address. Phone and email contact details remain unchanged.

Tuesday 30th August 17:00 – 18:00

Wednesday 31st August 00:30 – 01:30

Thursday September 1st 04:00-05:00

IAFL fans are advised to check the Setanta TV schedule closer to these dates in case of changes.

The coverage will feature live commentary by Matt Craig and Chris Biondi. The progamme was produced independently on behalf of the IAFL and IAFA by Viewfinder. This is the second successive year that the game has been broadcast on Setanta. In further developments, as interest in the Shamrock Bowl is growing, EFAF is looking at including next years game on the list of European games to be broadcast by Eurosport in 2012.