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.

.

	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, 8:45am
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

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.

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.

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.

—–Previous News—–

The 2011 DV8s Finals Tournament will take place in Tullamore on Sunday 28th August, starting at Noon.

The tournament will feature a record nine teams, with each team expected to play 4 reduced length fixtures. Points will be awarded to the three dedicated DV8s teams which will count towards the DV8s standings. The teams have been drawn into 3 groups of 3 with each team playing each other team in their group. All the group winners will then progress to the 1st to 3rd group, the second places to the 4th to 6th group and the third places to 7th to 9th group – with each team playing the other team in these groups to decide the final placings from 1st to 9th. Each fixture will be 2o minutes long.

Group A

Tullamore Phoenix, Craigavon Cowboys 2nds, UCD 2nds

Group B

Drogheda Lightning, Dublin Dragons 2nds, Dublin Rebels 2nds

Group C

Trim Bulldogs, West Dublin Rhinos 2nds, UL Vikings 2nds

1st – 3rd Group:       A1 ,B1, C1

4th – 6th Group:       A2 ,B2 ,C2

7th – 9th Group:       A3 ,B3 ,C3

Newsflash 4 Aug

Congratulation to West Dublin Rhinos who retained their position from last year for the best marked home field over the season in 2011. Details of each team’s average score along with last year’s results are in this week’s Newsflash.

Apologies for the late posting of this edition.

Dublin Rebels celebrate winning Shamrock Bowl XXV

The Dublin Rebels won Shamrock Bowl XXV with a nail biting 14-13 victory over the UL Vikings. The decisive TD was scored by RB Sam Hodgins in the 4th quarter. The game was played on front of a large crowd at Morton Stadium, Santry. Rebels Safety Marcus Naylor won the MVP Award.

Shamrock Bowl XXV MVP Marcus Naylor makes a difficult interception

The Shamrock Bowl comes just once a year. The culmination of a season’s workload, it is the pinnacle of the sport in Ireland. It’s an amateur, minority sport after all, and as such, it casts the reason for playing the game into light. The motivations may vary, but all were on display in Morton Stadium on Sunday.

As with any sport, the pursuit of a set goal is often reason enough, but the satisfaction is no doubt amplified in overcoming adversity along the way. For the Dublin Rebels and UL Vikings, adversity has become a given in recent years, irremovable from the goal. This year’s Bowl was no different. In fact, it highlighted the ferocity and competitiveness more than any other final. Just one point separated the teams at the final whistle, the Rebels stealing the title with a 14-13 win. And Limerick’s challenge came from every angle.

On offense QB Marc Ashworth was particularly impressive, looking more settled than ever behind centre after years of service from other positions. He connected for two touchdowns with receivers Breandán Curtin and rookie Seán McGoldrick, the latter making an incredible leaping catch in slippy conditions. Up front, the entire Vikings D-Line caused problems, while in the secondary CB Craig Brouder and veteran safety Liam Ryan picked up an interception each.

Facing such a challenge, the Rebels soon surrendered their early lead. RB Aaron Smith was the first to cross the plane, but some turnovers for the Vikes soon pinned the Rebels deep in their own territory. Unable to escape, Ashworth set up with good field position and went to the air for two scores in quick succession. Reeling, the Rebels went into halftime trailing 13-6.

Brendan Curtin scores Vikings touchdown

Rebels Colin Keegan (Black) and Vikings Sean Goldrick battle for the ball

But just as goals require obstacles, they also need a driving internal force. It’s true of every sport, but with fringe sports in particular, clubs are only what their members make it. With less money and less people, there are more sacrifices. There are no clubhouses. No toothless old men pining for the good old days, because all of them are still playing. Just as that mentality drove the Vikings’ challenge, so too did it drive the Rebels’ response. And that response came in units, the defence in particular. Of course, individuals stood out. Game MVP Marcus Naylor shifted momentum with an impossible diving interception, Kevin Healy collected two sacks, Bobby Smith made countless tackles. But the response was unified. The defence was simply frightening, and it was fitting that their two-point contribution from a 3^rd quarter safety proved to be the difference.

The offensive response may not have been as pronounced, but crucially, it was enough. Leaning on the legs of RB Sam Hodgins, and the plowing mass of the offensive line, the Rebels jumped ahead early in the 4^th quarter. 14-13. With the defence in such form, the lead, slim as it was, was never threatened. Still, everything churned slowly; the Rebels running game, the clock, the sidelined stomachs.

Rebels RB Aaron Smith carries the ball.

People play for the challenge, the adversity, and for their teammates, huddled together away from the passersby honking their car horns. They also play for pleasure, and never is it greater than in the Shamrock Bowl. There is an atmosphere unlike any other game of the season and the attitude and preparation of both teams improve the quality no end. There is a spectacle. Compared to the regular season, there is a grandeur that could seem artificial. But in reality, there is no delusion with this grandeur, because what is on display is sport in its truest form. A big field of lads killing each other for a glory that is only theirs. Players bettering themselves to win a challenge that few will appreciate, but because they’re so few, the appreciation is all the greater.

Kieran Coen #67 battles with Rebels OL

It’s the beauty of the sport, and the beauty of the Shamrock Bowl. For this year, the Rebels remain champions. The Vikings will return stronger than ever, as will the rejuvenated teams in the North and the improving teams elsewhere in Dublin. For them, there is added motivation in knowing that the Rebels had a far from perfect season. The gap seem to be closing. But until the teams go back to test that theory, the Rebels will celebrate their 7^th Shamrock Bowl victory – their favourite reason to play this game.

Large crowd watches Shamrock Bowl at Morton Stadium

EFAF President Robert Huber, IAFA President Greg Loughran and Referee Michael Smith prepare for the coin toss

SHAMROCK BOWL PICTURE GALLERY:

Pictures supplied by Ariane Boudias.

[Show picture list]

[[Show as slideshow]]