BREAKING NEWS!!!

The Essen Assindia Cardinals have pulled out of the relegation games!

As a result, the winner of the Berlin Rebels v Lubeck Cougars game on September 11th is automatically promoted to GFL1!! That's right, winner quite literally takes all and plays in GFL1 next year!! This is beyond epic people! Think about it while you listen to the below video...chills...honest to God chills......

Interview: Sean Power

Football is a sport where the unheralded guys such as the O line will dutifully carry out their assignments without expectation and without praise. A thankless job for the main part since people, being only human, will tend to focus on the runningback bursting through the holes they carve or the QB stepping up in the pocket to launch an 80 yard touchdown bomb.

Football is unique in that way becuase rarely will anyone willingly take these roles within a sports team since we all like to score and garner the attention! On that note, this week's interviewee seems to be cut from that same mould; Sean Power has just hung up his cleats (at least temporarily) after a career spent humbly driving his teams forward through the development stages. While he busies himself with his newest chapter in life he was good enough to take the time to answer a few questions covering everything from the IAFL to the NFL, and a few other gems just for good measure. Here's what he had to say!


Sean Power

I couldn't have written it any better myself...

Thank the football Gods! Me and the Berlin Rebels are still alive for the promotion spot behind Hamburg, who beat Lubeck 30-6 while we defeated the Troisdorf Jets 33-14.

As mentioned previously this set of results now means in two weeks there is going to be a showdown for the playoff spot. Lubeck travel to us and the winner quite literally takes all! If anyone's around Berlin you've GOT to check this one out, no questions asked. All the script writers from 'Any Given Sunday', 'Friday Night Lights', 'Remember the Titans' et al combined couldn't have written this one any better! I mean the two teams have been battling for position all season then our pivotal game is postponed due to rain and now it's a decider at the end of the season, I mean come on....somebody copyright this before Hollywood swoops down on the rights to it!!

Anyway, I'll have more in depth preview material over the next two weeks after the body has recovered fully from the game..now if you'll excuse me I'm off to the ice bath! (I'll leave you with this preparatory video until then)

Quick thought...

Okay, so for the Berlin Rebels and our aspirations of promotion to GFL1 everygame is do or die. On top of that we also require Hamburg to do a number on Lubeck today or it's all over!

Today is going to be a butterfly inducing battle for the season what with the Blue Devils and Cougars kicking off before us; so we'll know the story a bit better come half-time in our game. As outlined before if Lubeck win today they secure second place and the chance to playoff for promotion, if they lose we still have a shot, a shot that requires us winning out.

So first thing's first, we gotta take care of business, all the while praying to the football fates that they smile down upon us today. That's about the long and the short of it really. So I'll leave you with a quick pre-game prayer I hope you'll join in for.

I know I don't talk to you as often as I should, but please if you're up there, save our season for another game at least Superman!!

Until later people!

Slán!

Guest Article: Two-time Shamrock Bowl MVP Runningback Adrian Garvey

***!!!NEW FEATURE ALERT!!!***

Another new arrival to the blog: Guest Articles!

Thought it'd be a good way to break up the monotone of my own writing style while providing a good insight to readers on life within the IAFL. Plan is to have notable IAFL players, coaches and alumni to chip in a few words in order to provide a glimpse into the world of the Irish American football scene. With any luck the football Gods may even shine down upon this petit corner of the globel hyper-highway and provide the odd change-of-pace-back guest to spice it up. Very hush hush for now though, just cross your e-fingers for me will you?

Anyway, since these segments hope to illuminate the glamour of the IAFL the first such guest writer is a rather apt individual. As the caption above suggests, he is a two time winner of the MVP award in Shamrock Bowls (2008/09), ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, the inaugural 'Guest Article' guest writer: runningback for the University of Limerick Vikings, Adrian Garvey!

Interview with 2009 IAFL MVP Liam Ryan, FS from UL Vikings

Mr. Utility for the three-time-IAFL-champion UL Vikings Liam Ryan managed to find some time to remeninisce with Der Irlander and the former adversaries somehow kept it civil enough to get some must-read blogging done!

Oh and yes...as you see below there is a rare collectable Liam Ryan NFL card, which some auction houses might in fact place more value on than a Honus Wagner baseball card once owned by the great one himself; Wayne Gretzky (Google it people).


Liam Ryan, QB/FS, University of Limerick Vikings

What Happened Next? - The big reveal...

The inaugural homemade 'What Happened Next?' features a clip from this years Shamrock Bowl between the Dublin Rebels and the UL Vikings. As you saw in the last post there were four options presented to you to help decipher 'What Happened Next'...

A: Defender pile-on on the QB

B: QB wriggles out of the would-be tacklers and runs for a wild TD

C: QB panics and randomly toss's the ball into the air where it is picked off but brought back due to an early whistle

D: Streaker runs onto the pitch and forces referees to halt play.

Watch the video below to find out what actually transpired on that play and be sure to keep an eye out for future rounds of Der Irlander's homemade 'What Happened Next?'!

What Happened Next? - 22 Aug 2011

*** !!!NEW FEATURE ALERT!!! ***

Ding, ding, ding, we have a new feature on the blog folks! As promised Der Irlander is rolling out new features in the coming weeks and months and while you've already sampled some interview, here's a lighthearted way to kill a few minutes!

Those of you that know the old BBC game show "Question of Sport" will be familiar with the premise of this feature, basically it's Der Irlander's homemade version of the 'What Happened Next?' round. For those that may be unfamiliar with the concept, in the video below is a segment of a play which will freeze-frame before the pivotal moment of the clip, your job as 'contestants' is to see if you can figure out, from the possibilities provided at the start of the video, What Happened Next. Easy! Once I feel sufficient time has passed (or enough views have been hit) I'll put up the video showing the play in full so we can find out the answer (24-48 hours later).

The inaugural homemade 'What Happened Next?' features a clip from this years Shamrock Bowl between the Dublin Rebels and the UL Vikings. Play is in the second quarter and it's 3rd and long. Enjoy!

Back from the barbers!

In case you didn't notice, Der Irlander has just gotten a snazzy new haircut...that is to say the page has been given an overhaul in an attempt to make it easier on the eye and more importantly, to make it more user-friendly. The content and future features won't be changed, just the way we present them to you!

Below is a youtube video with suitable music taken from the movie 'Tron Legacy' to unveil the new design to; stick it on there and tell us what you think of the new layout! (Seriously though, what a track for football highlights, right?)

Coming up on 60 minutes; the Darragh Farrell interview...

 As mentioned in an earlier post Der Irlander is starting an interview series with an ex-teammate, now divisional rival: Lubeck Cougars DB Darragh Farrell.  Darragh managed to tear himself away from the Cougars long enough for me to interrogate him somewhat, and this is what I got out of him...


Darragh Farrell, DB, Lubeck Cougars

The Der Irlander global blog network is now live...

Der Irlander has now landed in Facebook's alottment of cyberspace!!

Perched firmly atop the internet's favourite social networking tree the blog can now reach your beloved friends and families that much quicker since not everyone has fully discovered the great reach of the Blogger network!

Tell the extended families and let's grow the Der Irlander audience!

Danke!

For those of you that haven't already noticed the 'Like' option just added to each post here's a URL for the auld copy'n'paste!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Der-Irlander/266821816662465

A look at the NFL pre-season and the GFL post-season...

Thank the Gods of football the NFL is back!

Sure it's only pre-season but after the complete drought of the off-season I think most, if not all, football fans are elated with the smallest sample of top-tier action.  Stop me if I'm wrong...

Some surprising results already though, Kansas City failing to score a point was an upset I would have thought with the league leading rusher and the architect of Arizona's Superbowl run: Todd Haley.  The previous Superbowl teams Pittsburgh and Green Bay lost as well, can't say I would have guessed that either!  But sure they have three more games to figure it out so we'll let them away with it....for now.

On the other end of the spectrum there are some not so surprising results; San Fran remain ineffective with Alex Smith (I won't lie, being a Rams fan I enjoyed seeing it (apologies to any 9ers fans that read this!)), the Bills are still the Bills, New England are still Bill Belichick's team, Detroit are filled with optimism as usual (just wait until Stafford gets knocked out for the season), and finally Curtis Painter....is still Curtis Painter, by which I mean he has stepped into the Jim Sorgi role of perpetual back up who plays Peyton Manning's pre-season games by throwing more INTs than TDs.  Still, at least they have a solid third stringer in Dan Orlovsky....oh....

Okay, the fodder is done with, now to the big boys: the GFL2 post-season picture!

This auld Paddy got to see the fine German countryside as the team whizzed past the high speed train windows on the way to Cologne.  Early start and an early finish to the day yesterday was made easier by the Berlin Rebels getting out of the wild west with a 23-0 shutout victory.  A win's a win so we'll take it.

Anyway, with the Lubeck game being rescheduled to the end of the season it could end up being billed as a down to the wire, winner takes all play-off decider.  Without meaning to sound trite and clichéd: epic.

Of course this depends on a few things though; we (the Rebels) have to win against Troisdorf in two weeks when they visit Berlin from the west, the Cougars would have to lose to someone (I'm looking at the Hamburg Blue Devils who are after a perfect season after they narrowly escaped our clutches...twice.....shudder).  If those two things happen that last game will be a belter, so be sure to follow the closing games of the GFL2 season!

So, while we all busy ourselves with the NFL pre-season ushering in an actual NFL regular season let's not take our eyes off of the intense battle for promotion to the GFL1!  If either the Lubeck Cougars or Berlin Rebels get to the top German division it will mean a huge milestone for Irish-born American football players!

Slán for now!

PS: Interview with Lubeck Cougars Irish-born defensive back Darragh Farrell should feature on the blog next week, will make for some interesting rivalry reading!

And we're back...

Okay so the holiday hiatus is over and I'm back on the beat!  You can rest easy once again good citizens of football city!

On top of that, my Berlin Rebels got back to work after some soccer hooligans called our game due to a bit of rain! Pfft!  Wouldn't want to tear up their precious field...it may uproot a rough patch of dirt that could chafe their skin when diving all about the place!  Anyway, rescheduling it to the end of the year will make for a good atmosphere when those mountain lion folk come down here, or at least I hope it will.  How cool would it be to battle for the playoff spot on the last day of the year?  Steve Sabol couldn't write that any better!

Anyway, if you didn't know the Berlin Rebels went up to Hmaburg to take on the undefeated Blue Devils in front of around 2,000 spectators; a fun venue to be sure but the fact that we lost 21-7 was somewhat disheartening to be honest!  The worst part is that after going up 7-0 we were in charge really until a broken play went 40 yards fro a TD before the half...lady momentum is a fickle expletive as I'm sure you all are well aware of!

Anyway, after the long trek home and getting to bed at 3:30am or something it hit me; my dream of being the first Irish-born player in GFL1 took a beating.  Given where we stand in GFL2 it's a tough road to GFL1, and we'll need favours from other teams.

So, here's hoping!  But as I've said before, I won't begrudge my old team mates in Lubeck for getting there first if they should, but let's not get ahead of ourselves jsut yet! ;)

Glad to be back an I have some interesting interviews/features planned for the near future, so stay tuned!

Slán for now.