World Footy News

2005 has been a big year for the North Carolina Tigers with playing an international match, moving to a newly formed league and starting their own local metro league among the events so far.

Based in Raleigh, the North Carolina Tigers have a long history in the USAFL with the club forming back in 1997. The club has always been predominantly made up of Americans. The notable difference to their side has always been the superior fitness and stamina, not that they have any specially formulated sports drinks, it is due to the side being made up of much younger players than most of their opposition teams. Other clubs made up of older expat Aussies and their work colleagues, while having more experience have more than once fallen into the trap of underestimating the Tigers' young guns. Where do they draw these fit young men from? The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University both providing many of the players and also the first two college Australian rules teams in the US.

The club battled it out with Atlanta and the Tri Cities Saints in the last few years, with Florida joining last year in the SEAFL. This year they have decided to throw their lot in with the newly-formed EAFL. While this means there will be much more varied competition, there will also be much more travel with the league spread from Boston to Florida. North Carolina also lost one of their closest football neighbours in the Tri Cities Saints who folded at the end of 2004, a big loss in a football environment where low travel distance away games are hard to find. On the flipside of this is the US Revolution team member BJ Gambaro has relocated from Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina and there are hopes that along with some current Tigers players there may be a chance to form a team in that city.

The 2005 season began with an international challenge match on home turf against the Etobicoke Kangaroos side from Ontario, Canada. The link with Roos coming about when one of the Tiger players, Matthew Gordan, worked in Toronto as an intern. The international visitors, relying heavily on the experience of mostly Australian players taking the honours with a 76 point win. As usual a great social gathering followed along with pledges of a return match in the future.

Additionally, a three team metro competition has been formed. With less than five Australian players on the Tigers’ roster, every game provides much needed experience for those new to the game and a chance for the veterans to polish their skills. The teams are the Wolves, Capitals and Rams in a 7-a-side format with games played monthly. The teams were divided in a random draft and each side then went out to recruit new players, which so far has netted another seven new players to the game.

The Tigers sent three American players, Justin Davis, Phil Schriebman, and Wes McCallister to the East-West All-Star game in Dallas, Texas. With all three players on the Revolution squad, their hopes of making the final National Team cut were high. Unfortunately strong performances by all three in that game, playing new and unfamiliar positions, were not enough for the Tigers to have a representative selected to travel to Melbourne for the International Cup in the Revolution team. Hopefully the East West experience and being on the Revolution squad will assist these players going forward and in future will see these Tigers with representative honours.

The EAFL season did not see early success for the Tigers with losses away to Philadelphia at Philadelphia by 48 points, Baltimore Washington to the tune of 16 points in Baltimore and at home to a strong New York team by 72 points. Their match against Florida was eagerly awaited by all in the EAFL, with Florida having a 4-0 record but with all their games so far played at home. On familiar turf at Thompson Road Park in Garner, North Carolina they proved suspicions correct that Florida would find their only EAFL road trip for the season a much tougher proposition than home fixtures. In a tight match that saw the Tigers up by just two points at three quarter time the Tigers finished strongly with the final scoreline 13.13 (91) to 10.14 (74). Tigers Captain Jason Heathcote finished with 7 majors and was best on ground.

The move to EAFL has seen many changes at the club, and generally having to become more professional off the field. The Tiger’s jerseys have been updated with Richmond AFL jumpers modified and carrying the NC Tiger’s logo. With new major sponsorship required the club has sought out Woody’s @ City Market as their major sponsor. The sponsor getting their exposure to a larger population through advertising on the Tiger’s shorts and on the club’s website. The website has been redesigned featuring up-to-date news, brilliant game photos, and complete player profiles, receiving much more traffic than before, over 900 unique visitors per month.

On the field the biggest changes are in playing new opponents each match and trying to quickly adapt to the different styles of football being played by each team. It is hoped that this will accelerate the learning and understanding of the game as they continue forward. With their first win of the season now in the bag, hopes are high for the remaining games against Boston and Pittsburgh in Boston in late August, and the USAFL Nationals in Milwaukee in October.