World Footy News

The under 17s match between Canada and the USA is yet another historic first for the Ironbank International Challenge weekend of footy in Vancouver. It will be the first junior representative team that Canada has put on the park, and probably for the US too (with the possible exception of the Barassi Youth Tournament several years ago). The young men will line up for a full contact international game of Aussie Rules. We have a look at where the players come from and how the organisers see the game in the greater scheme of developing footy in North America. Of course being the first such match there will be issues to be sorted - the US are a bit short on numbers so some of the Canadian kids face the prospect of lining up for the "enemy" - not an easy thing for a coach to explain. Still, it will be a great step forward for the game in North America and will hopefully demonstrate the value of investing in junior development. Just the very occurrence of the match on the same card as the men's and women's matches should be food for thought for the wider AFL Canada and USAFL communities.

Jeff Finsand, the key driver of junior development in San Francisco with support from the Golden Gate AFL, is excited by the upcoming match. "This is the eve of the biggest event by far for US junior footy! A handful of lads from Walnut Creek (in the San Francisco area) California and two from Vegas, one each from Portland and Arizona, will venture north to see how good Canada is. Hopefully this is the start of many such international junior matches". Unfortunately the squad had a few last minute drop outs, and Jeff advised "We will not be bringing a full squad, but will make do with the team at hand and any Canadians that can fill in. Team Canada wants to play 18-a-side. We are only bringing about 10 or 11, so they will fill in some players for us or we may play less players. They have a large club, so I see the need to get as many as possible involved. It would of course have been much better to get a full US 18. Our crew is fair quality though and Canada will have to be good to pull out a victory".

Jeff explained that the US squad will be coached by Eric Welden, "He is 18 and has played heaps of junior footy and a GGAFL match. Eric has single-handedly been the organizer of the junior matches here in Walnut Creek for the last two years".

With Canada having more juniors in regular footy programs (whereas most of the US numbers are in school clinics run by USFootyKids), the northerners may go in as favourites, but the Americans have some experienced youngsters and should take the match up to them. Let's hope this is the first of many such encounters between the two countries.

Canada under 17s:

USA under 17s: