World Footy News

A couple of weeks ago at the BC Footy international weekend in Vancouver the Canadian men had their first ever win over the powerful United States team, winning the 49th Parallel Cup, before going down the next day in the keenly contested exhibition match. On the other hand the Canadian women struggled against their more experienced American counterparts, losing both matches by big margins, but the youthfulness of their squad promised better things to come. Now to the juniors and it was very positive to have the next generation of stars on display. The under 17s matches saw a large squad of young men from Canada - the Wolfpack - take on a smaller travelling party from the US.

We previewed the match in Canada versus USA under 17s set to go and as expected Canada had to provide the US team with some extra players to make up the numbers (the US travelled with 11 players) which they did by rotating players through the US squad so they could make sure as many of their boys could represent their own country as possible. Although the need to do that was a little disappointing for the Canadians the most important thing was that the matches went ahead and getting the US side up to Vancouver was no small achievement.

Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver BC was the venue for Canada's international debut in junior footy, and we think it was the United States' first competition at this level too (a squad may have attended the Barassi Youth Tournament several years ago). The Wolfpack ran out comfortable winners 49 points to 0 in the first game and 50 to 6 in the second. The teams played two 20 minute halves on the Saturday and four 12 minute quarters on the Sunday, and for head coach for the Canadian Junior Team and AFL Canada President, Mike McFarlane, it was a dream come true weekend. Mike is also the creator of the only Canadian juniors league, the North Delta Junior Australian Football League in the Vancouver area suburb of North Delta, BC. Considering 95% of the Canadian team came from that league that started 5 years ago, it is an amazing achievement and without that vision and effort from Mike and assistants such as Jason Stratford, Canada almost certainly would still be yet to take the field in junior internationals. Having more than 150 kids involved this year in that league, it seemed to pay large dividends for the home side who brought to Thunderbird Stadium a huge squad of 31 rostered players. Many of these players had been playing for 5 years since the Junior League in Delta began.

Canada had been training for the weekend since November 2006 and were definitely ready to go. In the Saturday game, the Canadians' extra years in the game shone through as they had too much skill and football knowledge for the Americans who to their credit however never gave up trying. On the Sunday, Canada rotated most of its squad through the USA team, each sharing a quarter playing for the opposition. This ensured the game a more competitive affair than the day prior and especially in a tight 2nd half where the new look American team put up a much stronger fight. Robin Macdonald in only his second season playing Aussie Rules football was Canada's player of the tournament.

Ultimately the weekend was a fantastic result for Canadian development in Aussie Rules and sent a strong message to the football world showing they have the infrastructure and talent to provide strong and experienced junior players and many will make their way to play with the Vancouver Cougars or Burnaby Eagles (the local senior men's teams). Their coaches hope that one day some of the players might even get a shot at the big time in Australia. One of the first Delta juniors, Scott Fleming, showed on the weekend that he had definitely taken the next step as he performed extremely well scoring 3 goals for the Canadian "Northwind" men's team in their historic victory over the USA on the Saturday. Unless the strong Ontario league gets a solid junior program under way soon its quite conceivable that the senior squad could be dominated by the west coast youth by 2012 (when we'll likely see the fourth International Cup).

Jeff Finsand, founder of the Walnut Creek juniors program in San Francisco, was proud of his team and felt the weekend, overall, was a very positive experience. In terms of the playing styles, the US felt that the Canadians were hard at the ball and the player (perhaps over the top in the first game on the Saturday) and Jeff admitted his own son has suggested he might have to teach them a tougher brand of the game. These are the sort of differences that have to be expected when teams from different countries meet for the first time. Jeff also commented "Hats off to the Canadians for having such a great youth league, and especially all those who had to fill in for Team USA".

The Canadian coaches made it clear that their team are extremely eager and welcome the challenge to play against a full squad from the USA next time, and talks are already in place for a possible return clash early next year in the US, possibly as early as March. Congratulations to both countries for providing a great spectacle of Australian Football and let's hope this first weekend of junior internationals spurs people in other leagues across both countries to start developing the next generation of footy players.

For further pictures from the weekend and information on the Canadian Wolfpack see CJNWolfpack and for the North Delta Junior Aussie Football League see NDJAFL.

Full scores and details of the two games as follows:

SATURDAY

Canada 6-13 (49) defeated USA 0-0 (0)

Goalscorers:
Canada - 2 Clayton Lund, 1 Braedon Reynolds, Evan Quaas, Shaniel Prasad, Erik Cimoszko
USA - nil

Best: Canada - Clayton Lund, Robin Macdonald, Evan Quaas, Erik Cimoszko, Justen Oertel, Jason Wait
USA - named below

SUNDAY

Canada 8-2 (50) defeated USA 1-0 (6)

Goalscorers:
Canada - 3 Keane Fraser, 1 Alex Frech, Evan Quaas, Robin Macdonald, Justen Oertel, Tom Steer
USA - Dylan Fannin

Best:
Canada - Robin Macdonald, Justen Oertel, Clayton Lund, Keane Fraser, Nick McFarlane, Michael Wait
USA - named below

Best for USA across the two days as given by Jeff Finsand: Paul Curry held down the fort on the backline, Matt Farrell made a few great tackles, Andrew Finsand was his smooth self in both games, and Dan Rogan was leader and fought the pack all weekend.