World Footy News

The Finland Icebreakers are making their debut this year, as one of the newer sides in the International footy community.

Footy has been played in Helsinki for a few years, with eight players first appearing as the Finnish Lions at the Prague Cup in late 2005. Since then, the Finns have rebranded the national team the Icebreakers. They formed two local teams last year with the creation of the Helsinki Heatseekers and Salo Juggernauts, and this year have kicked off a three-team domestic league.

Finland has had a few successes, with some CEAFL champion trophies heading to Helsinki, and put in a good showing at the EU Cup last year. However, the IC will be the biggest test yet for a team that only recently played its first 18-a-side test match.

Coaching the team will be West Australian Israel Barker. Barker was one the main drivers of Finnish footy in the first few seasons, although he is now living back in Australia. The Finland AFL's Heikkilä Kimmo tells us, "We play old style basic football. We are still learning this game."

He also adds that they're expecting to learn a lot at the Cup through playing against more seasoned opposition. "We have our national league going for the first season, so that's great. Now we play like 2-3 games a month."

"Our weakness is that our team is small because of how expensive it is to travel. We don't have many subs so we have to be aware of injures. Our strength is that we will give our best on the field. We have strength and honour."

The Country and Australian football

Finland is in Scandinavia, between Sweden and Russia, and has a population around 5 million. The climate means that outdoor ball sports are difficult for a fair chunk of the year (unless you can play on either skates or skis), but the past few summers have seen a steady increase in participation rates, particularly among locals.

Finnish footy had a bit of a media boost late last year when Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel visited, pulling on a Finland national jumper for a photo opportunity that appeared in Melbourne's Age newspaper.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Finns will be bringing a smallish squad to the Cup, so injuries could hit hard. This combined with a relative lack of experience compared to most of the other teams could make it a tough contest for them - Spain faced a similar situation in the last Cup and struggled, even forfeiting one of their seeding matches due to injuries.

However, the Finns are by all accounts ready to play their hardest and might pull a few surprises. They'll be keen to outperform the other debutantes.

Players to watch

Kimmo tells us Fredrik Romar, Jani Saarinen and ruckman Jalmari Wiima are the ones to watch.

Form Guide

The most recent international match was also their first 18-a-side hit out, and they were fairly comfortably beaten by the Swedes. Still, they have performed well in tournaments, winning the CEAFL cup back to back in 2006-07, against some of the other developing footy nations of Europe.

Their pool matches will test them, the Irish are generally very good come IC time, particularly if they've recruited a few strong Gaelic footballers, and the Canadians are ever improving, finally breaking-through for a win over the USA last time the two met.

Bottom Line

The Finns are tipped to finish fourth in their pool, but might be a chance for a win or two in the classification matches, with India, China and the Peace Team unknown quantities at this stage.

They were however clear favorites in the Jumper poll - the Big Rooster strikes again.