World Footy News

Toronto, Wednesday July 1st 2009: On a perfect Toronto day for football, AFL Canada in conjunction with one of the largest leagues outside of Australia, the Ontario Australian Football League (“OAFL”), held their 3rd Canada Day Football Carnival. Canada Day is national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country. It's also a great chance for the OAFL to showcase Aussie Rules and give their national side a match against quality opposition.

The day’s main event, a football marquee match played between the combined OAFL Aussie All-Stars and the Canadian National Team known as the Northwind was a showcase of the highest standard of football played in Canada in recent years.

The carnival consisted of a double header; two games of football. The first game was a curtain raiser between a Canadian Rookie team (first and second year OAFL league players) up against a combined Canadian Australian OAFL Veterans team. This was followed by the clash of the day, Northwind versus the OAFL Aussie All-Stars.

In the main game of the day and after competing in Melbourne in the International Cup in August 2008 the game was to be the Canadian National Team’s first game back for 2009. Missing a number of their west coast regular players, the Northwind with the addition of some younger new players that have emerged from the 2008 and earlier portion of 2009 OAFL season made an early start to the day by kicking the first goal of the game.

However, this year’s edition of the OAFL Australian All-Stars proved to be one of the most “stacked” teams of talent ever assembled in Canada. Skilled Aussies from around the OAFL league such as Emile Studham, Nick Shuttleworth, Travis McKenzie, Luke Lombardini, Justin Harris, and Ajit Alister enjoyed the rare opportunity to play a game at a fast pace and with a higher level of skill that many of them have been accustomed to playing back in their Australian homeland.

The Eastern edition of Northwind combatants had players such as Captain Stefan Leyhane (Broadview Hawks), Assistant Captain Aaron Falcioni (Toronto Eagles) and Dale Simnett (High Park Demons) come back to lead the crew. What is obvious is that already in 2009 the national team is enjoying an infusion of new talent, long before the next International Cup scheduled for 2011.

This year many new players are getting great opportunities to take the field for their Country and earn their spots on the National Team. On Canada Day, William “Zack” MacDonald (Guelph Gargoyles), and Christian Harbour (Etobicoke Kangaroos) were the two most notable editions to the national team. Both players are athletes and move with the speed and agility that the Northwind coaches are looking for and contain the necessary high level of football skills to ensure themselves spots on the Northwind starting lineup.

In the first quarter and as the match began, Northwind’s Christian Harbour kicked the first goal of the game from a challenging angle as the NW held the lead for the first 10 minutes of the game. Then after three kicks at goal, the Aussies All-Stars started to catch fire and managed to post their first major. From then the goals started to flow. Northwind’s defense provided excellent coverage but on many occasions were outclassed by the Aussies as they took one handed marks, banged off multiple hand passes through the corridor and demonstrated superior kicking skills.

Stefan Leyhane, Northwind’s Captain had an amazing game from the centre half back position and Manny Matata (Etobicoke Kangaroos) surprised most everyone with a strong performance at full forward. It was also clear that the Northwind administration were proud to see new representation on the team that included players from the newly established Ottawa Swans Football Club, Ryan Gregory, Graeme Millen and Chris Lockhart.

Other notable inclusions were Chris Behie (Toronto Rebels), Tony Tam (Toronto Rebels) who both had strong performances as did the Guelph Gargoyles Adam Millen and two new Broadview Hawk additions, Ian Graham and Adam Verdurmen. But the 2009 OAFL Aussies All-Stars were too strong for Team Canada.

Goal kickers from the Northwind included three players from last year’s OAFL Grand Final Champions, the Etobicoke Kangaroos, and one from this year’s Senior Men’s Canadian Champions, the Broadview Hawks.

Final Score:

OAFL Aussie AllStars 20.14 (134) Defeated Team Canada Northwind 6.5 (41)

OAFL AllStar Goalkickers: T. McKenzie 6, E. Studham 4, N. Shuttleworth 3, A. Alister 2, B. Carter 1, J. Harris 1, C. Stewart 1, J. Cain 1, J. Rigney 1.
Northwind Goalkickers: M. Matata 3, Christian Harbour 1, M. Lovett 1, I. Graham 1.
OAFL AllStars best players: J. Harris, T. McKenzie, T. Marsh, D. Anderson.
Northwind best players: A. Falcioni, Z. MacDonald, C. Harbour, M. Bachinski

At the end of the day line honours had gone to the OAFL Aussie All-Star team but it must be remembered that Canada Day matches have been arranged to provide the Canadian national team with the highest and toughest football competition available.

In International competition, it is safe to say that no other country could provide such competitive football like the OAFL Aussie All-Stars provided on Canada Day here in Toronto. The Northwind, in its development looks forward to these events as they provide valuable football experience for the team as they work towards success at the next International Football Cup in Melbourne 2011.

Editor (Brett): No doubt that the OAFL is very strong, but one suspects that with an estimated 100,000 Australians living in England, AFL Britain's strongest league, AFL London, could put out an extremely high quality Aussie All-Star side.

Rookies Vs Veterans

The day began soon after 11 am with the Rookies kicking the first major and getting off to a solid start. However, for the first half of the game it was the Veterans that lead the way. The crowd enjoyed passages of good football by Veteran footballers Kieren Sparks (Toronto Rebels) who was helped across the centre by Craig Watts (Hamilton Wildcats) and Cling Munro (Hamilton Wildcats).

The Veterans capitalized on their forward 50 opportunities as goals came from players such as Forbes Gemmell (Broadview Hawks) and Scott Jobin-Bevans (Broadview Hawks). By half time the Veterans had come back and chalked up an early lead of more than 5 goals.

Into the third quarter the Rookies looked washed up and were facing a huge task if they were to win the game. It was time for them to step up and in the third and fourth quarters they began to do just that. Lead by Cam Stark (Toronto Rebels) and aided by Andrew Pilkington (Guelph Gargoyles) the Rookies began the charge back and by half way through the four quarter they had narrowed the lead to just 3 points as the goals kept coming, a spectacular one from Jamie Mahy (Broadview Hawks) from 53 meters out right through the big sticks.

The longer the game went the better the Rookie team looked as age started to show its signs on the Veteran side. The Rookies eventually ran out winners defeating the Veterans by one point with a score of 69 to the Veterans 68.

Post match rumours began to emerge no doubt from the Veterans camp of possible foul play as suggestions that the timekeeper had possibly fallen asleep in the final quarter and let the clock run on into extra time. Such ideas were quickly dismissed and the Rookie Team fully deserved their big win.

Final Score:

Rookies 10.9 (69) defeated OAFL Veterans 10.8 (68)