World Footy News

The University of Birmingham Sharks, one of Britain's newest Australian rules football clubs, last weekend hosted the WARFL Red Devils, the representative side featuring the best players in the Welsh Australian Rules Football Leagues across all nationalities.

In a surprise result, the Sharks' fitness was too much the more-experienced Devils, the home side running out to a comfortable 59-point win, Dan Di-Lieto kicking six goals for the winners.

The Sharks this weekend will host the Portsmouth Pirates, followed by planned matches over the coming weeks against Cambridge University, the Huddersfield Rams and fellow newly-founded collegiate clubs the Leeds Met Taipans and Chichester Uni Cougars.

Closer to home, Birmingham Uni will also take part in the three-team West Midlands Cup against Wolverhampton and the Birmingham Bears on March 13th.

This report courtesy of David Wheaton from the University of Birmingham.

Saturday 30th January 2010 may not be remembered as a very special day for many students. I assume most were recovering from the previous night’s ban­ter or feverishly writing up last-minute essay drafts. In any case they were in no condition to witness the University of Birmingham Aussie Rules Football Team – more commonly known as ‘The Sharks’ – adding yet another victory to the University’s prolific sporting history.

After months of training, organizing supplies, gear and finances, Tim Smith – founder, captain and coach of the team – was able to kick off the first ever game of Aussie Rules in the University of Birmingham’s history on the Metchley pitch against the Welsh Australian Rules Football League (WARFL) Red Devils. Before any one thinks about making any dubious remarks about the talent of Welshmen at Australian Rules Football, I must clarify this much: The WARFL Red Devils is the league’s representative side consisting of the WARFL’s best players, regard less of nationality, across all 5 clubs in the league; some of Brum’s opponents on the day often also being called up for the Welsh National Side, the Cymru Red Dragons.

On paper, a victory was far from certain and nothing could have foreseen the field day that the home team went on to enjoy. In the first quarter, after an understandably shy start by Birmingham, the Welsh side almost instantly scored the first goal of the match making it 0–6. Their advantage was, however, very short lived after the Sharks' James Wetherley offered David Wheaton a pass for the team's first ever goal, putting Birmingham in the lead. Further goals were scored by the remarkable Dan Di-Lieto, ending with Birmingham Uni 32–11 up by the end of the first quarter.

Who would have thought? Fiery Brum battled with the Welsh men hard in the second quarter, keeping pres sure high on the Dev ils’ defense, enabling Di-Lieto to score another four of six goals in the sec ond quar ter. To most of the travelling support’s surprise, Brum finished the second quarter 76–13 up. In the third quarter, the home team was finding it harder to outrun the Welsh side who definitely lived up to their reputation, solidly blocking every attempt to get past the halfway line and following up with some beautiful hand-passing combinations. However, the Sharks kept them at bay overall with the score now tightened to 84–24.

A combination of Smith’s encouragements and an ecstatic, even feverous Chris Britton, grabbing every ball in midfield, enabled the team to solidly focus back on the game in the fourth quarter. The Red Devils were however undeniably more experienced, scoring three more goals and showing more signs of confidence in their game than the Birmingham rookies could. The final whistle could not have come at a better time, ending the game with an unbelievable 104–45 score in favour of the home side.

With many more games to come, it seems that, after American Football, yet another imported sport could provide the University with many more thrills and surprises.

The squad of the first-ever University of Birmingham team were: Joe Watkins, Harry Cook, Nick Ward, Sean Walton, Chris Britton, Tim Smith, Dan Di-Lieto, James Whetherly, David Wheaton; Seb Goodwin, David McIntyre, Jack Hutchinson, Robert Woodward, Kevin Kinchington and Duncan Coombe.

Full scores

Goals: U of B - Dan Di-Lieto (6), David Wheaton (2), Sean Walton (2), Tim Smith (2), Chris Britton, James Whetherly
WARFL - T. Lewis (2), G. Sturge, L. Chappell, R. Morgan

Best: U of B - Dan Di-Lieto, Sean Walton, Tim Smith
WARFL - Not available