World Footy News

worldfootynews.com has closely followed Mathias Biron's progress since assisting the young Danish player to make it down to Australia for the 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships, in which he performed well for the World XVIII. Since returning to Denmark, the 18 year old (pictured front row at the far left) has represented his country at senior level during the Vikings' gallant run in the inaugural European Championships (the full field version not to be confused with this weekend's Euro Cup 9-a-side tournament). WFN caught up with Biron to discuss the benefits of the World XVIII experience.

"I think that I learned a lot in the weeks that I was there. We had some really good coaches that taught me many new things at the training sessions. I improved a lot on those two weeks, not only because of the training sessions but also the matches taught me a lot. I learned to manage the pressure before a match, but I also learned many things on ground. To play against the Australian teams, we obviously didn’t have a chance, but it taught me how I should play and what I should work on. I think that you always learn a lot from players that are better than you".

"To play against very good teams was an experience and I think that we learned a lot from that. We learned how we should play footy".

Since returning from the Australian trip Denmark co-hosted the inaugural European Championships, with the Danes making it through to the Grand Final. From afar it seemed like a great tournament. "A couple of weeks after I returned from Australia we had the first European Championship. I played for the Danish National Team and that was fun. We won our 3 first games against Finland, Iceland and England (Great Britain). We had heard that the Irish Team was really good but we managed to be almost even score until the 3rd quarter, then we became tired and the athletic Irish Team “ran away from us”. It was a really good tournament and it was fun to experience players from countries as Croatia, Finland etc. playing Aussie Rules".

When playing for the World XVIII Biron faced some of Australia's best young talent, whereas at the European Champs he was against some of Europe's best adult players. "The Australian Tour helped me a lot in the tournament. I could use all my new knowledge in the matches and my skills were also improved. In Australia I was one of “the bigger guys” but in the tournament with adult players I was one of the smallest players.

"The adult players weren’t generally as fit, quick and technical as the Australian under 16 teams. But they were much more physical (especially the Irish Team) than the under 16 teams. Therefore the tournament was very different from Australia, but I was still able to use a lot of my new experience and that was probably also the reason why I was selected to the “all European Team”.

Looking ahead to 2011, Biron hopes to spend some more time Down Under. "Next year Denmark is participating in the International Cup and I hope that we will do well in the tournament. After the Cup I wish/hope to stay in Australia for a couple of months and play some footy - if I can afford it".