World Footy News

Columbus, OH  The Aussie Rules and Gaelic clubs of Columbus, the Jackaroos and Naghten Street, respectively, faced off at Whetstone Park the morning of Saturday, May 5, for a rematch of last fall’s Ohio International Rules Football Challenge.

This was the first of a series of International Rules matches between the two clubs this year, which will climax with a curtain-raiser game for the 49^th Parallel Cup, the annual Aussie Rules match-up between men’s, women’s, and U23 all-stars from Canada and the USA, on August 4 in Dublin, OH.

The experienced Jackaroos came out running early and attacked at the goals for most of the first quarter, but due to some ineptitude with kicking the round ball found themselves down 14 to 7 after the first quarter. Naghten Street kept fighting in the second quarter and showed an edge with their speed and ability to create space away from the ball.

As the Jacks began to come to terms with the spherical ball, excellent kicking by forward Alex Sleeper was rewarded with two big goals that gave them the lead at the half with a score of 26 to 18. Repeated kicking in danger penalties plagued the Gaelic boys in the second half, and hard hitting tackles by the Jacks’ Tyler Hughes combined with aggressive midfield play by David Wilson and Eric Politz made the Gaelic club a bit shy at the ball and consequently proved too much for the sophomore Naghten Street squad.

Admirable ball movement and up-tempo team play by Naghten Street, especially standouts Pat Coyne and Pat Thompson, kept the game close until the final minutes.

As the morning fog lifted at the end of the game, the Jacks were on top 36 to 25 and retained their status as Ohio’s International Rules champions.