World Footy News

Alex Benjamin from USAFL Weekly Report recaps the weekends matches and provides his latest USAFL Standings table (with comparison to the new USAFL rankings poll). He also looks at the matches ahead for the weekend, tells us about his personal Road to Austin walk and previews his Youtube streaming show for this week.

 USAFL Last Weekend

What can I say about the Eastern Regional Weekend except…”Expect the Unexpected…” 2 Upsets and the USAFLWR standings are turned on its head, including the USAFL Top 20 as well. Here’s how the weekend’s games went:

Eastern Regional Tournament: Fort Lauderdale

Game #1: North Carolina 4.1.25 New York 10.8.68
Game #2: Fort Lauderdale 6.7.43 New York 2.6.18
Game #3: Fort Lauderdale 7.6.48 North Carolina 3.7.25

Nashville vs. Atlanta @ Ted Rhodes Park in Nashville:
Despite being outmarked in all 4 quarters in the contest (a total of 63-47), the Nashville Kangaroos dominated the Atlanta Kookaburras and win going away 13.14.92 to 2.7.19.

Tulsa vs. Dallas @ Tulsa’s Veterans Park:
Despite a valiant effort by the Buffaloes in the first half, the Magpies are on the comeback trail and dominated the game going away by a final score of 15.19.109 to 8.4.52.

How USAFL Weekly Review Standings are calculated;

During the season:
Full games (4-quarter): Wins counts exactly like AFL, 4 points for win and 2 points for tie.
Tournament/Metro Games (Halves): Wins count 2 points for the win and 1 point for tie with exception of 18 a side four quarter matches, then they will count just as full games.

Metro 10s (Halves): Wins counts 1 point for the win and ½ point for tie.

At Nationals:
All Round Robin Games: 4 points for the win and 2 points for a tie.
The winners of the pool go to the Grand Final and the winner of those Grand Finals will take 8 points for the win.

So from the weekend with the 2 upset wins, Fort Lauderdale is 2-2 with 8 points and will be 1st in the USAFLWR standings. New York’s win against North Carolina will put them at 1-1 and currently in 6th while North Carolina will be at 0-2 and will be 10th.  Nashville with the win are 2-1 with 5 points and will be in 2nd in the USAFLWR while Atlanta will be in 8th.  Dallas Magpies are 1-0 with 4 points and will be in 5th while Tulsa is in 10th at 0-1.  The full standings are below.

Men's

USAFL Poll Ranking	USAFLWR Standing	Team	W-L-T	PF	PA	Pct.	Points
20	1	Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids	2-2-0	102	160	63.75	8
13	2	Nashville Kangaroos	2-1-0	143	60	238.33	5
3	3	Austin Crows	2-0-0	96	20	480.00	4
6	4	Golden Gate Roos	1-0-0	41	15	273.33	4
10	5	Dallas Magpies	1-0-0	109	52	209.62	4
1	6	New York Magpies	1-1-0	86	68	126.47	4
9	7	Houston Lonestars	1-1-0	54	25	216.00	2
24	8	Atlanta Kookaburras	1-2-0	60	143	41.96	1
	9	Tulsa Buffaloes	0-1-0	52	109	47.71	0
	10	North Carolina Tigers	0-2-0	50	115	43.48	0
	11	Sacramento Suns	0-1-0	15	41	36.58	0

(Ed. Note for those not familiar with the USAFL the number of matches that teams play vary markedly and many teams do not play each other or in a home and away format, thus the impetus for the polling ranking system based on informed opinion versus Alex's table of standings based on actual results.  Of course neither is conclusive as to who the best team actually is - for that we have the USAFL Nationals to decide.  But they do both offer interesting talking points on who is better than who.)

Women's

USAFLWR Standing	Team	W-L-T	PF	PA	Pct.	Points
1	San Francisco Iron Maiden	1-0-0	22	16	137.50	4
2	Sacramento Lady Suns	0-1-0	16	22	72.73	0

This Weekend’s Games

This  ANZAC Weekend the USAFL has games in 3 cities, 2 in Ohio and in Houston.  All 3 games are full 4-quarter games and will count 4 points in the USAFLWR standings.

Game One: (#9 USAFL) Columbus @ Cleveland: Saturday @ 2 pm CT
The newly reformed Cleveland Cannons will take on the powerhouse Columbus Jackaroos. I expect a blowout by the Jackaroos in this game.

Game Two: Indianapolis @ (#18 USAFL) Cincinnati: Saturday @ 3 pm CT
At Point Pleasant Park in Cincinnati the Dockers begin their 2015 season against the Indianapolis Giants. Both teams are coming off a decent showing at the 2014 Nationals and I expect a tight game this Saturday.

Game Three: 2015 Ruggles Cup: Baton Rouge @ (#9 USAFL) #7 Houston
The Houston Lonestars take on the Baton Rouge Tigers. As a team trying to right the ship after a very disappointing 2014, Baton Rouge is hopeful for a better showing in 2015 as they begin against the rising powerhouse in Houston. I expect an easy win for the Lonestars and for them to move to 1st in the USAFLWR.

Recaps next week and on Sunday’s show.

The Road To Austin

At the beginning of the year, several of my friends gave me a challenge to bring down the weight from where I was last year, which was 276 lbs. (125.20 kg). So, last November, I began a new task to bring the weight down and so far, I have done a 5k (the Nashville Zoo Run Run on 25 January), a 10K (2 weeks ago @ Purity Moosic City 10K) and 15k (Hot Chocolate 15K on Valentine’s Day) on my way to do the distance between my home in Smyrna and the Division One field at this year’s Nationals @ Onion Creek Soccer Fields in Austin, TX, which is 915 miles (1472 km).

After another busy week on the road, including a 2nd week in a row of an event (Nashville vs. Atlanta, yesterday), once again, I made it past 20 miles once again. The progress stats are: Weight: now 261.2 lbs. Distance this week: 22.73 mi. Distance overall: 284.39 mi. Pace: 273.25 mi +/-: +9.14 mi. Distance to goal: 630.61 mi. Days to go: 256

On the map:

I am moving right along on I-40 as I've made it to Griggs, AR (I-40 Exit 247). Needless to say, I'm moving faster than the pace and now looking at the chance to maybe making the turn to I-440 in North Little Rock BEFORE Memorial Day as I'm now 88 miles away and with it pacing at 23 miles/week...that's 4 weeks from today (17 May). We shall see if I can keep the pace...remember, everyone, the pace is to be at 17.57 mi. every week, so by the end of next week, I maybe a full week ahead of schedule. At present, I am now 4 days ahead of schedule.

This Week’s Show

This week, we will be on our 4th of the year @ 1 pm Sunday 26th April USA Central Time. We will have AFL News with Lisa Albergo, our recap of Week 4 in the AFL, AFL Picks for Week 5, USAFL Women’s with Carolyn Poulos as she recaps the Freedom and Liberty camp in Phoenix, USAFL Mens (Alex Benjamin) and a new section where you can ask questions via USAFL Weekly Report’s Facebook page. You can also use the comment in World Footy News as well as Twitter. On Twitter you can use the #USAFLWRQA. Our final segment is a preview of next week’s show, which will be on its normal time @ 4 pm CT. The show will be shown live via YouTube. To look for us, type in USAFL Weekly Show in the search on the main page.