World Footy News

Last Weekend’s Games: USAFL Week 7
This past weekend, there were two scheduled tourneys plus the Atlanta vs. Baton Rouge full game. There was a last minute addition and a postponement…the addition was Seattle vs. BC Eagles outside of Seattle, but the postponement was in Houston. The first round of the Texas Cup was postponed due to 11 inches of rain in a week in Houston that made Veterans Park unplayable.

Just 3 years ago, Houston and the state of Texas was in a Stage 3 Drought. Now, they have received 11-17 inches of rain during the month of May, including at the USAFL Nationals HQ in Austin, where the league will be in just 5 months from now.

The Texas Cup Round 1 has been rescheduled for a week from Saturday, 30 May. With that, here’s a recap of last weekend’s games, including extended tournament coverage of the Harrell Cup.
 

Landing Park in Marietta: Atlanta vs Baton Rouge

Played at Marietta’s Gerrard Landing Park this was the first of the home-and-home series between Baton Rouge and Atlanta. The game was a tight battle most of the way until the final quarter of the game, when Atlanta finally took control. Even though the scoring chances were close, 25 to 22 in favor of Atlanta, the Kookaburras won the game easily.

Final score: Atlanta 16.9.105 Baton Rouge 9.13.69

At Sedro-Wooley outside of Seattle: Seattle vs. BC Eagles

This match was played outside of Seattle at Sedro-Wooley Park, near Everett as the Seattle Grizzlies hosted the BC Eagles in the second of back-to-back weekends with the Canadian BC Teams. After the heartbreaker of last weekend’s loss to Vancouver, the Grizzlies needed a comeback and they got it as the battle with BC was back and forth for the majority of the match with Seattle kicking the winning goal with less than a minute to go to pull out the win.
 

Final score: Seattle 10.8.68 BC 9.8.62

The next game for Seattle will be June 20th in Vancouver against the Vancouver Saints in Round 3 of the I-5 matches.

Champions Park, Louisville: The John Harrell Cup
Teams Involved: Nashville Kangaroos, Columbus Jackaroos, Cincinnati Dockers and the Indianapolis Giants

At Champions Park, Louisville home of three USAFL Nationals (Last played in 2010) for the 2015 John Harrell Cup. As the teams had gathered for the annual event, it marked the first time in four years that Nashville had made it back to the Harrell Cup, but they have won all four times they had gone to the Cup.

Game One: 10:45 am: Columbus vs. Indianapolis

First game of the day had the Columbus Jackaroos and the Indianapolis Giants in the first of several games against each other. The weather at the 1st game was moderate heavy rain with a temperature at 75. The first half was one sided as Columbus outmarked Indianapolis by a 16-5 count and lead at the half by a 6.4.40 to 0.4.4. The second half was more of the same with Columbus outmarking Indianapolis by a 13-3 and overall 29-8.
Final score: Columbus 9.6.60 Indianapolis 1.4.10

Game Two: 11:55 am: Cincinnati vs. Nashville

Game #2 saw two of the founding members of the USAFL in the Cincinnati Dockers and the Nashville Kangaroos as they renewed their rivalry. The last time the Dockers played against the Kangaroos was right after the 2010 floods in Nashville, in which Nashville won the game by more than 120 points in a blowout. As this game began, the rain had turned heavy, but no thunderstorms meant the game went on as planned, even with suboptimal field conditions. The first half was surprising one-sided in the favor of Cincinnati as they had a 11-5 edge in marks and lead at half 5.6.36 to 1.1.7. The second half was more vintage Kangaroos ball as they won the marks 13-4 to win the marks 18-15, but the lead was too great for them to overcome and for the first time in seven years, Cincinnati upset Nashville.

Final score: Cincinnati 8.7.55 Nashville 4.2.26

Game Three: 2:00 pm: 3rd Place Game: Nashville vs. Indianapolis

The surprising 3rd Place game was Indianapolis vs. Nashville. Surprising is that for the first time, the Kangaroos wouldn’t be playing in the final. However, it also marked the first time that Indianapolis and Nashville played on the field. By the time of the 3rd Place Game, the rain had lessened, but still was moderate raining on the field. The first half started with a behind in the first 2 minutes by the Giants. That would be the only lead of the game by the Giants as the Kangaroos went on the attack, outmarking the Giants 15-2 in the first and going to the half leading 3.2.20 to 0.1.1. The second half was more of the same through the first 10 minutes as the Kangaroos added 2 more goals before Indianapolis added 3 behinds with 4 minutes left, but by then, the game was in hand. Nashville outmarked the Giants in the second half 14-2 to win the marks 29-4.
 

Final score: Nashville 6.7.43 Indianapolis 0.4.4

Game Four: 3:25 pm: Grand Final: Columbus vs. Cincinnati

The Grand Final brought the Battle of I-71 down to Louisville. This marks the 9th contest since Columbus came onboard with Columbus winning the last 4 straight. However, as the rain ended in time of the Grand Final, it was the Dockers coming out with the first goal in the opening minute and outmarking the Jackaroos in the first 13 minutes 11-6 before a flurry in the last 7 minutes saw the Jackaroos coming back to have a battle in the second half. The marks were 15-14 in favored of Cincinnati at the half with the Dockers leading 2.1.13 to 1.4.10. The second half was the Jackaroos in a clampdown of the Dockers in the final 20 minutes as they outmarked the Dockers 16-2 and outscored them 22-2 in the final 20 minutes to win their 1st Harrell Cup.
 

Final score: Columbus 4.8.32 Cincinnati 2.3.15

USAFLWR New Standings Ladder

With all of the games in the books from last weekend, we have a new leader in the USAFLWR Standings, the Columbus Jackaroos after the clean sweep in Louisville.

                  Men

USAFL Ranking	USAFLWR Rankings	Team	W-L-T	PF	PA	Pct.	Points
9t	1	Columbus Jackaroos	3-0-0	176	32	550.00	8
19	2	Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids	2-2-0	102	160	63.75	8
12t	3	Nashville Kangaroos	3-2-0	212	119	178.15	7
9t	4	Houston Lonestars	2-1-0	177	72	216.00	6
24	5	Atlanta Kookaburras	2-2-0	165	212	77.83	5
3	6	Austin Crows	2-0-0	96	20	480.00	4
7	7	Golden Gate Roos	1-0-0	41	15	273.33	4
11	8	Dallas Magpies	1-0-0	109	52	209.52	4
2	9	New York Magpies	1-1-0	86	68	126.47	4
25	10	Seattle Grizzlies	1-1-0	108	130	83.08	4
5	11	Minnesota Freeze	3-0-0	177	96	184.38	3
4	12	Denver Bulldogs	3-3-0	357	238	150.00	3
21	13	Cincinnati Dockers	1-1-0	70	58	120.69	2
	14	Des Moines Roosters	1-2-0	137	90	152.22	1
	15	Kansas City Power	1-2-0	123	183	67.21	1
	16	Tulsa Buffaloes	1-3-0	140	337	41.54	1
15	17	Boston Demons	0-1-0	69	101	68.31	0
	18	Baton Rouge Tigers	0-2-0	116	228	50.88	0
	19	North Carolina Tigers	0-2-0	50	115	43.48	0
16	20	Sacramento Suns	0-1-0	15	41	36.58	0
	21	Indianapolis Giants	0-2-0	14	103	13.59	0
	22	Cleveland Cannons	0-1-0	7	84	8.33	0

USAFLWR Ranking	Team	W-L-T	PF	PA	Pct.	Points
1	New York Lady Magpies	2-0-0	55	22	250.00	4
2	San Francisco Iron Maiden	1-0-0	22	16	137.50	4
3	Sacramento Lady Suns	0-1-0	16	22	72.73	0

This Week’s USAFLWR Show

Our show this week will be a little shorter one than normal. As this is Memorial Day Weekend in the USA there will not be any games here, but we will recap Week 8 of the AFL, Week 4 and 5 in the VFL and have some news on the USAFL with the naming of the new coach of the Revolution. Also with reports from USAFL Women’s footy will be Carolyn Poulos. Showtime will remain the same…4 pm CDT on YouTube. As always, you can go under WFN to ask a question in the comments, on USAFL Weekly Report on Facebook, @USAFLWR on Twitter, on the blog and during the show via Chat on YouTube. See you Sunday…and to our Veterans in the USA…we appreciate your service and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend