World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

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World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: dantez
on Wednesday, September 15 2010 @ 07:51 am ACST

@Brett - Yep, grew up here, played 10 years as a junior, been to plenty of VFL games and go to AFL games every second week.
And played (and actively involved in the management of) in European league and was in last year's EAFA formation conference.

Of course I know that if you were to assemble the All-Australian team to play against any of these teams, the biggest worry would be running out of numbers on the scoreboard. And it would be similar even if it was a local divisional team. And also that IC2011 isn't the only competition, but it's the only one that Australia would actively be involved in (they don't qualify for Europe, North America, Asia, Africa etc.). Maybe if the AFL included an Australian team in a NZ & Pacific Islands comp? Test the availability of a consistent team of players during a normal season? And give them the same resources as teams in other regions have (find their own grounds, funding etc.) and not have it handed to them by the AFL. As others have said, if international teams had the same resources, it may be a bit more competitive.

My point is there are qualification criteria that exclude other countries from being listed, so following those rules, Australia shouldn't qualify. Maybe awarding 50% points for 9-a-side?

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, September 15 2010 @ 11:11 am ACST

Regarding 50% for 9-a-side, I was in favour of including those matches that featured all locals, but the consensus seemed to be not to - my powers of persuasion failed! We try to go with consensus, even though it means I don't always get what I want. 8)

In terms of criteria for teams, including Australia, if the AFL said Australia can field a team at IC2011, and it's in August, Australia would still easily field a great team, there would be plenty of guys volunteering who would either miss their own club finals, or are just returning from injury, or retired the year before, or were having a year off, etc. Or the AFL could just give the elite Under 18s two weeks off. In those conditions I still think Australia would win, so the argument that Australia is still notionally number one holds true. No other country would be able to do that. There have even been very good Australian sides put together in Europe just drawing from expats.

Frankly, although it causes a little disquiet that Australia is given the honorary #1 spot, I think there would be far more concern if they were not ranked #1. It would make the list seem a little farcical. The allowance is pretty much summed up by "could Australia roll out say 25 players that could win the IC tournament, drawn from existing footballers, not training people up from other sports, and not relying on AFL players" and the answer is very clearly "yes", and no other country could do that. If you do want to include AFL players in that, then Ireland probably would jump to #2 with PNG hot on their heels over the next few years, but then there is no real way to measure any of that, we may as well throw out all the match results and revert to an opinion-based ranking system.

I'm hoping in the next 10 years Australia will put up something like an All-Australian Under 20 amateur side to compete at the IC, and then we can throw out the honorary rank and base it on the results (and if they lose then bad luck, they should field an Under 23 side, or open age, or whatever it takes).

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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