World Footy News

(Supplementary reporting by Troy Thompson)

A breezy day greeted the sides at the McAlister Oval in Melbourne’s Royal Park this Tuesday as Canada’s Northern Lights were taking on the USA’s Freedom in the first semi-final on the women’s side of IC17.

The Canadian women had won their pool, but had beaten Fiji by just one point in their opening match of the tournament. “The girls got a great lesson in the importance of conversion,” said Northern Lights head coach, Jason Arnold. “Games of footy are not wom by clearances and more inside 50s. You need to covert these opportunities.” He went on to say, “The exciting part is, this group is still learning to play together and, as they gel, their best footy is ahead and will make them tough to beat.”

Canada bounced back after the narrow victory to blast Pakistan by 31 goals and then, to take down Great Britain by 31 points.

The Croatia Knights this afternoon crushed the Japan Samurai to gain entry into the Division two Grand Final. The Samurai were beat on on the scoreboard but not their spirit. The team kept to their game plan despite the blustery conditions and the relentless Croatian pressure which made options difficult to pick. Croatia now meets Germany in the Grand Final of Division Two.

2017 International Cup Round #4. Royal Park.    Men’s Division 1   P.N.G. Mosquitos  Vs  R.S.A. Lions
Wednesday 15th August. 10.30am

The PNG Mosquitos continued their good form to win and win well over the RSA Lions. The scoreline might imply an "easy" win with the result a predictable win to the Mosquitos but they still had to work hard against a determined South African side that was intent on being competitive.

Both teams were surprise first-round losers which looked likely to preclude them from the Grand Final but the Mosquitos have learnt from that experience and improved markedly whilst the Lions have struggled against the Revolution and have only just beaten the Fiji Tribe.

It was a match between the winless Sri Lanka Lions and the Pakistan Shaheens who could only manage one win from their first three matches. It was a cold cloudy wintry day at the Royal Park - Western Oval in Melbourne, but fortunately there was no heavy rain just a bit of light drizzle.

On paper this match looked like it would be a win to the Shaheens, but they were unable to put a halt to the Lions' pressure. According to the ladder it looked like the match would be a close encounter and the match lived up to it for most of the game, with only a goal and half separating both teams at each break except at the final siren.

Live scores updated 1/4 by 1/4 across Round 4, Tuesday 15th August, 2017 International Cup at Royal Park, Melbourne, Australia

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Also note the AFL are live streaming most matches here.

NZ and PNG are through to the Men's Division 1 grand final at MCG

Canada and Ireland are through to the Women's grand final at Etihad Stadium

Germany and Croatia are through to the Men's Division 2 grand final

The number 34 for the Canada Northern Lights - worn by Kirsti Oja - had a stand out game on Sunday at the Plenty War Memorial Park. Amongst many highlights, dashing runs, athletic high leaping in ruck contests and skilful ball use there was also this superb contested mark between two British Swans.

Amua Pirika's (pictured left) six goals for PNG against the USA on Saturday was not enough to give him the lead in the Men's Division 1 leading goalkicker*.  Despite a total of 10 goals from his past two games he still trails Great Britain's Andrew Walkden by two.  Walkden sits on twelve goals after kicking six of his own on Saturday against Ireland to add to five against South Africa in Round 1 and one against Canada in Round 2.

In Division 2 Croatia's Ivan Ivos leads the goal kicking with eight for the tournament.  

In the Women's Division there is a five way tie for the top position with Christine McCutcheon from Ireland, Danni Saulter from GB, Jessica Estrada from USA, as well as Sally Fong and Verenaisi Caginavanua (both from Fiji) all on 6 goals so far. 

IC17 Round 4 matches will play out at Royal Park tomorrow. The latest scheduled match times and ovals are in the table below.

All matches will also be streamed live on the AFL's International Cup Youtube page. Division 1 will have their scheduled Round 4 matches while Division 2 and the Women's Divisions will have their semi-finals.

 WFN World Rankings Post Round Three IC17

Sixteen Nations had a change in Rank as a result of all the Round Three matches played Friday 11th and Saturday 12th August in Melbourne and surrounds in the Community Round Three.

Significant big climber in the ranks is China with a rise from 15th to 11th and Japan has continued to climb the ranks at this International Cup rising from 16th to 14th with their win over Germany.

Indonesia has suffered a big fall, in losing the maximum 3.00 rating points in their losses to China and Croatia, falling to 17th from 14th. Fiji hasn’t fared very well either in their loss to Papua New Guinea, falling from 11th to 15th.

Fiji Vonu and Papua New Guinea Flames both played their 8th Qualifying matches in Round Three on Sunday 13th August, becoming Fully Ranked in 7th and 8th place respectively. All four matches played resulted as was expected and as the ranking scheme predicted and consequently there were no changes in rank.