World Footy News

Ireland held off South Africa for their chance to go back to back as International Cup champions. In the end Ireland defeated the plucky South Africans by 25 points to earn their spot in the Grand Final at the MCG on Saturday.

PNG dominated NZ from start to finish to win their semi-final match against the Hawks. The final margin was 47 points after PNG lead by just 19 points at three quarter time. Amua Pirika kicked three goals for the match while John Ikipu was best on ground with a dominating ruck performance and kicking two goals of his own.  PNG are through to their 5th International Cup from 5 starts.  So far they are 1 from 4.

Many thought NZ were favourites to take out IC14 going into this match. Their development setup has delivered a great deal of talent in recent years coming through from teens to adults. Add that to regular representative matches against Academy and rep teams such as the VAFA and it is a very solid base of experienced footy they have under their belt. They also have looked improved in the lead up matches to today’s semi-final. And PNG while also having a long running junior development system that delivers plenty of talent, they were upset in their previous match losing narrowly to South Africa. They only just managed to get into the semi finals by having the best percentage of the teams on 2 wins, 1 loss.

The #11 on the wing for Fiji Tribe, Filipe Valesu is a more than handy running 6 footer who covers a lot of territory and has a pretty good leap on him - as displayed in his round 3 speccie beside the goal post (and subsequent goal) in the third quarter at Bulleen on Saturday against the Great Britain Bulldogs.

In Division 2 today Sweden defeated Indonesia by 28 points after leading by just fifteen points at three quarter time.

Martensson and Magnusson lead the way for Sweden kicking 3 and 2 goals respectively, while for Indonesia Prajoso kicked two.

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(as the round was spread over many venues we have a limited photo set)

No matter what happens from here, Ahmed Jahangir from the Pakistan Shaheens can retire knowing he has been a part of history on a number of fronts. Along with anything else he has been a part of the inaugural Pakistan international Australian Rules team and a part of their first ever IC victory.

“I happen to live in Melbourne for some time and have extended family settled here for quite a long time and footy is in our blood.” “I had been kicking around socially for few years now but nothing serious.”

“Now this is my first World Cup together with rest of the team since this is the first time Pakistan is participating in the International Cup.”

Having a little chat with Adam Coxsell from the Great Britain team, a small sense of disappointment comes across. But like all other players who have come to Australia for the International Cup, Adam can hold his head high, having the honour of representing his country.

“I found Aussie Rules through Great Britain Bulldogs captain Sean Walton. I lived with him for three years and he dragged me down to a training session to make up numbers and I have not looked back since.”

“From the first training session I was hooked, mainly due to the enthusiasm and support of our then coach Dave Veale. When he left to go back to Oz I ended up becoming president of Birmingham Bears. A lot of hard work and disappointment later I have eventually got my chance in the Great Britain team. I was initially selected as an emergency but someone pulled out so I got called up.”

 Monday August 18 - 11.00

The Midnight Suns came into this game with one win against the lossless Banshees. They were certainly taking this game seriously.

Breaking into 3 player groups well before the obligatory warm-ups. The Irish were looking confident and targeting a good lead up performance for the finals.

The Banshees were immediately into attack for a minor score. The resulting kick out was marked and free kick on the point post resulted in a  good  goal from the angle.
 

The Irish were dominating, stringing together  good passages of play with a free kick at the end producing another goal. They were unlucky not to repeat the result immediately after.
#20 Veronica Fernandez for the Suns was trying to slow the Banshees down and mount an attack. A mark to her and a pass to #18 Lisa Della Rosa resulted in a Suns goal.

iMonday August 18 - 11.00

Both teams came into this game looking for a win, both with different styles of play only one winner.

The Liberty were taking this game seriously breaking into three coaching groups before the warm-ups whilst the Vonu were still adjusting to the cold.

The Liberty were immediately into attack through #17 Kaitlyn Mascher-Mace but the game soon developed into a scrappy affair with short kicks producing constant mauls.

However it was the Vonu who exhibited better teamwork and grafted the only goal for the quarter and threatened more, unable to convert possession to scoreboard pressure.

The AFL have just announced fixture chages for the Division 2 competition after consulting all affected teams.

Teams will play out the remaining two matches, with points and percentage accumulated from all previous matches to taken into account. After the final round the team ranked the highest based points and percentage will become the winner of Division 2.