World Footy News

Round 3 - International Cup China v Finland by Andrew Sawitsch

Foggy & windy conditions greeted the Finnish & Chinese teams as their buses arrived at Eureka Stadium, North Ballarat.
On paper, This was likely to be a pretty close one, the wide expanses of the oval, combined with the wind, made it seem a certainty.

Match began at 11:10, first quarter saw China doing a lot of the attacking, but unable to capitalise, kicking several attempts at goal out of bounds. In fact the ball spent most of its time this quarter in their forward half, with lots of stoppages & crowded packs. It seemed to go by in a flash & a totally scoreless first quarter seemed a surprise. China's Ruckman GaoPeng was starting to take some marks inside 50 & present as a good target.

  The following was released this evening by the AFL.

 

 

 

 

  THE LADDER

 

POS	TEAM	P	W	L	D	F	A	GD	%	PTS
1	NZ	3	3	0	0	426	13	413	3276.92	12
2	Ireland	3	3	0	0	239	51	188	468.63	12
3	South Africa	3	3	0	0	301	81	220	371.6	12
4	PNG	3	2	1	0	429	65	364	660	8
5	Canada	3	2	1	0	269	52	217	517.31	8
6	Tonga	3	2	1	0	325	103	222	315.53	8
7	Nauru	3	2	1	0	316	102	214	309.8	8
8	Fiji	3	2	1	0	267	95	172	281.05	8
9	USA	3	2	1	0	243	92	151	264.13	8
10	Great Britain	3	1	2	0	152	106	46	143.4	4
11	Pakistan	3	1	2	0	137	225	-88	60.89	4
12	France	3	1	2	0	119	205	-86	58.05	4
13	Sweden	3	1	2	0	91	306	-215	29.74	4
14	Japan	3	1	2	0	79	321	-242	24.61	4
15	China	3	1	2	0	27	334	-307	8.08	4
16	Finland	3	0	3	0	37	296	-259	12.5	0
17	India	3	0	3	0	13	489	-476	2.66	0
18	Indonesia	3	0	3	0	11	545	-534	2.02	0

With the last game of Round 3 completed tonight we can reveal the preliminary finishing positions and which teams go to the top 4, which to Division 1 and the remainder to Division 2.  Please note that we stress at this early stage these ladders are our own calculations and official confirmation is of course by the AFL.

The Women's is straight forward and only goes to finals after 5 rounds (4 matches each).  But the Men started divided into 3 pools, with the complication being that the top 4 that go through to the semi-finals after 3 rounds are the top of each pool and then the next best based on combining all the teams - hence we've also shown a Combined ladder.  That also determines the teams that make what the AFL has called Division 1, i.e. teams 5 - 12, and Division 2, i.e. teams 13 to 18.

Our expectation is that the 4 nations through to the top level men's semi-finals are: Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

France achieved a big win over Indonesia today, Les Coqs running out 106 point winners over the Garudas in their match at Digger’s Rest.

As expected, a good crowd was in evidence at the ground and they had warmed to the occasion. Some locals were sporting colours of the International countries. In true Aussie tradition there was plenty of support for the underdog Indonesians.

France started from the first bounce down using their superior strength, height and now experience to continually push the ball into attack to produce many scoring opportunities.

Better accuracy would have seen Les Coqs comfortably in front. #13 Gregoire Patacq was already giving a lot of drive and contributed to the second French goal via #8 Jean Rosado who was providing a focal point up forward. Just before the siren #13 Gregoire Patacq threaded his way past multiple defenders only to push the ball wide of the big sticks with his kick.

This report courtesy of Martin Davies.

The South African Lions today put in a spirited performance to hold off a fast finishing PNG Mosquitoes side, South Africa ultimately triumphing by 9 points.

At St Mary's Oval in the shadows of Simonds Stadium, home of AFL club Geelong, the pre-game preparations saw the PNG side warming up on the ground, whilst singing and clapping was reverberating from the South African rooms.

The sides ran out at 12pm – PNG bunched in a tight huddle by the fence, waiting for everyone to come from the rooms, whilst South Africa streamed out like the players couldn't wait to get out there.

The national anthems were sung with passion, followed by PNG's impressive war cry. The first quarter opened at a blistering pace, with South Africa into attack towards the river end. But the Mozzies defence held up well and repelled the ball forward, where Willie Asi kicked the first goal of the game for PNG from a boundary throw-in.

St Kilda AFL team boast Joe as an international scholarship player, and he is a part of the New Zealand juggernaut that is hoping to take away their second International Cup title in 2014. So, what do we know about Joe?

“I discovered AFL while I was at college when my P.E class entered our local tournament called the Hawks Cup which was at the start of April last year. So I played that then got told to trail for the Under 18's New Zealand team that plays against the VAFA team here from Australia. Then I also played for the Under 16's in the game against the Under 16's Flying Boomerangs. I then played for our senior New Zealand team against the AIS. This is my first International Cup!”

As one of the elder statesmen in the Nauru Chiefs team, Trent Depaune has the responsibility of leading the way for his team mates to follow. A brief chat with Trent gives an idea of his background in the game.

“Our great grandfathers came to school here in Melbourne, then they established the game of football in Nauru.” “I've been playing since 13 years old. My team in Nauru is the Cats.”

Trent has been a mainstay of the game back home in Nauru. “This will be my third International Cup and my third time as a captain.”

 

Australian Rules football can count itself lucky to have secured the talent of Laura Loucks. “So how I discovered footy is kind of a funny story, I actually thought when I signed up I was signing up for rugby! I originally wanted to play an iconic Australian sport and rugby was the first thing that I thought of.”

“When I saw the stall at my [Griffith University, Brisbane] orientation week club fair and I had no idea AFL was a different sport (since everything here is called footy). So when I went to the first training practice I was a little shocked to say the least! I started in 2013 and this is my second season with the Griffith Moorooka Reds.”

“[This is my ] first time at the International Cup but hopefully not my last! I had no idea this cup even existed. I only found out about it around March this year.” But we are certainly glad that Laura did.

We preview tomorrow's Community Round with teams playing across Melbourne and into country areas Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong among others.  The battle to finish in the top four is well and truly on and results of many of the matches will be eagerly awaited.

Men’s Division

Ireland v Nauru 5:30pm Queen Elizabeth Oval, Bendigo  after the 2.20pm Castlemaine v South Bendigo (BFNL) match.  The formline suggests that Nauru are a chance to upset the Irish in Bendigo.  Nauru accounted for Great Britain convincingly enough in the end.  They showed that despite a lack of key position players they can beat a side that does have them.  GB went down to Ireland by just a point in the Euro Cup last year so theoretically they should be very close to Ireland.  Two factors that may come in to play is that the Australian based Irish weren't at the Euro Cup and Nauru's Adam Otto will miss the rest of the tournament due to suspension coming out of the game against GB.

 

The Round 2 match between Nauru and Great Britain was for 3 and a half quarters a ripping game. Several times it looked like Nauru was set to run away only for the Bulldogs to claw their way back and with less than a goal in it at 3/4 time it was anyone's game. Nauru kicked out again in the last and 18 pts up the crowd wondered whether the Bulldogs had another burst left. Enter Steven Maguire.

Meet the players - Thembinkosi "Dinho" Zwane (South Africa).