World Footy News

Bringing both mens and womens squads to Melbourne for the International Cup, including travel, uniforms, and over 2 weeks of accommodation and food - is no small undertaking for any nation. For AFL Fiji the support of others is crucial and the opportunity exists via 'MyCause' to make a donation to assist.
Donations can be made at Bring Fiji to AFL International Cup.

With the 2014 International Cup now just hours away players from all teams are just itching to get out on the fields in and around Melbourne to show their skills and seek rewards for their efforts. The Chinese team is certainly out to make a mockery of their 15th seeding and are keen to pull off upsets galore.

 

Below is the Chinese squad, featuring names and their team local team. The team will be captained by Shaoling Chen from the Guangzhou Scorpions. He is part of a group of 23 Scorpions in the squad, along with one from the Beijing Bombers, one from the Dongguan Giants, four from the Southern Dragons and two from La Trobe.

The Port Adelaide Football Club is delighted to announce that it is the major host sponsor of the China national team for the upcoming AFL International Cup tobe held in Melbourne from August 10-24.

The AFL International Cup is held every three years, with teams from 23 countries around the world competing in this year’s tournament; all players must be nationals of the country they are representing.

The participation of a representative team from China for the 2014 competition had previously been in jeopardy due to a lack of funding.

Most of the team are students from universities in southern China where the game is growing rapidly through the South China AFL competition.

worldfootynews.com is pleased to announce a friendly tipping competition for the 2014 AFL International Cup.

This year's competition will be different to 2011 when you had to tip each match. This time around we're asking competitors to predict the finishing order for both the men's and women's events.

For a bit of extra incentive we'll organise a prize, to be advised later.

The competition will be open to everyone that is a member of our site (including WFN staff, but they are ineligible to win the prizes). Not signed up? It's free, we don't spam you with adverts, and it allows you to post comments (purely used to stop spammers). Sign up here. You can also sign in with your Facebook credentials.

Apologies for the late notice so please hurry to get your tips in - competition closes 9am Australian EST Sunday 10th August.

Read on for the details of how to enter.

With less than three days to go before the matches begin we're pleased to announce that all our 2014 AFL International Cup previews are complete.  They've been published over the last few weeks but you can conveniently access them from our IC14 clickable graphics area on our home page or go straight there by clicking the images below.  Please note squad lists have been added where available.

Women's: 

Men's: 

Not all the action of the International Cup happens on the field. This Saturday at 1.30pm the tournament will be launched at Federation Square in Melbourne.

Where previous launches have been somewhat “locked away” from the public and/or the squads, the 2014 version will be out in the open for all to see and attend.

All the teams will be present (the travel gods willing) for the official start of the football carnival that will see 15 days of footy and will include 18 countries, 62 matches, 18 men’s and seven women’s teams and 18 venues.

In four attempts at the International Cup the Great Britain Bulldogs have finished 6th, 6th, 9th and 7th.  But this time around there's confidence that the squad is the best yet to represent Great Britain, with youngsters coming through and increased big match experience through the European Championships and the Euro Cup.

Footy in Britain

The game has seen a steady increase in activity since the last tournament and expanded markedly in central England and Scotland. The quality of the game has increased, with more youngsters getting involved and staying with the game, many of whom travel into London to get increased exposure to the full 18’s game, as well as the 9’s they play regularly with their regional clubs. The Bulldogs squad has maintained a good level of activity leading up to the 2014 International Cup and been increasingly professional in preparation, testing and conditioning work, with Physio extraordinaire Claire Shapland taking a lead in optimising this regime.

Elsternwick Park - the fine home of the VAFA (Victorian Amateur Football Association) played host to International Footy when the New Zealand Hawks dropped by to take on Ormond AFC in a pre International Cup warm up game. Scheduled for 6pm, or there abouts, the weather unfortunately closed in and light drizzle grew gradually more steady. After the customary Haka - eventually the game got under way and the Hawks shook off the cobwebs and by early in the second quarter had kicked a couple of goals clear and wouldn't be headed running out comfortable if inaccurate victors.

Team	Goals	Behinds	Total
New Zealand	6	16	52
Ormond	3	2	20

In April last year, Luke Savere Junior was in Cairns. He was playing in the Papua New Guinea Under 16 Binatangs team in a friendly challenge match against Pyramid Power in Gordonvale on his way to Townsville to contest the Oceania Cup with his team mates. (Pictured left in team shot of Binatangs and Pyramid Power players).

Fast forward to August 2014, and Luke is just days away from representing his country again, this time at a senior level at the upcoming International Cup in Melbourne. He is one of a host of young guns upon which the future of Papua New Guinean football will be built.

In the lead up to the IC14 event, Luke was happy to chat about his own football journey and his anticipation of this upcoming showcase if international Australian Rules football.

The Irish Warriors enter the 2014 International Cup attempting to win back to back titles, something that has never been achieved before in the short history of the tournament. Ireland has appeared at every International Cup, winning inaugural event in 2002 before slipping to fourth in ’05 and ’08 followed by victory at the MCG in 2011.

David Stynes, brother of the late great Jim, returns this time as player coach having been part of the winning Irish sides in both 2002 and 2011. Stynes replaces Shaun McElhone who has led the Irish side to great success since 2011, winning two 9-a-side Euro cups along with the full side European Championship in 2013. Unfortunately Shaun is unable to attend the 2014 International Cup due to family reasons. Stynes, who played Gaelic Football for Dublin prior to moving to Australia is the head coach of the Moorabbin Kangaroo’s in the Southern Football League.

Stynes is the only two time winner of the International Cup having played in 2002 before returning in 2011. His experience in 2011 showed in the final as, from half back, he organised the Irish defensive unit which helped set up their come from behind victory.

Although teams at the International Cup traditionally are representing the football competition in their country the Shaheens are a team of players that have formed in Australia, competing in local footy in Melbourne.  Shaheens players are eligible to play at the International Cup as they are "amateurs who are nationals of the country they represent (Pakistan) and all players must have lived the majority of the years aged between 10 and 16 as a citizen of their nation." 

While we have seen teams with locally based player before this is the first time a whole team has been locally based and all learned the game in Australia. Hopefully their participation will ultimately lead to footy's growth in Pakistan.

Pakistan: The Country
Pakistan is situated in the western part of the Indian subcontinent, with Afghanistan and Iran on the west, India on the east, and the Arabian Sea on the south. The name Pakistan is derived from the Urdu words Pak (meaning pure) and stan (meaning country). It is nearly twice the size of California.

The Capital (2009 est.) is Islamabad, 832,000 pop., although not the largest city in Pakistan. The Population of Pakistan is estimated to be 193,238,868 (2013).

Mike Pyke sends his message of support and offers advice to Canadians travelling to Melbourne to compete in the 2014 AFL International Cup.

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