World Footy News

Shae McNamara has led the way for Americans to switch sports and try their luck in Aussie rules in Australia. He has been successful at VFL level so far and did play in the NAB cup for the Collingwood club, but has not been elevated to the senior list in his first two seasons.

Today's NT News reported that two more American basketballers have come to Australian football in Australia (never playing the game in their own country first). Andre Moss from Anchorage Alaska and Buster Perkins from Little Rock Arkansas, have been playing basketball in Darwin and have been recruited by the Darwin Buffaloes in the NTFL and are reported to be 195cm in height.

When a footy evening includes a video presentation depicting the Japanese tsunami, Christchurch earthquake and a reminder of a murdered team manager on the eve of a tournament; it's obvious it's not your run of the mill footy evening.  The International Cup Gala Dinner on Friday August 26th paid tribute to two memebers of the Japanese Samurai's lost earlier in the year, and to the NZ Hawks who attended despite the Christchurch earthquake - and of course the tragic death of PNG's Peter Meli.

Although the IC11 Grand Final the following day officially concluded the competition, for most teams the Gala Dinner was the opportunity to relax and soak up the camaraderie of international footy, as the players and officials let their hair down, relaxed, mingled, and sung and danced just a little.

Highlights of the night included the naming of the World Teams, the DFAT player of the tournament nominations and the awarding of International Merit Awards.

More photos of the AFL IC11 Men's Division 1 grand final at the MCG, thanks to Troy Thompson and John Corrigan.  And many more in our photo gallery.

"Stateside Footy" is the Public Access Program that brings you Australian Rules Football played in the
United States. New episodes are still on the way, not to mention including coverage of the Boston Demons
and Lady Demons in the upcoming USAFL Nationals Tournament.

The latest episode of "Stateside Footy" features the Demons playing host to the Philadelphia Hawks in one
of the most exciting, fast-paced matches of the season.
 

Congratulations to Derryn (from Australia) for winning our IC11 tipping competition.  Withstanding the pressure of leading from start, he stayed 2 matches clear to score a superb 58 from 66 games (88%).  He wins a Burley Premier football recommended retail price AUD$109.95.

Runner up was Seth (from USA), with 56.  He wins a Burley Match football RRP AUD$39.95.

worldfootynews.com will contact you both shortly to send you your prizes.

To split any ties we required margins be tipped for each game of the final round, the aggregate being used to split ties.  The worst results were awarded to anyone not supplying margins (as with all tipping competitions, we had a few drop out along the way, possibly as Derryn pulled clear).

Thanks to everyone who competed, we hope it brought a little extra fun to the tournament.  Special thanks to John Hamilton for running this competition for us and to our great supporters Burley-Sekem.

Final tallies below, with margin aggregates in brackets.  Players marked with * are WFN staff and were ineligible for the prizes (not that we finished top two anyway).
 

The Great Britain Bulldogs share their moniker with one of Melbourne’s AFL clubs, the Western Bulldogs. And in the spirit of football, the Western Bulldogs invited the British Bulldogs to their training ground in Footscray.

Though the official name of the training ground is Whitten Oval, named after legendary Bulldogs player and coach Ted Whitten Sr, the fans call it “The Pound”. And the British Bulldogs got to spend the afternoon in Doggie heaven on a guided tour of the grounds and the facilities of their famous namesakes.
 

To most AFL players an annual Perth to Brisbane away fixture represents the ultimate taxing football road trip.

Spare a thought then for Jakarta’s Matt Stephens who chalked up his 100th International game at this month’s Bangkok 2011 Asian Australian Football Championships, the first player to do so for the club.

Matt’s remarkable international football journey commenced following a successful career with the Ainslie football club in the ACT. His subsequent move to Jakarta has seen him play his away fixtures in places as diverse as Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Vientiane, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The tournament nature of Asian footy season has also seen him line up against Timor-Leste, Dubai, Brunei and a number of Australian touring teams.

Thanks to Rob Spurr for this report.

PHOTO: Matt Stephens (right of photo) in action for Jakarta against the Vietnam Swans.

There has been a number of stories doing the rounds that Port Adelaide's young key defender, Fijian born Alipate Carlile was keenly sought after by several AFL clubs.  But in some of the best news for a while at the club Port Adelaide has announced today that he has inked a new deal with the Power.

The following is a press release from the Power.

As is becoming a tradition, the World Team was announced at the 2011 AFL International Cup Gala Dinner on Friday night.  This time there were squads to announce - both men's and women's.

For the men PNG had 4 players selected, four teams had 3 representatives (Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA), while Fiji, Tonga, Canada, Nauru, Denmark, Japan, Great Britain and Sweden all had one player picked in the 24 man (18 + 6 interchange) line up.  An odd omission (perhaps based on limited number of games) was Fiji's star Dylan Wolfgramm.  Michael Finn (Ireland) was named captain.

For the inaugural women's World Team Ireland lead the way with 8, the USA came nexy with 6, Canada had 5, PNG 3 and Australia Indigenous Multicultural 2.  Judith Stein (USA) leads the side.

Below are both teams.

Canada came into IC11 seeded 6th, whilst Tonga were making their debuts rated 12th.  For the North Americans the tournament must surely have beeb rated as disappointing to that point, whereas for Tonga every win has been a bonus.  So in some respects the islanders had nothing in the 9th versus 10th playoff while the Northwind needed a win to restore some pride.

The match started at a fast past in the 1030am slot at Ransford Oval, Royal Park.  The bodies went in hard from both sides but it was Canada who struck first, with a ball kicked into space on the Eastern wing.  Frank Lussier (#33) ran onto the ball and carried it down field, cleverly baulking an oncoming defender and passing to 2008 World Team player Scott Fleming (#1).  From near the boundary 45m out Fleming kicked truly, not the first time his elegant kicking technique has been on display in international company.