World Footy News

In increasingly warm conditions with bright sunshine warming the expanses of the Western Oval at Royal Park, the Swedish Elks lined up against the Japan Samurais for the 11th place play off.  Japan only just scraped into Division 1 and have struggled overall, so it may have been expected that Sweden would win comfortably.  Not so.

In a tightly contested first quarter, the Elks were wasteful with 4 behinds to the Samurai’s 1.1 (7).  The sole goal for the quarter to Japan’s Ikeda (#32).

The second term saw the action heat up and the game open up.  The Swedes snaring an early goal to Rickard Barrefelt (#18) to take the lead.  Japan fired back, firstly a boundary throw in clearance saw the ball in the hands of Raku Shimokawa (#21) who kicked truly across his body for a nice goal.  Minutes later, again, Japan clearing to space and looking dangerous were able to find Takaaki Seto (#23) in the clear for another long snap on goal.  Not to be outdone, some strong marking in a passage of play by the Elks found Barrefelt again on the end, and with a strong mark he duly went back and kicked the much needed goal to stay in touch.

Usually reserved for the AFL AIS academy and Australian potential draftees, the AFL decided to run an AFL Combine for the International Cup for the first time. Each team was allowed to enter a single entrant for the Combine. AFL Combines test a number of general skills, such as speed, agility and jumping ability, as well as more football orientated skills such as handballing and kicking.

After starting with a warm up, the participants first tested their sprint speed over 20m, first registering their wristbands before sprinting through four sensor gates, 5m apart. Each participant got to do each test twice. In this test, the male and female participants showed a clear difference. The fastest men were able to do this in under 3 seconds, whilst the fastest females were 3.5 seconds.

The play off for 15th and 16th between the Peres Peace Team and India sides kicked off proceedings on the McAlister Oval at Royal Park in Melbourne.  Perfect conditions for footy, not a breath of wind and patchy cloud holding the sun at bay.

The Peace Team controlled play for most of the first quarter and with goals to Belik (#3), Benvenisty (#2) and big Kamal Abu Althom (#1), the Peace team had surged to a 19 point early lead.  A couple of late chances to India went begging and at quarter time the Indian side trailed by 17.

The 2nd term saw the tempo pick up even more, with the Peace Team attacking early but unable to convert their chances.  India was generally unable to penetrate the defensive wall of the Peace side, but, finally broke through, surged forward but the snap from the busy Jay Himat (#7) went wide.  Peace rebounded well and the ball ended up in the hands of Za’arir (#12) who marked and played on slotting the goal.  Soon after Benvensity marked again for his second goal, but a late goal to India after Ahktar (#8) handballed to Himat.

It was the playoff for the wooden spoon – or more likely to avoid the wooden spoon.  The game was a good one that matched two teams that clearly were of similar abilities.  Today the winner would be China by seven points.  But the winless Timor Leste are winners just for being here, remembering there are a number of other countries that could not muster the resources to make it to this year’s competition, and the tiny Australian neighbour only not long ago achieved sovereignty from Indonesia with some difficulty.

While of similar abilities the two teams were not of similar physical builds and in the first quarter China were out to an early lead using their height advantage up forward with high kicking and marking goals to #33 (unlisted) and Xu Jian (#7) resulting from such marks in front of goal.  Timor Leste were providing a contest with Manuel Marsil Santos Da Silva (#20) leading the way on the half back line but couldn’t get the ball forward until late in the quarter when Carvalho Pereira (#10) was able to kick a running goal.
 

Two national teams making their first appearance at the International Cup, Fiji and France, made it through to the Grand Final of the smaller division 2 (effectively 13th and 14th overall), remarkably close to the consolidated predictions of the worldfootynews.com team (12th and 14th).)

Who would prevail? Both countries inevitably have some players with rugby backgrounds and that would make an impact on the character of the final.

The Fijians, who had begun training later, had advantages, including an AusAID development officer for the AFL Glen Butler assisting with their training in Suva. In fact, they all were based in Suva, except for three players elsewhere in Fiji and two playing in Australia.

The French gained strength from three Australian based players and French players with the Montreal Saints in Canada, even as two of their countrymen living in Sweden played for the Elks. However, players sourced from nine teams from Mt Lawley to Montreal, Strasbourg and Paris to Toulouse formed less of a unit than the Fijians.  But with great passion the French most certainly played for each other.

Ireland have come back from a 28-point deficit midway through the second term to defeat the PNG Mosquitoes by 18 points today, in a match that saw the Warriors become the first nation to win two International Cups, as well as the first nation to win the Men's and Women's International Cups in the same year.

It was PNG that threatened to take the game away early.

Ali Pinda kicked the game's first goal, after receiving a free kick for a high tackle, directly in front of goal. The Mozzies were repelling all Irish attacks, with Tiernan Carbry and Lawrie Logo holding fort in the defensive 50.

A long kick to full forward to full forward from Brendan Beno saw Susuve go up for the mark and be pushed in the back, kicking PNG's second go from the resulting free kick.

A sunny late winter's day greeted the pride of women's footy from Ireland and Canada as they set out to write their names into history as the first winners of the Women's International Cup, just as Ireland claimed the inaugural men's Cup nine years ago.

The opening quarter of the Grand Final on Friday was all Ireland’s way with the ball rarely leaving Canada’s back 50. Ireland got plenty of chances to put the ball away, but their kicks kept slipping wide for behinds. The Northern Lights couldn’t hold the Banshees back forever though, diminutive Irish forward O’Hagan slotting the ball through the posts at short range for Ireland’s first goal.

At quarter time it was Ireland 1.5 (11) to Canada 0.0 (0), but wasted opportunities had left the door wide open.
 

See also IC11 Men's Div 1 Grand Final - Ireland's Double Glory for match report.


Ireland win their second International Cup!  Final Score Ireland 8.5 (53) to PNG 5.5 (35)

Q4 Finn goals after the siren.

Q4 3 mins to go Ireland lead by 2 goals 7.5 to 5.5.

Q4 Beno two marks in the back line?  Susuve kicks out of bounds on the full shooting for goal. 5 mins to go.

Q4 7 minutes to go. 

Q4 Purcell from Ireland with a great running goal from the  pocket.  Ireland 7.5 to PNG 5.5

Q4 Susuve set shot from 50 for PNG  out on the full.  7 minutes gone.

Q4 Finn goals from 60 with a long kick over the pack.  Ireland 6.5 (41) to PNG 5.5 (35)

Q4 point to Carey for Ireland. Scores level 5.5 all.

3/4 time PNG 5.5 (35) lead Ireland by a point 5.4 (34)

The 12:30pm slot today at McAlister Oval in Royal Park, Melbourne, saw the South African Lions, disappointed not to make the top 4, take on Nauru, who also had an eye on the semi-finals but fell short.  Both sides had clearly re-grouped and were desperate to claim 5^th spot.

The opening goal went to the Lions after Steven Malinga (#9) was taken high when he had his head over the ball in the goalsquare – an easy conversion from straight in front.

Nauru goaled next but it was answered by a clever snap from former GWS Giants player and captain Bayanda Sobetwa, always amongst South Africa’s best.  This was followed by a clever fake around an opponent by Thiboeng ( #19) who ran on to kick another goal for the Lions.

The USA Freedom today re-grouped after the disappointment of just missing the play off for top spot to claim third spot against an improved Papua New Guinea Flame.

The US women were relatively quick to get the opening goal, but determined not to lose their last chance to get on the Australian Football map, the PNG Flame came back hard, but only managed a behind. The Freedom drove it straight back down the Flames throats, Lindsay Kastanek racing into the goal square, but she was tackled at the last second by the PNG full back. Undeterred, Kastanek stretched out her foot and tipped the ball over the line for the Freedom’s second goal.
 

The second game for the morning on McAllister oval would be the battle for 7th placing between European rivals Great Britain and Denmark. With clouds breaking to a fine sunny morning and the breeze picking up, the 1st quarter saw Great Britain attacking consistently against strong pressure from the Danes. After racking up 5 straight behinds, including successive misses to Judson (#7), the Brits had wasted an early chance to take control.

The Danes were at times more precise and one such forward move, not surprisingly including a decisive disposal from the World XVIII experienced Biron, saw Norlander converting a set shot on goal and Denmark suddenly held a 1 point lead.

At the first break, a further behind to GB via Chris James saw scores level, but 6 shots to 1 and the Danes knew they were fortunate to be in such a position.