World Footy News

As referenced in an earlier article, the India Tigers today touched down in Melbourne in preparation for the final leg of the International Cup. The team were quickly bused to Punt Road where local media was on hand to watch Trent Cotchin, Daniel Jackson and David Astbury put the Indian players through their paces.

This was followed by a dinner for the players and several notable members of Melbourne's Indian community, such as Arun Sharma of Celebrate India (the organisation who coordinates Melbourne's Diwali Festival) and Manjula O'Connor of Australia India Society of Victoria. Brett Kirk and his documentary crew were also present at the event.

The Richmond Football Club have been a huge help to the India Tigers, and not only due to today's event. The AFL club provided the squad with their jumpers, shorts and socks and Todd Sigalas (Richmond's Multicultural Development Officer) gave up several Sunday afternoons assisting with training for the Melbourne-based players in the lead-up to the tournament. Simon Matthews, Michael Lacy and Adrian Ceddia have all helped coordinate things behind the scenes.

Whilst the Indian Tigers are yet to achieve their first International victory, they are winning fans off the field. The squad appeared at the Australia-India Friendship Fair in Sydney and managed to not only sell footy to Sydney's Indian community but to Simon Katich and Lisa Sthalekar!

They also managed to get on national television last Friday. The boys woke up early and stood outside the Sunrise studio and were brought in for the show's closing routine; being asked who they were and why they were in Australia. Furthermore, interviews have been done for SBS radio, and additional interviews are scheduled whilst the team is in Melbourne.

After 6 days of matches and 45 hectic games so far, our early leader Derryn has maintained a comfortable two match lead at the top of the pack with two full rounds remaining.  A reminder that the top two spots receive a football courtesy of our great supporters Burley-Sekem.

Players marked with * are WFN staff and ineligible for the prizes. 

IC teams are arriving in Melbourne today and are linking up with various AFL clubs.

Hawthorn will play host to the New Zealand International Team, who are taking part in the International Cup.  The New Zealand team will visit Waverley Park for a tour by Hawks players, followed by a training session on the Hawks’ training ground.

Hawthorn has a successful relationship with AFLNZ through its HANZ-UP! program and the Hawks team will warm up in the official HANZ-UP! guernsey on Saturday

After the curtain raiser game between the USA Freedom and South Africa Lions, won easily in the end by the Americans, despite hurting themselves with some poor goalkicking, representatives from each team went down to the field to form a guard of honour for the day’s main event: AFL Sydney Swans vs St Kilda.

After that, apart from the Sydney Swans’ forwards’ kicking resembling that of the Americans, the Swans' behinds tally also looking similar, the next time the crowds got some International action was at half time for the Parade of Nations. It started with the International Cup logo, looking enormous on the ANZ Stadium’s big screens, then out the teams came, one by one, from opposite ends of the ground, walking in line in front of the cheering crowds. As they came out, the commentators announced where each team was from to roaring applause. The teams proudly carried their flags (and their kids) and waved back up at the crowds. Some even came over to meet the local kids who were leaning enthusiastically over the barriers.

Brendan Beno has been starring for PNG and was offered the opportunity on Saturday to play with the Brisbane Lions reserves. He is currently scholarship listed for the club so it was a great opportunity for the Lions who were playing against the Sydney Swans' at the GWS home ground, to throw him into the action.

In the NEAFL crossover clash the Lions were soundly beaten by the Swans but Beno was able to have an early chance to goal from a set shot. Known as a very accurate kick that rarely misses, he did miss on this occaision, which can be clearly put down to nerves.

Wednesday August 24 - Royal Park, Melbourne

CORRECTED 23/08/2011 - GAMES AT RANSFORD HAVE BEEN RE-ORDERED AS BELOW

Ransford Oval

9am - Men's Div 1 - Denmark v Nauru

11am - Men's Div 1 Semi-final - USA v Papua New Guinea

1pm - Men's Div 1 Semi-final - Ireland v New Zealand

3pm - Men's Div 1 - South Africa v Great Britain

McAlister Oval

11am - Women's - Australia IM v Canada

1pm - Women's - Ireland v USA

3pm - Men's Div 1 - Canada v Japan

Western Oval

9am - Men's Div 2 - India v Timor-Leste

11am - Men's Div 2 - France v Peace Team

1pm - Men's Div 2 - Fiji v China

3pm - Men's Div 1 - Sweden v Tonga

The New Zealand Hawks have come home to defeat the Canada Northwind by 19 points today and stake their claim to a semi-finals berth, but not before the Canadians gave them a scare and even took a 1 point lead over the Hawks into 3/4 time.

New Zealand on past form should have walked through today’s match against Canada with ease, worked on a few things, got some goal kicking practice in preparation for the Melbourne games next week. So why didn’t they? Was it exactly this attitude that made them vulnerable, poor kicking and skill execution, failure to capitalise on a strong breeze? Or was it in fact a well-drilled Canadian team that played a Paul Roos-style game? I am going to suggest it was probably a bit of all those things.

There had been a serious downpour overnight, but good drainage, a stiff breeze and bright sunshine negated this. Canada played the early attacking footy with the breeze and had NZ on the back foot early working hard just to keep them at bay, they appeared to be playing men behind the ball. Canada added one goal and a point for the quarter, and this was matched by NZ so all in all perhaps nothing too surprising there. But if NZ thought they were in for an easy match, all thoughts of this would have gone out the window by now.

[album:22 width:300 height:200 align:left border:1 link:1 Parade of Nations]

Click on the image to visit our Parade of Nations photogallery.

On a beautiful sunny morning at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, formerly the 2000 Olympics Stadium, the USA Revolution made their way past South Africa and into the semis. South Africa and the US clashed for a semi final berth in Melbourne on Wednesday. The ground was dry and in good condition but were are some replacement turf patches that have caused some concern in AFL matches this season.    

Official Game day conditions were listed as Temp at bounce 16.2 degrees celcius, grass height 32mm, rain past 7 days 20mm - irrigation 0mm.  It's Game Day 6 of the International Cup, with this match to be followed by Sydney versus St Kilda in the AFL.

With the emphatic victory of the USA Revolution over South Africa today, the draw for the semi-finals of Division 1 has been confirmed by the AFL, and might change. A full run down of the draw for Wednesday will be available shortly.

Playing off for a spot in the Division 1 Grand Final will be Ireland vs New Zealand and Papua New Guinea vs USA. With the NZ Hawks battling to get over Canada and the USA's strong display over South Africa, neither game looks easy to tip at this point, and all four sides will have their sights set firmly on a chance to battle it out at the MCG next weekend. The losers of those two games will play off for 3rd on Friday at Royal Park.

Also playing for a shot at 5th will be Great Britain vs South Africa and Denmark vs Nauru. The winners of those two games will meet on Friday to play off for 5th, the losers for 7th.

Finally, the last two playoffs see Canada vs Japan and Sweden vs Tonga, to determine who shoots for 9th and who for 11th.

The Men's Division 2 and Women's schedules remain as previous - these divisions having one more round of pool matches on Wednesday before their single round of playoffs on Friday.

As the traditional USA vs Canada footy rivalry continued, the Canadian women came out trumps at Auburn yesterday, the Northern Lights defeating the USA Freedom by 18 points.

Canada came out of the blocks early and before anyone could speak of which team had looked stronger in the Women’s Division so far, the Freedom were already two goals down. And that’s when everyone remembered that the Northern Lights have a lot of experience of playing the USA Freedom, and the last time the two sides met, the Canadians beat them. Neither team resembled those from previous games. After that shock opening, there was an almighty battle up and down the field, but neither team was able to put any points on the board.