World Footy News

Scores will be updated every quarter throughout the day. We suggest you refresh your browser regularly to see the latest. Match reports will follow later in the day and into Sunday. Please note that we are very stretched with simultaneous games across Sydney so may not have full match reports for all games.

Wednesday 17th August saw two games in Sydney's west at Auburn - not as far out as Blacktown, home of the GWS Giants, but still well away from the CBD.  These are the final reports from Game Day 3, and with Game Day 4 squared away tomorrow it's on to the final group of matches in Sydney - Game Days 5 (Saturday) and 6 (Sunday).  These reports thanks to Kym Kovan.

Fiji Tribe vs Peace Team

The first match at 12pm was a Division Two game with one of the favourites Fiji up against the inspirational and improved Peace Team.  That was followed at 2pm by top four fancy South Africa against Japan who were brave in scraping into Division One but most likely out of their depth thereafter.

It was off to Mona Ovals, Auburn. Home of the Auburn District Cricket Club and straight from the English countryside, complete with white picket fences. An ideal venue for Footy. Unfortunately it also had the English weather, it rained, then it drizzled and then it rained again. But on the ground it was anything but "traditional" English, a truly multicultural space.

Saturday August 20 - Blacktown International Sportspark - Men's

Also being played at Oval 1 is the NEAFL match between Brisbane and Sydney Reserves at 1pm

10am - Div 1 - New Zealand v Canada - Oval 1

12pm - Div 2 - France v India - Oval 2

2pm - Div1 - PNG v Nauru - Oval 2

4pm - Div1 - Ireland v Denmark - Oval 2

6pm - Div 2 - China v Peace Team - Oval 1

6pm - Div 2 - Fiji v Timor-Leste - Oval 2

Auburn Mona Park Ovals - Women's

To be played after two Sydney Women's AFL matches

1pm - PNG vs Ireland

3pm - Canada vs USA

Sunday August 21 - ANZ Stadium - Men's

To be played as a curtain-raiser to Sydney Swans v St Kilda

10.40am - Div 1 - South Africa v USA

The Thursday night late game at Blacktown saw the impressive US Freedom women's side take on the very young Papua New Guinean Flame.

Clearly out to prove something after their defeat at the hands of the Northern Lights, the PNG Flame came out fighting today. Though young and slender, they showed no fear in the face of much bigger girls and played very tough football. The USA Freedom came back hard as well, smashing through the Flame’s midfield, but the PNG girls banded together, and the Freedom backed off with just two behinds to show for their efforts.

PNG were determined to get on the scoreboard early, and immediately countered, showing off their undeniable skill in moving the ball quickly up through the midfield, but were unable to make it through the Freedom’s tall back line. After a tough fight in midfield, the Americans finally managed to get a goal, and despite their efforts, the PNG girls looking threatening a few times, the Freedom defence held strong.

At Holroyd on Wednesday PNG and Tonga both showed their passion pre-match with impressive displays. Hopefully the video below can convey some of that to those that haven't been able to make it to the matches so far.

Brendan Beno is a star young player for Papua New Guinea at the 2011 AFL International Cup.  Having just turned 17 he has already kicked 7 goals in 3 games and remember these are shortened length, especially on the opening day.  From Bougainville, at 173 cm and 62 kg he's lightly built but boldly wears the number 1 jumper.  Now he's about to swap that for a Brisbane Lions Guernsey.

When we started to research Beno's involvement with Brisbane this evening we contacted AFL Asia Pacific Manager Andrew Cadzow for comment, only to have him point out that the Lions had just made the call on his services and even run an article on him, a remarkable coincidence in timing.

Beno (pictured at left shooting for goal) also starred for the South Pacific in the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships earlier this year, showing then that he knows where the goals are.  Happily for the Brisbane Lions they had already snapped him up on an international scholarship and with their Reserves playing at Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney (BISS) this Saturday it occurred to all involved that it would be the perfect chance for the young Mozzie to play his first game for the Lions.

Ireland staked their claim at the top of Women's International Cup ladder alongside the United States after a crushing win over Australia's indigenous and multicultural team.

The Irish Banshees were looking confident coming onto the field today, the tournament’s strongest team certain to win against the weakest. The Australian girls on the other hand were looking tired from their previous games, and already with a few players out with injuries, there were no spare girls for the bench today.

Right from the start it was Ireland, one way. The ball never left the AMI’s half and it looked again as if it would be another game of constant defending from the inexperienced and under-prepared AMI team. By quarter time the Irish were already 6 goals up, the AMI team without so much as a behind to show for their efforts.

If anyone was doubting the perception that Ireland's men are a genuine Cup threat that was quickly put to bed in a savage first quarter against the improved Swedish Elks at the SCG Bus Loop ground in the 2pm slot on Game Day 3 (Wednesday 17th August).

Sweden are clearly better than their 2008 IC debut, with better structure, some very solid physiques and plenty of experience in international competition, such as the European Championships last year when they placed third.  Yet Ireland came out in the first quarter and blew them away, 6.2 (38) to no score.

And although that was the worst of it as the Swedes gathered their defences, Ireland never showed mercy, with a 4 goal to 1 second quarter making it clear there would be no comeback.

The 2011 International Cup is not only the first time the women have competed but for many of these teams it's the first or second time they've played international matches.  That making picking a winner difficult, and after Papua New Guinea thrashed the Australian Indigenous / Multicultural side we thought we'd found our tournament favourite.  Not so!  What a shock to have Canada's Northern Lights not only shine brighter than PNG's Flames but to completely eclipse them.

The match was in the 12pm timeslot as SCG Bus Loop - that's the oval by the bus loop outside the Sydney Cricket Ground, home to the AFL's Sydney Swans.

Canada burst out the blocks, kicking 2.3 to 0.0 in the first quarter, and we waited for PNG to respond.  They did and held Canada to 2 points in the second quarter, but still couldn't trouble the scoreboard.

Just two matches this afternoon. Scores will be updated every quarter throughout the day. We suggest you refresh your browser regularly to see the latest. Match reports will follow later in the day and into Friday.

One of the side issues that was always going to emerge at this International Cup is the pull of club versus country.  And in many instances this is also career versus country.

As the standard of international footy continues to improve we're seeing more and more players head to Australia to hone their skills.  This is great thing on many levels.  It improves the standard of world footy overall, it exposes Australia to the game's growth which will help Australians and their footy leagues/clubs be more supportive, and it also provides careers for budding international talent.

In fact it is reaching the point that to push into the upper echelons of International Cup success teams really need to have quite a few players in Australia getting the benefit of weekly footy at a very high standard.  But the drawback to all this is that when it comes to representing their country, will players skip games for their Aussie sides?