World Footy News

In the lead up to the 2011 AFL International Cup we're getting various questions from supporters that want to see the action. We'll endeavour to answer what we can and find out what we don't know.

Answers to recent questions:

Q: When is the draw out?!
A: July 1st, i.e. it's out now! See Final IC11 draw released. Note that there have been several revisions and we endeavour to keep the latest there.

Q: Where is BISS?
A: The draw for the first round of IC11 shows BISS1 and BISS2. These are two ovals at the Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney. It's also home to the next AFL club, the GWS Giants, as well as a baseball club. See www.blacktownsportspark.com.au

Q: How do I get to BISS and what's the weather like?
A: Visit BOM for weather and here's a very brief guide to the weather and transport options to the ground: Transport and weather for Sydney start

Q: Can the public buy tickets to the IC11 Gala Function at the Crown Palladium?
A: At this stage, no. Limited tickets were sold in 2008 but this year the capacity is reduced and the number of players and officials has increased. If some space remains the AFL has said they will advise us and we will publish the details.

As reported previously, in a first for the championships, both the World XVIII and South Pacific teams won today. The results highlight the talent opportunity outside Australia.

South Pacific 11.13 79 defeated Tasmania 10.17 77

Goals
South Pacific: Beno (PNG) 5, Alphonse (PNG) 2, Tatupu (NZ) 2, Joel (Solomons), Stegman (PNG)
Tasmania: Wiggins 4, Boscott 2, Webster 2, Sergeant, Visser

Best
South Pacific: Simon (PNG), Heatherley (NZ), Beno (PNG), Gavuri (PNG), Joel (Solomons), Logo (PNG)
Tasmania: Sergeant, Boscott, Johnston, Webster, K.Kolodjashnij

World XVIII 13.11 89 defeated Northern Territory 11.7 73

Goals
World XVIII: Masaki (Japan/VIC) 2, Gamakhulu (South Africa) 2, Jalloh (Sierra Leone/NSW-ACT) 2, Saad (Lebanon/VIC) 2, Aneet (Sudan/VIC), Majok (Sudan/TAS), Lual (Sudan/SA), Selman (?), Aliir (Sudan/NSW)
Northern Territory: Richardson 2, Sedan 2, Wasley-Black, McGarvie, McDonald, Pollard, McAuliffe, Simpson, Darcy

Best
World XVIII: Saad (Lebanon/VIC), Aneet (Sudan/VIC), Masaki (Japan/VIC), Abdallah (Lebanon/VIC), Peni (Samoa/VIC), Gamakhulu (South Africa)
Northern Territory: Ankers, Seden, Pekham, Rioli, Pollard, Fuller
 
 

Three Greater Western Sydney GIANTS International Scholarship players from Nauru, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea will tomorrow join the GIANTS for training at Blacktown International Sportspark.

Yoshi Harris(Nauru), Charlton Brown (NZ) and Theo Gavuri (PNG) have all been signed by the GIANTS under the AFL’s International Scholarship scheme and are currently in Australia playing for the South Pacific Nations side in the Under 16 National Championships.

The World XVIII has defeated the Northern Territory by 16 points in the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships.

Unlike the South Pacific which has a true international list, the World squad is a mixture of players who are learning the game overseas and those who are first generation Australians, such as with African refugee backgrounds.  The World XVIII also had more significant age concessions than the South Pacific side.

Nevertheless, coupled with the South Pacific's 2 point win over Tasmania earlier in the day, this is a tremendous result for international footy.  They key outcome of these championships may be a scramble by AFL clubs to scholarship list some of these players.  It also begs the question, has international football reached the point that it demands 1 or 2 teams in the NAB AFL Under 18 Championships, the main recruiting forum for AFL clubs?

More details of the U16s if and when we can procure them.

In a major breakthrough for international Australian football the South Pacific team has defeated Tasmania at the NAB AFL Under 16 Championships in Sydney.

The match was this morning from 10am at Blacktown Olympic Park.

Final scores (courtesy of AFL Asia Pacifc's Andrew Cadzow):

South Pacific 11.13 (79)
Tasmania 10.17 (77)

WA v Vic Metro and Vic Country v SA
Results from the 2011 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships Round One Division One matches played yesterday (Saturday 9th July) at Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney.

Vic Metro 2.1 (13) 6.5 (41) 7.9 (51) 14.13 (97)
Western Australia 5.3 (33) 7.5 (47) 8.7 (55) 11.9 (75)
 

The NAB AFL Under 16s are underway and the World XVIII and South Pacific have their first matches tomorrow at Blacktown in Sydney.

With all the IC11 activity this one has snuck up on us without managing to organise any writers to get along and watch the matches or take any photos. If any of our readers are in the area and can help us out then let us know - anything we can get gratefully received.

Our lead up articles can be viewer here:

World XVIII mark two announced
South Pacific U16 squad for NAB AFL Nationals
World XVIII crack first win (updated)
NAB AFL U16s confirmed to feature SP and World - includes the tournament draw

Additional reporting by Tobietta Rhyman and Aaron Richard.

AFL Italia Femminile have confirmed that they are not taking part in the Women’s Division of the International Cup. The Swiss men’s team also decided not to compete at IC11.

There’s always two sides to a story, and in this case maybe three. The situation with the Italian women’s side was always complicated as the AFL prefers groups to work through the local affiliated bodies such as AFL Italia and AFL Europe whereas AFL Italia Femminile appears to have worked separately to the local League and at times directly with the AFL. The Italian women were also more closely aligned with the Swiss men’s competition, although notably their jumpers did feature the AFL Italia logo, so at one time there was cross-over.

The situation between all the bodies appears to have deteriorated over a period of months, culminating with a possible communication breakdown as the Cup draw was announced. The bottom line is that sadly, despite a lot of work by AFL Femminile Italia and we believe an AFL desire to have them present, the women of Italy will not be represented at IC11.

Last weekend, Saturday 2nd July, saw the Brit Cup played for the first time ever in the North of England at Manton Coliery Worksop, with the Nottingham Scorpions lifting the trophy and breaking the 8-year winning streak of the West London Wildcats.

The Brit Cup is the traditional locals-only annual tournament, which has been showing off the best of British footy talent for a number of years.

With the IC2011 taking priority this year (something that was agreed to at the National Conference in November 2010 in Putney), the AFL London are pushing forward their fixture to get their season finished before the the Bulldogs fly out to Australia, and thus could only send up a West London/Wimbledon combined team under the name "London Wild Hawks".

The Wild Hawks were joined by 4 regional rep sides - the Northern Warriors, Southern Saxons, West Midlands Wolves and WARFL Red Devils - and the Nottingham Scorpions, who were eventual champions and the sole stand-alone club side on the day.

Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams was event organizer and also umpired on the day, having stood down this season as Northern Warriors captain, assisted by Rams head coach and last year's Northern Warriors head Coach Neil Morrison, along with long-time English footy identity Andrew Markham who covered much of the umpiring duties and was behind the media and publicity.

This report courtesy of Karl Haigh.

For fans wanting to keep up to date on the Irish team vying for the ultimate prize at this year's International Cup, there is a new blog covering the Green Machine's preparations.

Peter Ross from the Irish Warriors is man behind the blog, saying "the blog will cover aspects of the preparation, fundraising, injuries etc. I hope the blog is both fun and interesting and is designed to raise awareness of Aussie Rules in Ireland and also get more attention for the International Cup in Australia."

Whilst the Irish IC squad has not yet been made public, they are expected to field a number of eligible Irish expats currently playing suburban footy in Australia and will no doubt be very tough to beat.

Peter Ross' blog can be found at irishwarriors.wordpress.com.

The new group bringing Australian rules football to Moscow were the subject for the following report in the English-language Moscow News this week.

Mentioned in the article are the group's plans to attend the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast, which will mark the first appearance of a Russian national team on the international stage.

The Moscow footy circle kicked off at the start of June, and are planning to launch their first two local league teams in the coming weeks. This is in addition to the group in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, who also started playing footy in Russia earlier this year.

The full article from the Moscow Times is reprinted below, at left is one of the proposed designs for the inaugural Russian national team jumper.