World Footy News

Additional reporting by Brett Northey.

The faster and more skilful Nauru overran a Canada which did not give up at Ransford Oval on Friday in their classification match to decide the admirable finishing positions of 5th and 6th.

Play on football, faster movement of the ball and faster leg speed, particularly more run off half-back, kept the Nauru team in front. The Canadians moved the ball forward more slowly, while Nauru was able to switch play effectively against their bigger opponents.

UAE Heat have won the 2009 Asian Championships held in Singapore on September 6th, comfortably defeating pre-tournament favourites Singapore in the final 10.0.60 to 3.6.24.

Played in good conditions before a very healthy crowd, the Heat were simply too good. Kicking with the aid of the breeze in the first half and with their midfielders well on top, the Heat were able to rattle on five goals before Singapore were able to reply. At half time, the Heat led 6.0 to 1.2, and the Wombats faced a mighty task.

Further salt was rubbed into the wounds when the Heat goaled early in the second half to put the game beyond doubt. To their credit the Wombats fought back, but it was clear the Heat had too much run, were too fit and too good around the ground. The Wombats goaled twice, but the boys from Dubai iced the game with the equivalent reply late in the half.

Pictures courtesy of Mark Stennett of the Malaysia Warriors.

Additional reporting by Brett Northey.

When the USA team came out of the blocks with early goals and Japan had no reply, it seemed that the writing was on the wall for the Samurai.

That was how the game turned out. Lacking four top players from the team which convincingly defeated Samoa, players who had only a week’s leave, undermanned Japan was no match for the stronger and fitter Americans.

Perhaps the Japanese had run out of run. Or perhaps McAlister Oval is narrower than Ransford on which they had used speed to defeat the larger Samoans. Certainly the Americans, one of the pre-tournament favourites, delivered one of their best showings of the series.

Last Friday saw Denmark and Sweden, traditional rivals in just about every sport ever invented, clash for what would effectively be the right to call themselves reigning champion of Scandinavian footy. After finishing third in their respective pools, Sweden and Denmark had both been defeated in their first-round finals matches, leaving them to play off for 11th spot overall and a lot of pride was on the line for both sides.

The Danes have had the edge over the Elks in most tests between the two nations, and went into this match as favourites. Even so, the difference on the day was far greater than the onlookers had anticipated, with the Vikings cruising to a 101-point victory.

Great Britain triumphed against Samoa in one of the three early classification matches at Royal Park last Friday. The day saw each country compete to decide their final finishing positions at the 2008 International Cup; in this case ninth and tenth spots.

Ironically three years earlier at the previous tournament Samoa beat Great Britain to clinch fifth spot. Whilst both countries have suffered a slide down the ladder, if anyone needed convincing that the standard of play has improved, this British side was arguably better than their previous two, and they played a Samoan team minus current World Team representative Fia Too-too (who returned to Samoa suddenly for family reasons) and many of their Australian-based players from previous International Cups.

As two of the freshest teams at the International Cup, India's Tigers and China's Red Demons both faced a huge learning curve on the field. When they faced off at Royal Park on Friday, it was a strong contest between two sides who had improved immensely over the past two weeks.

Some inaccuracy in front of goal by the Chinese saw the Indians with a two-point break at quarter time, but from then on the Red Demons got their noses in front and kept a slight advantage over the Tigers for the remainder of the game, eventually finishing with a jubilant 14-point win, their first-ever in International Footy.

A tired and battered Finnish side fought bravely to the end on Friday, with almost the entire squad either injured, battling the flu, or both. With the bare minimum 18 on the field, the Icebreakers ended their first International Cup campaign with a 12-goal loss to the Peace Team, but never gave up.

The Peace Team were also looking battered, with broken noses, sore knees and strapped shoulders, but the mood in Dipper's camp was extremely buoyant right from the opening bounce, with a few new fans making the trip up from Warrnambool and plenty of noise and smiles from the first middle-eastern squad to appear at an International Cup.

The Adelaide Crows will take a chance on Irishman Brian Donnelly and rookie list him in this year’s rookie draft. The 20 year old Cooley Kickhams gaelic footballer trialled earlier in the year in Adelaide along with Carl Dias who will not be listed by the Crows at this stage. On the Irish Herald.ie website Adelaide’s football manager John Reid said "It is an exciting step for this club to take but although we think Brian has the potential to develop quickly we also have realistic expectations"

Donnelly told The Argus that the Adelaide club gave him no indications that they would make him an offer “I had no idea. I was just waiting for the call…I’m very happy with the news, and everyone at home is delighted” The Crows take on Collingwood at AAMI Stadium today in the First Elimination final in Adelaide.

The AFL has once again named a World Team from the sides competing at the AFL International Cup. The players were announced at the Official Dinner at the Palladium at Crown on Thursday night, with players presented with their jumpers.

Unlike previous "team of the tournament" type awards, the players selected were placed in playing positions, and it was accepted that some of the lower ranked sides would be without representatives.

Samoa's Fia Too-too was named on the half-back flank, making it a remarkable three from three. Unfortunately he had already returned home to Samoa for family reasons (a birthday) so was not present for the team photo.

The World Team, in positions, is shown below.

With the Grand Final completed we can now reveal the final finishing positions for the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. Match reports for the final round games will follow over the next couple of days.

1. Papua New Guinea
2. New Zealand
3. South Africa
4. Ireland
5. Nauru
6. Canada
7. USA
8. Japan
9. Great Britain
10. Samoa
11. Denmark
12. Sweden
13. Peace Team
14. Finland
15. China
16. India

Here are some brief thoughts on the final rankings.

Papua New Guinea's Mosquitoes have finally broken through to win the International Cup at the MCG after twice being runners-up. It was magnificent come from behind win against quality opposition, the New Zealand Falcons, in a high quality match.

The game started a few minutes earlier than expected, with New Zealand kicking to the Punt Road end but with little advantage from the gentle breeze. The game quickly settled into the pattern of play anticipated - the Mozzies attacking at all costs with pace and carry but the Kiwis holding them up with superior height then using the ball well going forward. The New Zealanders kept their structures and made space for their forwards to run into. Everything was falling into place as Moss Doran goaled from a mark, captain Andrew Congalton roved the pack for another major, and James Monaghan converted from a free. The Papuans had less genuine chances and to make matters worse squandered them with only four behinds to show for the first quarter. NZ 3.1 (19) to PNG 0.4 (4).

First pictures from the MCG Grand Final of the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. Game still in progress. More to follow later.