Carlton may be the next AFL club to be lured by the prospect of signing a highly athletic ruckman from the pool of players coming from the United States. Following a procession of recent players, Matt Korchek – a former Arizona Wildcats basketballer – has caught the Blues’ attention and will come to Australia to try his luck.

There is a growing list of tall, athletic players entering AFL/VFL ranks from both basketball and American football backgrounds. Mason Cox is at Collingwood, Eric Wallace at North Melbourne, Jason Holmes is at St Kilda, whilst Alex Aurrichio, originally from the New York Magpies, is on the Northern Blues list – Carlton’s VFL affiliate.

At an impressive 206 cm and weighing in at an imposing 105kg, Korchek already has the frame to compete. His athleticism is also of the highest order, showing both great power and leaping ability but also clocking a 12 minute 3km Time Trial, underlining his athletic endurance.

Alex’s USAFL Weekly report this week is a long recap of all 14 games from the last 3 weeks and a preview of this weekend's colossal 18 games this weekend with the Western Regional, Texas Cup and EAFL Women's matches.

 

There were no games this past weekend, due to Memorial Day weekend. This week, there are four 4-quarter games in the USAFL.

1. This week’s matches takes us to Pflugerville, outside of Austin, Texas as Houston will take on Austin. Normally, this game would be played at Onion Creek Soccer Fields, but they are underwater at present

The USAFL has announced their hunt for a new national team coach is over.  Tom Ellis, former Denver Bulldogs captain and US Revolution team captain has been given the nod.  He takes over the position from Matt Bishop who coached the Revo’s at IC11 and IC14 (and the years in between).

Ellis has coached the Revolution once before, in LA against a team of Australians that play in the USAFL back in 2007.  But this time around he is set for to coach at least a full International Cup cycle.  It would come as no surprise to those that know Ellis that he would one day coach the USA in international competition given his long time commitment to the game and passion for the Revo’s continual push to make it to the top of the International Cup tree.

 

Last Weekend’s Games: USAFL Week 7
This past weekend, there were two scheduled tourneys plus the Atlanta vs. Baton Rouge full game. There was a last minute addition and a postponement…the addition was Seattle vs. BC Eagles outside of Seattle, but the postponement was in Houston. The first round of the Texas Cup was postponed due to 11 inches of rain in a week in Houston that made Veterans Park unplayable.

Just 3 years ago, Houston and the state of Texas was in a Stage 3 Drought. Now, they have received 11-17 inches of rain during the month of May, including at the USAFL Nationals HQ in Austin, where the league will be in just 5 months from now.

The Texas Cup Round 1 has been rescheduled for a week from Saturday, 30 May. With that, here’s a recap of last weekend’s games, including extended tournament coverage of the Harrell Cup.
 

Alex Aurrichio made another important step forward this evening when he was named in the Northern Blues VFL senior squad for this week. Aurrichio who played with the USAFL National Championship winning New York Magpies last season, has impressed in the first five rounds of the VFL Development League in 2015.

The Development league is mostly made up of younger players around average age of 20. Aurrichio playing mostly in the ruck is a little older at 25 and but in terms of his footy experience is a long way behind most of his team mates and opponents. So his learning curve has been steep and his application impressive. His 198cm, 105kg frame is not huge by AFL standards but in the VFL Development league is on the larger side. At VFL senior level he will be playing against more players used to handling opponents of his size.

Last week, we had a number of teams playing games in three cities: Toronto, Des Moines and Seattle. The match between Columbus and Toronto was cancelled.

Montreal Women’s Tournament

The Montreal Women’s Tournament, (also included a men’s game with the Quebec Saints take on the Boston Demons).

The New York ladies took on the Quebec ladies.

Game 1: New York 1.6.12 Hamilton 0.2.2
Game 2: New York 5.13.43 Toronto 3.2.20

 

.
 

Alex Benjamin from USAFL Weekly Report brings us the latest news from US footy.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day here in the USA, we wish all mothers around the world a Happy Mother’s Day.
 

USAFL Revolution Training Coming To Nashville
As of yesterday evening, it was announced on the USAFL website that the USA Revolution team will have their Training Camp being held in Nashville, most likely at the home grounds of Elmington Field at Vanderbilt and Ted Rhodes Park at Metrocenter. The dates are 6 and 7 June 2015 as they prepare for the Parallel Cup in August.

 

The 2015 AFL US Combine in Brandton, Florida has wrapped up after three days of testing the tallest crop of American athletes so far.  Well mostly American.  The tallest John Crnogorac is from Sydney.  He would not be an international rookie as such if listed by an AFL club but a Category B Rookie (and not the first basketballer to be speculatively listed as such by an AFL club).  Crnogorac also would come with some Aussie rules knowledge (even as an NRL fan) and without the need to adjust to life in Australia. He has been playing college basketball in the US.

Jalen Carethers would seem to be the obvious choice for the AFL clubs that attended the Combine to select to come to the Australian draft Combine in October, or even earlier ala Mason Cox in 2014.  If for no other reason than his surname Daquan Holiday could be another selected to make the trip.

 

 

 Picture from @BradAmes14 on Twitter