Thanks to Alex Benjamin of USAFL Webcast for his full recap of the 49th Parallel Cup from his Blog site.  Alex can also be seen weekly on his Justin.tv channel Friday evenings from Smyrna, Tennessee (Saturday mornings Melbourne, Australia time).

2012 marked the return of the Parallel Cup after no contest last year because of the International Cup.  This was the first time that the Parallel Cup has visited the city of Dublin, Ohio..

The site of the Parallel Cup was the beautiful Darree Fields, in which the main field that all four games would be played was the best field condition in any competition this year, albeit with the grass just a bit high.

While in the past Parallel Cup carried on in relative obscurity, with most of the attention focussing on  the US Nationals, this year as for the first time in its history it was being broadcast live on two platforms.  Video was shown on a fixed camera on Justin.tv through the USAFL Weekly Channel and via audio by Brian Reiss and Lee W. Mowen on OhioSportsRadioNetwork (OSRN).

"One has to wonder if the "banana" will make an appearance" were the words of WFN writer Chris Adams in 2007. While the former Australian Football League punters (or VAFA in Matt McBriar's case) weren't the first ever to try drop punts in the NFL they have certainly been credited for it's wider use in the American game.  Feted for it's greater accuracy in directional kicking and the way the ball reacts when it hits the turf (as opposed to the traditional spiral punt) the drop punt is being used by both the Australian and many of the US NFL punters.

But now it appears the banana kick could be the next Aussie rules export.  Sav Rocca tried one in the Washington Redskins preseason game against Buffalo last week.  The Washington Times described it as "a sideways-end-over-end punt designed to roll forward and diagonally toward the sideline."

Brent "Boomer" Harvey and the North Melbourne Football Club recently hosted American wrestler TNA Impact's A.J Styles. Styles joined in some contact drills and shared some wrestling techniques.

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Last time the US and Canada met it was at the International Cup in the opening round in Sydney under a reduced match length format. The US won by just three points. Two years ago the US travelled to Canada and won by thirty four points. So given their history the Americans were strong favourites for this years clash on home soil for the 49th Parallel Cup.

The match was played in hot humid conditions in Dublin, Ohio.  While the Americans perhaps did dominate the match and with some straight kicking might have run away with it, the Northwind were right in the match well into the last quarter. The final score USA Revolution 7.12 (54) defeated Canada Northwind 5.1 (31).

USA Freedom have overcome their biggest rivals, the Canadian Northern Lights to win the 49th Parallel Cup 6.7(43) to 5.8(38). After having been narrowly defeated at their last major international meeting in Australia for the International Cup, this year the Americans were out to prove something and played strongly throughout the match.

The Canadians came back several times in what proved to be a very close and low scoring game, hard fought out in midfield, and by the end of the third quarter, things weren’t looking good for the Americans as the Canadians started edging ahead. But the talented Freedom players pushed hard in the final quarter to turn the game around, and after three consecutive goals from Eileen Geogheegan and Lindsay Kastanek, they sealed victory for the USA Freedom.

The US Revolution and Canada Northwind teams will play today (Saturday) in Ohio and the event will be covered with audio and video available online.   

To see streaming video of the event from around 9:45am EDT at  http://www.justin.tv/nashvillekangaroos and audio commentary of the matches will be available from 10am EDT at  http://www.ohiosportsradio.caster.fm.

Women's and men's development teams will be up in the first two games, followed by women's US Freedom vs Canada Northern Lights and finally men's US Revolution vs Canada Northwind.

The US Revolution and Canada Northwind teams have been named ahead of the 49th Parallel Cup this weekend. 

 

Full team list below.

The USAFL this week announced that the AFL combine that had been mooted for 2012 would be held in LA from August 27th to August 29th. The AFL has produced a slick marketing video (which can be seen below) to outline the attractions of our game.

Michael Ablett, who played and coached in the USAFL a few years back will be running the combine for the AFL where he is now part of the development staff.

The USAFL is responsible for providing 30 elite athletes, which may come from the USAFL playing ranks – but most likely from outside their system.  The USAFL are also responsible for providing the venue, the recruiting strategy (which will mostly be social media driven) and organising exposure through marketing and media. 

The Northern Lights have named a squad of 47 women ahead of their matches against the US this weekend.

There will be two matches played nominally as representative and development squad matches at the 49th Parallel Cup which will be held in Dublin, Ohio on August the 4th.

Head Coach Tristan Waldock said that the final makeup of the two teams would be decided on Friday in Ohio for the two matches.

 

With the 49th Parallel Cup just a week away the proud host club, the Columbus Jackaroos have released the following statement.

Dublin, OH, July 24 — The United States Australian Football League (USAFL) will be hosting the 49th Parallel Cup, a series of matches between US and Canadian national representative teams, on Saturday, August 4th.

Matches will take place at Darree Fields located at 6259 Cosgray Road, Dublin, 43016 from 10:00am – 6pm.  The event will consist of four games during the day beginning with a Women’s development match followed by a Men’s development match.  The women’s national representative teams, the USA Freedom and the Canadian Northern Lights, will then square off followed by the men’s national teams the USA Revolution taking on the Canadian Northwind.  The event is free and open to the public.