Big field interested in IC2011

[Richoagain]

Hi guys,

There's a list out of the countries who have submitted an official EoI for the 2011 International Cup.

22 official notifications received, plus a further 4 who are in contact with the AFL about the event but haven't submitted a response yet.

The full list is available in this article on worldfootynews.com

 

[kronic]

Really keen to get down and watch this next year. I was busy at the last cup. Still no Australian Amateurs, it would really lift the profile of the Cup.

 

[aidancdaman]

Good to see the world is standing up and realising how great this sport is.

I'll say it right now though, NZ v PNG final.

 

[Richoagain]

Really keen to get down and watch this next year. I was busy at the last cup. Still no Australian Amateurs, it would really lift the profile of the Cup.

Unfortunately, I think Australian Ammos would still be too far ahead... NZ played against Maffra not all that long ago and got thumped by 200-odd points.

We'll see what happens though.

 

[*Crash*]

Even if it was Australian Ammos v NZ look at the difference in player pools that the two sides would be drawing from. That alone makes it far to onesided. NZ vs ACT amateurs perhaps.

 

[Aucklander]

New Zealand should be allowed to pull at least 8-10 players out of Australia and then play a game. Leave the International Cup rules alone, but a one-off type game like this would be good.

Oh, and make this game in about 6 years and my son should be ready.

 

[aidancdaman]

New Zealand should be allowed to pull at least 8-10 players out of Australia and then play a game. Leave the International Cup rules alone, but a one-off type game like this would be good.

Oh, and make this game in about 6 years and my son should be ready.

Another 5 and I'm good to go .

How many New Zealanders or players of kiwi decent are playing in leagues like the WAFL, SANFL, QFL etc?

 

[Aucklander]

Another 5 and I'm good to go .

5 will be stretching it. He's only 13, so can you wait a year?

How many New Zealanders or players of kiwi decent are playing in leagues like the WAFL, SANFL, QFL etc?

I really dont know mate. There must be a few.

 

[aidancdaman]

5 will be stretching it. He's only 13, so can you wait a year?

I'm almost 15, so....

Does he play? Manurewa Raiders would be the closest club to Mangere East wouldn't it .

 

[Aucklander]

I'm almost 15, so....

....we'll see you in the IC after this one?

Does he play? Manurewa Raiders would be the closest club to Mangere East wouldn't it .

Hehe.

He goes ok. Up playing Divvy 1 this year so we'll see how he goes against strong opposition week after week.

 

[aidancdaman]

....we'll see you in the IC after this one?

You may . The sad thing is you hear of players being pulled in to try play club footy here when they've never seen a match.

 

[Aucklander]

You may . The sad thing is you hear of players being pulled in to try play club footy here when they've never seen a match.

Really? That would make it hard.

 

[Redb#]

I would expect South Africa to surpass NZ for 2011 IC. It will take time for the Hawk's NZ project to bear any fruit in terms of player depth, whilst Sth Africa's pool climbs towards 20,000.

Tipping a PNG v Sth Africa Final with PNG the team to beat.

The IC is all about Pacific Isles/region now with the only exception Sth Africa. In terms of actual progression, Canada, US, UK will fall away as the Pacific Isles receive the benefit of real development from the AFL and the option of attracting some first choice athletes from these areas.

This is as it should have been long ago.

 

[Redb#]

Really keen to get down and watch this next year. I was busy at the last cup. Still no Australian Amateurs, it would really lift the profile of the Cup.

Agree. Although the profile of the IC is growing and getting mentioned in the AGE and Herald Sun from time to time. GWS's new scholarship holder Bayanda Sobweta (Sth Afr) a recent mention for the IC.

Perhaps not for 2011 or even 2014, but in time the winner of the IC could challenge an Australian team of some sort.

Ultimately, you'd like a full test but that might be 20-30 years away.

 

[Richoagain]

Previews on two potential newcomers are here:

Indonesia

and

Portugal

 

[VikingSven]

My €2 worth.

If there are 20+ teams coming..

* A premier division of 16 teams divided into 4 pools.
* A developing division of the remaining teams, where the top finisher advances automatically to the premier division in IC2014. The developing division may include a quota for long-term permanently based Australians (5 years residency + passport) to assist with squad numbers, quality.

* All weekend matches in Melbourne to align with the AFL matches. Mid-week games in Ballarat. Use proper stadiums and hold games as curtain raisers to VFL / AFL matches, where possible.

* Pool games of 4 by 12 minute quarters. This will reduce the potential for blowouts plus help teams even more to back up and play another game every 2nd day. It's sheer endurance to play 5 games in 11 days, and not suffer too many players lost to injury.
* Finals matches 4 by 20 minutes.

* As a curtain raiser to the final at the MCG, hold a World XVIII match (with the best players selected from the tournament) v Indigenous Australian / Australian or Victorian Amateur (VAFA) representative team, featuring players not in the final.

* Lobby SBS and Foxtel to show key matches live or delayed in Australia. Show matches on Eurosport, ESPN & Australian network.

* Find a major sponsor(s) to help ease some of the operation and on-the-ground costs for the teams!! It's costing some of the European teams around €100K to get a squad down to Australia every 3 years.

That is all.

 

[Bouvet_Island]

I would expect South Africa to surpass NZ for 2011 IC. It will take time for the Hawk's NZ project to bear any fruit in terms of player depth, whilst Sth Africa's pool climbs towards 20,000.

You'd think if there *really* was 20,000 players in South Africa, there would be a league, and quite a few teams - after all, how can you have players in a team sport without any teams . Yet the AFL South Africa website (which I assume is http://www.aflsouthafrica.org/index.php) has a lot of articles, but no actual link to a league ladder, or even a list of teams.

 

[*Crash*]

Bouvet, glad to see you are so keenly interested in South African footy, give them a call if you need to know more details.

 

[Richoagain]

20,000 includes the footywild development kids - but you have to understand that when you're playing footy in the townships it's not really on a club basis.

However, there actually is a list of clubs on the AFLSA website - for North West Province, the clubs/FootyWILD (similar to Auskick) centres are the following:

Itsoseng
Mafikeng
Potchefstroom
Ramatlabama
Rustenberg
Schweizer-Reneke
Tsetse
Vryberg
Ganyesa
Ventersdorp

There isn't a national league as such, but there is a national carnival each year between the four provinces playing footy (KwaZulu-Natal, Western Capt, Gauteng, North West), played at senior and high-school level.

The South African Lions are a pretty good team, not all that far behind PNG and NZ at the IC08, and definitely the most improved.

 

[mrricky]

Ya I am looking forward to the games. Maybe there would be a few pleasant surprises there.

 

[aRT8t]

Hello noobee here, it is good to see so many countries playing the best team sport on the planet.

i like the fact that we have so many of our neighbours playing as well

Do you think that they should have groups like as in areas ie:

Pacific
Asia
West Europe
East Europe
Africa
Americas

Top two out of eah ZONE go onto the finals

 

[Richoagain]

Hello noobee here, it is good to see so many countries playing the best team sport on the planet.

i like the fact that we have so many of our neighbours playing as well

Do you think that they should have groups like as in areas ie:

Pacific
Asia
West Europe
East Europe
Africa
Americas

Top two out of eah ZONE go onto the finals

Nothing wrong with being a noob, you have to start somewhere!

This I think will eventually happen, as in the soccer and rugby union world cups. However, at the moment I think the emphasis needs to be on inclusion - involving everyone, including the teams that are very much still in the development stage.

You'd have to be very careful about the seeds - the Americas really only have 2 countries who are candidates at the moment (US and Canada), both of whom are clearly top ten and should be at the finals.

Africa only have one (South Africa), but they're realistically the third best in the world and have to be there.

In Asia there are maybe going to be four nations at the IC (China, Japan, India, Indonesia). Only one of those is likely to be top ten (Japan), but you want to be able to include the other three for development and exposure reasons.

Oceania will probably have half a dozen (PNG, NZ, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru), possibly one or two more (eg Vanuatu) and again they're all probably top ten and should realistically be there.

Europe has the biggest number of individual nations, including some stronger ones such as Ireland, Britain and Denmark who will presumably be in division 1, but probably also will have the biggest number of teams who are relatively new to the sport and be filling out division 2. But at the developmental level that Aussie Rules is at, it would be a travesty in my opinion to tell a team that is keen to come that they weren't allowed.

With the FIFA World Cup - obviously it's different as you're dealing with all-professional teams, who are all already part of a well-connected and well-funded community. With Aussie Rules, the IC is the one chance to bring the whole international community together and make connections, share ideas etc, so you want to make it as open as possible.

Looking forward to it - and looking forward to seeing some decent local support in 2011!

 

[aRT8t]

But at the developmental level that Aussie Rules is at, it would be a travesty in my opinion to tell a team that is keen to come that they weren't allowed.

I didn't actually mean i don't want them to come, i just would like to see the teams play in thier zones i am with you tho i think it will be a while b4 we see the zone thing happen.

You think that South Africa will be in the final.

The new Finland jersey is a stunner check it out
http://www.finlandafl.com/teams.htm

 

[kolja51]

Do you think that they should have groups like as in areas ie:

Pacific
Asia
West Europe
East Europe
Africa
Americas

Top two out of eah ZONE go onto the finals

No, big no. I'm speaking as a president of Croatian federation - why would any European country pay sooooo much money to come to Australia, only to play European teams when we can play European team anywhere in Europe for way less traveling cost. Plus we do have European Championship, we want to play everyone but European teams.

 

[aRT8t]

No, big no. I'm speaking as a president of Croatian federation - why would any European country pay sooooo much money to come to Australia, only to play European teams when we can play European team anywhere in Europe for way less traveling cost. Plus we do have European Championship, we want to play everyone but European teams.

OK Kolja you got me typically thinking of myself, sounds like i didn't think it through, might be better to do the old pick a number out of a hat trick?

It is good to see other ppls ideas tho.