2017 AFL international cup

The final few minutes of the Canada v Fiji womens game was quite frenetic.


I loved the delayed reaction to the win.

'Golden point' scored, everyone sets up for the kick in and nobody notices the ump calling time...Then a little while later, the message obviously got through to them and there were the 'surprise' squeals and hugs from the Canadians.


BTW. If you ever question Canadian politeness...I was starting next to a Canadian guy who admitted he was hoping the Fijians won, because Canada won last tournament, and it'd be nice for it to be shared around!
 

Daniel Flynn

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As a port man I'm going for Team China since we've been supporting them for a while and couldn't be happier with their start :)
 

Daniel Flynn

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I loved the delayed reaction to the win.

'Golden point' scored, everyone sets up for the kick in and nobody notices the ump calling time...Then a little while later, the message obviously got through to them and there were the 'surprise' squeals and hugs from the Canadians.


BTW. If you ever question Canadian politeness...I was starting next to a Canadian guy who admitted he was hoping the Fijians won, because Canada won last tournament, and it'd be nice for it to be shared around!
If I heard someone say that I'm pretty sure I would have heart failure
 
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I loved the delayed reaction to the win.

'Golden point' scored, everyone sets up for the kick in and nobody notices the ump calling time...Then a little while later, the message obviously got through to them and there were the 'surprise' squeals and hugs from the Canadians.


BTW. If you ever question Canadian politeness...I was starting next to a Canadian guy who admitted he was hoping the Fijians won, because Canada won last tournament, and it'd be nice for it to be shared around!

Pretty sure most Hawthorn fans were like that last year.
 
AFL 360 last night had 5-6 minutes on the IC17 with PNG player JJ Peni and GB captain Laura Turner. See from about 41.40 onwards.

 
There are no semi finals this year like previous years, - well not for the top 4 teams in the men's comp.

So the GF at the MCG will be who finishes top 2 spots after 4 games played.

PNG lost their first game to Ireland 30 v 42 which made it difficult for them to defend their title. But Ireland play NZ and both are un defeated so any of the 3 could make it because percentage will come into play for the side that loses and PNG.

NZ 3-0 219 for 46 against 476.1%
Ire 3-0 199 for 99 against 192.9%
PNG 2-1 206 for 129 against 159.7%

NZ could lose by 60 pts and would still beat PNG on percentage into the GF. PNG play SAF who have been reasonably competitive and PNG would have to win by about 60 pts knock NZ out on percentage.

If we assume NZ lost 21 to 81 against Ireland and PNG won 76 to 20 then then PNG would scrap in by percentage 189.0% to NZ and 189.3% to PNG. But PNG plays 90 minutes before NZ so NZ will know what the maximum they can lose by is. PNG's best bet is for NZ to beat Ireland.

USA are the only other team that could mathematically get in on percentage. They are
USA 2-1 164 for 134 against 122.4%
They play France who are the cellar dwellers in Div 1 but the USA would have to win by about 10 goals + what ever PNG win by to jump over PNG. But like PNG play earlier than NZ and Ireland, the USA play an hour before PNG, so PNG know what they have to do to get a better percentage than USA.

The Women's play tomorrow to determine who goes thru to the semis.
 
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mikey127

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India v Pakistan in Bendigo on Friday night was fantastic apart from the result. Huge crowd great atmosphere music during the game, traditional Aussie footy favourites as well as curry available. School kids created banners for both teams. Only thing that seems a little unfair is most of the Pakistan team is Australian based and most of the Indian team is Indian based.

I always knew India v Pakistan was big i sport but even in our great game it was like a grand final.
 
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India v Pakistan in Bendigo on Friday night was fantastic apart from the result. Huge crowd great atmosphere music during the game, traditional Aussie footy favourites as well as curry available. School kids created banners for both teams. Only thing that seems a little unfair is most of the Pakistan team is Australian based and most of the Indian team is Indian based.

I always knew India v Pakistan was big i sport but even in our great game it was like a grand final.

I noticed Pakistan beat India in one of the closest games of the 3rd round. Re Pakistan being Australian based, I thought they had pretty strict rules on who can play for a country.
 
I noticed Pakistan beat India in one of the closest games of the 3rd round. Re Pakistan being Australian based, I thought they had pretty strict rules on who can play for a country.
I think he means they are Pakistani citizens who have immigrated to Oz. Thats allowed. There are a couple of British and a Canadian women who are living in Oz but played in their local league first who are playing in the tournament.
 
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mikey127

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I think he means they are Pakistani citizens who have immigrated to Oz. Thats allowed. There are a couple of British and a Canadian women who are living in Oz but played in their local leage first who are playing in the tournament.
Yeah thats what I'm saying but apparently you are only allowed 12 local based players on the field at any time and I don't know if that is being very well policed
 
Yeah thats what I'm saying but apparently you are only allowed 12 local based players on the field at any time and I don't know if that is being very well policed
I didn't realise it was that many.

Most of the sides arent like that but the organisers have obviously allowed it for so they can have a decent number of teams. I suspect that is how the women's European Crusaders is made up as it is better to have an 8 team comp vs a 7 team comp.
 
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I didn't realise it was that many.

Most of the sides arent like that but the organisers have obviously allowed it for so they can have a decent number of teams. I suspect that is how the women's European Crusaders is made up as it is better to have an 8 team comp vs a 7 team comp.

Personally, I'm fine with that, as long as it's not abused.

Even back in IC14, fully half the Irish squad were already living in Australia, but we're talking about people who have migrated as adults and/or living in Australia temporarily, so no problem there as far as I am concerned.

In fact I was listening to a podcast where they were interviewing one of the Irish players, and he was already living here, he said they had try-outs for Irish already living in Australia, whereas, on American had to return to the US to try out for the US tream. He jokingly said that Americans have more money than the Irish - and that's one of the benefits of relying on players already living in Australia, reduced travel costs (not to mention the experience of playing in a local league).
 

mikey127

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Its understandable the AFL wamting kore teams but also understand why India feel a bit hard done by. In there eyes there putting a lot of effort into growing the game in there own country and then Pakistan there arch rivals only bring a handful of players from Pakistan. I heard there was a match outside of the IC where local Indians played local Pakistani players and India flogged them.
 
As expected the yanks went and belted French 19.18 132 to 3.1 19 and took their percentage from 122.9% to 191.5% and PNG knowing what the US's percentage was, smashed SAF who had been competitive in their 3 previous games, keeping the Yanks and Brits to 9 goals, and the score was PNG 16.17 113 to 0.4 4, which took PNG's percentage from 157.2% to 239.8%. PNG need NZ to beat Ireland to make their 6th consecutive GF and they will get through on percentage as Ireland start the game with 191.9%.

A draw would see Ireland and NZ play off in the GF at the MCG on Saturday. For NZ to miss out, given they are on 219 v 46 = 476.1%, they would have to lose something like 21 v 55 against the Ireland and end up with 237.6% but would scrap in if they won 21 v 54 and end up on 240.0%.

Its a big effort by the Yanks to miss out on the GF by percentage and they will either finish 3rd or 4th. They finished 7th in 2014, 4th in 2011, 7th in 2008, 3rd in 2005 when they beat the Irish in 3rdv4th play off and 5th in 2002.
 
Looks like a great game between NZ and Ireland. another goal and Ireland would have made the GF and played NZ again. PNG into their 6th straight GF and chance to make it 3 wins and 3 Loses.

 
Previous GFs

2002 Ire 7.9 51 dft PNG 2.7 19 @ MCG
2005 NZ 7.8 50 dft PNG 5.2 32 @ MCG
2008 PNG 7.12 54 dft NZ 7.4 46 @ MCG
2011 Ire 8.5 53 dft PNG 5.5 35 @ MCG
2014 PNG 6.9 45 dft Ire 6.6 42 @ MCG

The Mosquitoes (top ranked) were lucky as they lost to the Irish ( 3rd ranked) 30 to 42, then beat Nauru (4th ranked) 84 to 35, then USA (7th ranked) 92 to 55 and finally smashed South Africa (5th ranked) 113 to 4.

The Irish beat PNG (1st ranked) 42 to 30, France (10th ranked) 79 to 14, Brits (6th ranked) 70 to 55 and lost to Kiwis (2nd ranked) 49 to 53.

The Kiwis beat Nauru (5th ranked) 81 to 34, Fiji (9th ranked) 76 to 6, Canada (8th ranked) 72 to 6, Ireland (3rd ranked) 53 to 49

So if you add up who the 3 big teams played by rankings
PNG 3+4+7+5 = 19, Ireland 1+10+6+2 = 19, NZ 5+9+8+3 = 25
the Kiwis had the easier draw of the big 3 when looking at the teams ranked going into the tournament and also if you look at how the teams ended up at the end of the tournament.

Splitting the men's teams into 2 division has been a success as there were no 100+ pt shellackings in the first 3 rounds and the only two happened in the 4th round when USA and PNG were chasing big percentage boosts to make the GF and the bottom teams would have been tired.

Of the 10 teams, only bottom ranked France was really noncompetitive. They were ranked 14th by World Footy News and Croatia 12th who played in Div 2. The French lost 14 to 80 against Fiji but the Fijians did kick 10.20, they lost 14 v 79 to Ireland, then 14 to 106 against Nauru before the US beat them 19 to 132. The South Africans finished 9th who came as the 5th highest ranked side, did ok until the final game against PNG. Lost to the Brits 28 to 65, lost to the Yanks 17 to 64, beat Fiji 29 to 26 and then were smashed 4 to 113 by PNG.
 
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Well, a very enjoyable few hours down at the Cup. Started off watching PNG v SA and the run and carry of the PNGers was sensational. They looked very sharp and physically very strong. When that result was never in doubt I popped over to watch GB v Fiji and it was a very good game. You got the impression Fiji might be a bit over physical and it was no surprise when they had a player yellow carded. Credit to both sides on continually going hard at it.

Moved back to the main oval to watch the Kiwis v Ireland and the game didn't disappoint. I've seen a haka from a few years back which was really average, but today's was full of passion and pride and it really set the tone for the day. I did wonder if #22 for the Irish who looked about 6ft 8 and who could take a mark had of kicked straight early whether the result might've been different.

The Kiwis were guilty of missing targets and I thought it was going to cost them late in the game. To their credit they showed a lot of guts to come back late and snatch it at the death. From my own POV, I wouldn't have minded if the last kick had of missed because for mine, PNG looked the best team on the day, but then maybe that was in part due to the opposition.

I was pretty impressed with the standard and while there were skill errors, they were no more than you'd see any other game. Next time I might just take some annual leave and catch a few more games as it really was an enjoyable day. Great to see a host of ex AFL players there too which would've been great for the players. Umpiring in all games was first rate too.

Well done to all involved in this fantastic tournament for developing nations.
 
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^ Agreed re the Mozzies, when they get going they are very quick and skillful, best movers of the ball outside of Australia.

I too enjoyed the NZ vs Ireland game, I was hoping NZ would get up because I wanted the Mozzies to make the final, and so was rapt with the after-siren goal.

That big no. 22, who kicked most of Irelands score, is none other than Padraig Lucey, one time competitor in The Recruit who also had a couple of years on Geelong's list. At some 203cm, he is a colossus at this level of footy. NZ aren't a small side by IC standards, but they all looked pretty small next to Lucey.
 
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So in the final we have NZ v PNG in the mens and Canada v Ireland in the womens. Great to have four different nations make the final, although if I'm not mistaken, these might be the same four sides as 2014.

Three out of four are the same; New Zealand missed out in 2014 to Ireland for the men's final.
 
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