International Cup 2011

[UTSBatman]

Any inside info on the IC11? Anyone heading out to have a look at Blacktown tomorrow?

The Irish squad trained with us this week and I can say the skills on the whole are surprising good. The spread they've got coming out of defence will trouble a lot of the other International teams. They're a big bodied bunch with a fair bit of speed and flair. They've got a pretty handy assistant coach in Lachlan Buszard (former Bats Premiership Coach & current GWS Academy Manager), who is a very knowledgable tactician. Look out for the Irish Warriors to go far.

Another of the Bats International players, Yuki Saito, is hopeful Japan will be competitive with the bigger AFL nations. Though with their tallest player being 184cm, I think they will struggle when they come against an Ireland, New Zealand or PNG line up.

How are the Tongan's looking out West?

[Pekay]

If we weren't on a bus to Manly I'd be there to watch, decked out in my eBay bargains, Sweden, USA, Tonga (Thanks Des) guernseys, and a few of the boys have various guernseys as well, Ireland, Denmark, Iceland...just love the fact our game is growing overseas.


IC11 team profiles - AFL.com.au (http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/120560/default.aspx)

[Norris Lurker]

After travelling at a rather pedestrian pace from the CBD to the beach today, I spotted Dipper doing a recovery session with the Peace Team at Bondi Beach. The Peace Team is a fascinating initiative, bringing Israel and the Palestinians together.
I didn't make it to Blacktown yesterday, but it's great to see our game spreading around the world.

[Rowdy#8]

I made my way down there on Saturday afternoon and had a great afternoon. Plenty of enthusiasm and some games played in great spirits created a great atmoshpere out at BOP. Just a bit of a shame there weren't a few more locals out there to support it.

From what I saw, Ireland and NZ definitely look the standouts. PNG are also apparently pretty solid, but I got there too late to see their games.


After travelling at a rather pedestrian pace from the CBD to the beach today, I spotted Dipper doing a recovery session with the Peace Team at Bondi Beach. The Peace Team is a fascinating initiative, bringing Israel and the Palestinians together.
I didn't make it to Blacktown yesterday, but it's great to see our game spreading around the world.

Peace Team is definitely a great initiative. Their warm up alone was worth heading down to see - very enthusiastic. They carried it onto the field for the first 15 minutes, but then ran out of puff and the Candians ran over the top of them. They then had to back up against the US and got steamrolled. They should be pretty competitive in the minnow division though.

[Rowdy#8]

I mentioned the passion and enthusiasm on display at the IC in my last post. Check out this video of the pre-game face-off between PNG and Tonga at Gipps Rd Oval earlier this week ...

http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20110819092137209

Tomorrow is the last day of competition at Sydney's suburban grounds before the teams head off to Melbourne on Monday

[UTSBatman]

Yesterday's Semi Finals were won by Ireland (over NZ) and PNG (over USA). Should be a cracking game in the final on Saturday. 3 Bats players in the best from yesterday's Semi - Phil Bredin, Sean McGuinness and Roch Hanmore - great stuff guys!!

[Rowdy#8]

The Irish Banshees have just taken out the women's GF with a 31 point win over Canada. Should give your boys a lift heading into their GF at the MCG tomorrow