New Zealand captain hopes for AFL team

I just realised! You're QGIRL's other personality, aren't you??

Bruce there has been a fair bit of discussion on WFN about whether Australia should show up in it or not. At the end of the day, it's merely an academic question. The best country outside of Australia, PNG, would be defeated by 200pts by an amateur team, let alone a professional one, so whether you put it in there or not, everyone knows the reality of it. Interestingly, the AFL ended up using the WFN rankings to seed all the countries and they proved to be absolutely spot on the money.

Republican Relax, NZ was soundly defeated by Ireland in the semi-final, and now faces the USA in the play off for third. Having said that, form the little I saw of the NZ team, there were some likely sorts with ideal physiques for key positions - this is precisely why we need to keep developing Australian Football in NZ.

Unbelievable arrogance on the part of this heathen Kiwi. I have said it before and I will say it again, our code and it's faithful deserve far better than to compromise our great games cultural heritage by placating the Kiwi collective who insist on re branding Australian Footy only to set about appropriating this part of our culture they want as their own. There are heaps of actual footy demographics domestically that deserve the AFL's full attention based on merit and quite frankly NZ are no where on the radar in this respect. One of these is our nations capital where the code must have an elite presence if only for the powerful symbology that evokes if nothing else. I would be horrified if ever NZ got an AFL gig given its lack of footy cred and outright contempt for all things Ozzie. Imagine a situation of rewarding a blasphemous Kiwi public with an AFL elite gig in their capital without first honouring our own nations capital. NZ is light years away from being remotely entertained as a demographic to expand our code if we are talking talent and on the ground support and quite frankly, PNG and Saffa have greater potential than NZ ever will.

All I prefer is for you to explain to me what Australia is doing listed at No. 1 in the rankings. As you said "The IC is all about givng (sic) these sorts of teams an opportunity to gauge where they stand amongst each other,..". If this is so then why list Australia?

The draw for the final matches of the IC can be found here: http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20110825105221332 The main matches: Friday 26th of August Ransford, Royal Park: 12:30pm 3rd vs 4th USA vs NZ 2:30pm Women's grand final: Ireland vs Canada McAllister, Royal Park: 12:30pm 5th vs 6th South Africa vs Nauru 2:30pm Div 2 mens' final Fiji vs France Saturday 27th August MCG 11:20am Mens' grand final: PNG vs Ireland

Just noticed an interesting discussion on WFN: 1. Some are arguing that the time has come to enter an amateur Australian U23 side (I still think it will be too strong, but it's an idea worth considering) 2. Some argue that the time has come to stop putting minnows up against much better teams, a difference of 10 ranking points will always indicate a thrashing, without fail. Looking above, there is a clear top 7 bracket, then the next top 7 are around the same level, then you have the rest, who do cop massive floggings nearly every match, except when they can play themselves. I too would like to see more of a separation of teams.

Bruce would you prefer that the AFL do something similar to what the Kangaroos did in in the mid 90s when they thrashed Fiji 70-nil? To what end? What's the point of it? Today, there was a bit of a gathering reflecting on where PNG sat in the tiers of Australian Football, and many agreed that it's around B Grade Vic Amateurs, i.e. they are around the equivalent of a single amateur team in the B Grade. Seeing that A grade is marginally short of VFL, which is a lot short of the AFL, it's a pointless exercise, don't you think? The IC is all about givng these sorts of teams an opportunity to gauge where they stand amongst each other, but until one of these teams is ready to take on the combined VAFA rep team, it's pointless worrying about whether they can take on anything stronger. Interestingly, these rankings have proven to be quite accurate. The seedings were worked out on the basis of these rankings, and out of around 20 or so games played so far, all but two have gone with the rankings.

Explain to me how Australia gets to be ranked No. 1 when we haven't played any of these countries.

Current rankings after today's matches: 1.Australia 2.Papua New Guinea 57.62 28* 3.Ireland 54.78 37 4.New Zealand 50.85 32 5.Nauru 49.15 18 6.United States 47.97 34 7.South Africa 45.83 14 8.Samoa 41.85 18 9.Great Britain 41.00 42 10.Tonga 40.23 8 11.Canada 40.14 34 12.Denmark 39.73 40 13.Germany 37.37 10 14.Sweden 37.35 25 15.Israel/Palestine 35.03 10 16.Japan 32.67 23 17.China 32.09 10 18.India 29.94 10 19.Finland 29.02 13 Provisional places are as follows: •Fiji 42.21 5 •France 41.26 6 •Croatia 40.60 4 •Iceland 35.64 4 •Timor Leste 29.67 5 •Spain 28.00 6 Dormant *Last Number games played. Teams must play a minimum of 8 games to advance from the provisional rankings to the official rankings.

Full match report of the South Africa vs Great Britain match: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/121836/default.aspx

Great Britain will play Denmark for 7th and 8th. These two teams know each other quite well, and in fact Denmark manged to defeat Great Britain on home soil last year when they hosted the European championships, coming runners-up to Ireland.

In the second game of the 5th to 8th grouping: South Africa 7.9 (51) defeated GB 2.3 (15). South Africa were far too quick and skilfull, recalling that South Africa actually finished 3rd 3 years ago. So it's Sth Africa vs Nauru for the 5th vs 6th placing.

In the second game of the 9th to 12th grouping: Final score Canada 13.8 to Japan 2.1. Fleming finished with 4 goals for the match.

Just wanted to say three things. (1) nice IC updates Cattery. (2) why can't Chris raise the idea of a future NZ team in the domestic comp? Have fans become so insular that they really can't see beyond their own borders? and (3) Based on expertise in the world game/rugby union in particular, I've often thought for a while that NZ and SAF would be the next logical places that could actually put together a decent ARF team. Also probably the Island nations like PNG. And why not think bigger? Either according to some footy is already the greatest thing in the entire galaxy, so all 200+ countries should be playing it anyway - or it remains little more than a curiosity to most. I've also thought that the IRF version would be an easy way to get other nations - esp IRE of course, ENG, SCO, USA, CAN, SAF, NZL etc - involved in some form at least.

Sweden was unable to close the gap on Tonga, FT score in their game: Tonga 5.9 (39) to Sweden 1.3 (9) Tonga will play Canada for 9th and 10th spots. Sweden to play Japan for 11th and 12th spots.

In the play-off groupings for 5th to 8th, WFN reports: #AFLIC11 South Africa 6.6 (42) to GB 2.2 (14) at 3/4 time. Good to the Brits get some goals but run of play suggests the margin is too big.

In the other game being played as part of the play-offs for 9th to 12th, WFN reports: 3/4 time #AFLIC11 Canada 10.6 lead Japan 2.1 - Japan will have the wind in the last quarter. Fleming kicked 3 for the quarter and Simnet 2.

Tonga kicked 3 goals in the 3rd quarter to get a good break on Sweden: At 3/4 time: Tonga 4.7 (31) lead Sweden 1.3 (9) part of play-offs for 9th to 12 spot

Sth Africa has jumped Great Britain that 2nd quarter now lead at HT 4.5 to 0.1 It's looking like it will be Nauru v Sth Africa playing off for 5th and 6th. PNG v Ireland in the grand final. US v NZ in play off for 3rd and 4th.