Northwind Play OAFL Australian All-Stars on Canada Day

July 3, 2008 by Mark Block | View Comments (0)

Canada Day was celebrated in Ontario with a Footy Festival Extravaganza! In co-operation with the OAFL and the Etobicoke Kangaroos, the national team, Northwind, hosted a special football event featuring two matches at Humber College's South campus. The first match was Ontario hosting Quebec as Quebec look to gain entrance into the OAFL in the near future. The second was the match up which has been gaining popularity as quite a contest — the Northwind faced the OAFL Australian All-Stars.

The Northwind game was the second of three development matches in which Canada face off against the Australians as they prepare for their quest, the 2008 International Cup, coming up in less than two months.

The Northwind started with many players who would be considered likely starters in Australia and have recognized the importance of these feature matches. It was also the first time the players saw their IC uniforms and they were anxious to represent their country wearing them.

The Australians assembled a very impressive collaboration of talent and looked very strong as the favoured team in the match. It is perceived also to be one of the most enthusiastic teams ever assembled to represent Australia in the OAFL as they performed with pride and determination in their approach to the game.

The game was dominated with high speed flow and multiple conversions from the Australians side. Canada also showed signs of brilliance with performances from players such as Frank Luisser (BOG), George Dimakacos, Jacob Sone, Oliver Hayward and Danny McIlravey. The team has been working to extend their game, be more dominant in 1 on 1 competitions, and adopt a play-on style of footy. They have improved a great deal.

Kien La was utilized as a tagger for this game, and was very effective in his role restricting the dominance of the ever dangerous Lockie MacDonald. Mario Pareja played well as did Daniel Zimmermann. Support players Jared Postance and Alex Hendrix had spirited performances proving the depth of the squad is improving as well.

Northwind had numerous transitions of clean footy. They took strong marks and converted many passages. Still, there were brief occasions when the team seemed to be a step behind. The strong Australian side was able to capitalize on loose coverage around the field proving the Northwind do need to improve their awareness when plays develop around them. However, in the area of toughness, Canada continues to improve. Many passages pleased the crowd when the Northwind demonstrated physical dominance in plays involving tough competitors. Assistant Coach Emile Studham agreed that the Northwind could elevate their game with completely do-able, short term improvements.

When the Australians dominated, they were faster to read developing plays in advance of their counterparts. Expectedly, they also had a higher conversion rate of kicks and hand passes and goals.

The spirited affair ended with a final of 11-12-78 Australia over 3-8-26 Canada.

Other notables today were the injuries. Captain Stefan Leyhane has embodied the spirit of ultimate commitment as he fights through another injury, the result of an accidental bump which pushed his teeth through part of his upper lip. Gareth Williams from the Calgary Kangaroos also suffered from knee injury while battling for ball possession in the wing. Some other absent starters were Murray Lovett (foot injury) and Kevin Minaker (torso injury) as well as Scott Fleming, Aaron Falcioni and Steve Carew (playing in Australia) and James Maitland, Clayton Holmes and Gareth Bowley (in Vancouver).

The match was the feature in one on the greatest events seen in the history of the national program. General Manager Martin Walter must be credited for conceiving and financing the event, as well as bringing on valuable staff such as Jodi Tario, Jennifer Haufler and Emile Studham who delivered outstanding promotional skills and project management, helping make the entire event enjoyable to all.

Follow the Northwind's development as they face the OAFL's Australian All-Stars one more time on Saturday, August 2nd 2008 at 12:00 pm. Then it will be off to Australia to represent their country in the 150th anniversary of footy at the International Cup 2008.