The 2011 Australian Football International Cup (also known as the AFL International Cup 2011 or IC11) was the fourth edition of the Australian Football International Cup, an international Australian rules football competition run by the Australian Football League (AFL).
It was contested between 12 and 27 August 2011 by 18 nations, with games played in both Melbourne and Sydney. Two matches were played as curtain raisers to AFL premiership matches, USA vs South Africa at Stadium Australia and the IC Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ireland won its second men's championship, and the inaugural women's championship (Ryan Aslett Cup).
Competing Teams On 1 July 2011, the AFL confirmed the 18 men's teams that would participate in the 2011 International Cup:
Guernsey Country Nickname Final Rank World Team Rep's Ireland Warriors 1 3 + Coach Papua New Guinea Mosquitos 2 4 New Zealand Falcons 3 3 USA Revolution 4 3 South Africa Lions 5 3 Nauru Chiefs 6 1 Great Britain Bulldogs 7 0 Denmark Vikings 8 1 Tonga Tigers 9 1 Canada Northwind 10 1 Sweden Elks 11 1 Japan Samurais 12 1 Fiji Tribe 13 (1st Div 2) 1 France Les Coqs 14 (2nd Div 2) 0 Israel & Palestine Peres Team for Peace 15 0 India Tigers 16 0 China Red Demons 17 0 Timor-Leste Crocodiles 18 0
17 of these clubs represented single nations, and one (the Peres Team for Peace) represented both Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
As well as the above Men's teams, for the first time in the history of the tournament, there was also a Women's competition, with five teams participating:
Guernsey Country Nickname Final Rank World Team Rep's Ireland Banshees 1 8 + Coach Canada Canada Northern Lights 2 5 USA Freedom 3 6 Papua New Guinea Flame 4 3 Indigenous/Multicultural Australia Indigenous/Multicultural 5 2
Men's Fixtures
Round 1 Before the tournament, the 18 clubs were seeded into six groups of three, ranked based on previous performance in International Cups, or in the case of the newer teams, at the discretion of the AFL: Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Papua New Guinea (1) Tonga (12) France (18) New Zealand (2) Sweden (11) India (17) South Africa (3) Denmark (10) China (16) Ireland (4) Great Britain (9) East Timor (15) Nauru (5) Japan (8) Fiji (14) Canada (6) United States (7) Peres Team for Peace (13)
Matches The first round of matches was played with modified rules, most significantly the reduction of game length to two-quarters, in the same manner as the 2011 NAB Cup.
Round 2 At the conclusion of Round 1, the best two teams from each Group were regrouped into four groups of three teams, based on Win-Draw-Loss performance and Percentage in Round 1, all within a larger group known as Division 1. These teams would remain in contention for the International Cup title. The remaining six were regrouped in the same way, into two subgroups of Division 2. These teams would compete for a secondary prize.
The structure of the groups was as follows: Division 1 Division 2 Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 1 Group 2 New Zealand (1) Canada (8) Great Britain (9) Ireland (2) Denmark (7) Sweden (10) Papua New Guinea (3) Nauru (6) Tonga (11) South Africa (4) United States (5) Japan (12) Fiji (13) China (15) Peres Team for Peace (17) France (14) India (16) East Timor (18)
Division 1 Division 1 teams played one match against each team in their respective groups.
TEAM Ireland2200176151173.338 United States220017019894.748 Papua New Guinea220022929789.668 New Zealand220013922631.828 South Africa21106546170.774 Denmark21108611078.184 Nauru21108814560.694 Great Britain21104611540.004 Canada2020358342.170 Sweden20204418124.310 Tonga20203718020.560 Japan2020102074.830
Division 2 Division 2 teams played one match against each team in their respective groups, as well as a single "cross-over" match against a team in the opposite group.
TEAM Fiji330032842780.9512 France330025650512.0012 Peres Team for Peace3120139127109.454 India31208219442.274 China31206420531.224 East Timor30307232422.220
Division 1 Semi-Finals At the conclusion of Round 2, the teams were once again re-seeded based on their performance in the previous round; the teams in Division 1 were seeded in positions 1-12, and the teams in Division 2 in positions 13–18.
These matches were played at the same time as the final round 2 Division 2 matches; the Division 2 teams did not participate in this round.
Finals
Women's Fixtures
Round 1 In the opening round of the Women's International Cup, the five teams played each other once, over the course of 10 days.
TEAM Ireland440026337737.8416 Canada43109454174.0712 United States422014070200.008 Papua New Guinea41307515349.024 Australia4040202886.940
Finals At the conclusion of Round 1, Australia, the lowest ranked team in the competition based on points and percentage, was eliminated and finished in 5th place. The remaining four clubs will compete in the finals.
World Teams
Men's World Team
Women's World Team
References