General

A few words about the inaugural matches held Friday night.

First and foremost, those of us on the AZAFL board would like to thank everyone for just showing up like they said they would. All the organizing in the world would have been pointless had everyone not shown up to play. We also had a large contingent of fan support braving the threatening storms on hand to be a part of this historic occasion. I would have to say that we did not disappoint them either.

LOS ANGELES (Tuesday, October 17, 2000) The Denver Bulldogs nipped the San Diego Lions at the wire to win the 4th Annual Coopers National Tournament of Australian Rules Football. The tournament played in Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs, California, over the October 14 and 15 weekend, featured 16 teams from across the Unites States playing 37 games over the course of two days. In the Grand Final, both the Bulldogs and Lions were playing their sixth 40-minute game in two days.

After passing the 200 game milestone in Santa Cruz at their ANZAC Tournament this year, the USAFL has flown passed 300 games, this time in Nashville at their Annual Football Festival.

With the National Tournament fast approaching over the weekend of October 13th - 15th, usfooty will have topped 150 games for this year alone, proving the sport is continuing to boom in the US. There will be 16 teams from all over the country contesting this years' National Championships in LA.

The US National Australian Rules football team, the American Revolution,
extended their winning record over Canada to 3-0 on the 30th July 2000 at
Centennial Park in Toronto, Canada, with a solid 25 point win in a
rain-affected match.

The US team was made up of 25 American Citizens, representing 13 of the
USAFL affiliated clubs. The team was co-captained by Ron Miller from
Chicago (the only player to have played in all three internationals), and
Deron Lien from Inland Empire. Both Deron and Ron had been co-captains in
1999.