Monday, March 14 - In anticipation of the largest ever AFL International Cup, to be held in Australia during August this year, Revolution Coach Matt Bishop has named the 2011 Revolution squad.
Twenty-four teams from all over the world will participate in the fourth AFL International Cup and the expectations on the U.S.A. team are high. “Ideally we would like to exceed our best ever performance of a 3rd place finish and play in the Grand Final to be played at the home of Australian Football, the Melbourne Cricket Ground,” said Coach Bishop.
The squad was finalized after the team training camp that was held in Austin, Texas, over the weekend of February 25-27. The players were chosen from an extensive list of quality candidates that have been involved with the Revolution during 2009 and 2010, including two successful 49th Parallel Cup campaigns against the Canadian Northwind.
Last week in a Herald Sun article, Hawthorn President, Jeff Kennett questioned the rationale and the AFL's commitment to growing the game outside of Australia. "I don't know why they do it. AFL football will never be an international game. To be quite honest, I would rather my players, if they were asked, didn't go on the trip. It's an unnecessary risk. I think it's just a junket for the officials of the AFL and the media.''
Austin Crows wingman Jesse Leos (pictured left with Mark "Bomber" Thompson) has made the trip to Australia this year to play with the Barwon Heads football club in the Bellarine Football Leauge. After some preseason games and his first two regular season games in the reserves, Leos has this week been picked to play in the senior team against Torquay at Torquay.
A SERIES of meetings in the United States next week could be the first step in creating an AFL career path for American college athletes, in a plan to discover a new type of ruckman.
