Ohio Valley Metro League – Round One

April 26th, 2014 was a warm and sunny morning in Louisville, Kentucky.  The Ohio Valley Metro League was ready and raring to kick-off as players from Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Louisville got ready for some footy.  The OVML is a new concept, developed through the USAFL’s new vision, to help execute a scaled-down version of Aussie Rules.  All games were played with 8 players on the field and condensed into a 2x20 halves schedule.

Several of the teams have had a successful off-season recruiting campaigns and the new players were keen as mustard to get involved with their new sport of choice.  The Louisville Kings have seen a significant increase in active players for 2014 with fourteen players suited up for action throughout the day.  The Indianapolis Giants rolled out an almost entirely new team, with only a handful of players with any USAFL experience.  The Cincinnati Dockers welcomed a brand new father/son combo to the club and the St. Louis Blues are also experiencing growth.  The reigning D2 champion Columbus Jackaroos have had significant off-season turnover but welcomed back several former players and unleashed at least seven first year players throughout the day.  They contributed three squads to the concept, the Banana Benders, the Veggie Mights and the Anzacs.  Throughout the day about forty percent of the players were in their first twelve months of footy, which is very encouraging.

Round One was played over six hours with each squad playing in two games and asked to provide support in a separate hour.  The games were played with competitiveness and outstanding sportsmanship.  At the end of the day the three teams from Columbus had been quite successful, taking out five of six matches.  With that said, all three independent teams were very impressive.  The Kings were very unlucky in both games and the Dockers dominated the Anzacs in their second game.  The Indy Giants (with help from St. Louis) were the biggest story of the day though, as numerous players received and delivered their first in-game hits.

Outstanding players on the day included Eric Floyd and Jack Jacobs who teamed up well for the Kings.  Thomas “Woody” Stone and Kyle Strenski linked up well for the Dockers, particularly in the afternoon where Strenski looked like Matty Lloyd.  Josh Foster provided great ruckwork for the Giants and Dave Zitko provided plenty of run too.  The Veggie Mights had great performances from ‘Flying’ Dan Hamilton and basketball convert Rob Adams.   The Banana Benders received powerful goal-kicking from Nate Jordan and Brady Minich, while the Anzacs got plenty of drive through Anish Mistry and Pat Coyne.  All game results can be located in the USAFL’s revolutionary LMS system.

For more info, visit: http://columbusfooty.com