Milwaukee Bombers Show Patriotic Colors


The Milwaukee Bombers were kept jumping during the long holiday weekend spreading the word about Australian Football. The weekend started on Saturday July 3rd when 10 Bombers joined the MAAFL All-Stars to play the Toronto All-Stars, in Chicago. While the MAAFL team was destroyed in the curtain raiser all-comers match they made amends for it in the main encounter. Lead by Bomber Bruce Beilfuss, in a best-on-ground performance, the MAAFL team waited until the last quarter to hit the front and win in a low scoring, rain drenched match. Final scores were 2-8-20 to 1-6-12. Goals were hard to come by and the game was in doubt until the last few minutes.


 


The Bombers were happy to be a part of the first of many all-star encounters with the Canadians.


 


After drying off, it was back to Milwaukee for a Summerfest demonstration on the Sunday. Summerfest is a huge Music Festival drawing over 1 million visitors for the 10 day event. The Bombers were invited back to Summerfest for their fifth year. We had two demonstrations on the Sports Stage. Many of the demonstrations are put on by the local professional teams, such as the NBA Bucks. During the one-hour demo we hosted handpassing and goal kicking contests. We had over 100 juniors participate and learn about Aussie Footy. This is a great community relations activity for the Bombers and we hope to see it continue for years (plus we get free entry!)


 


The weekend ended with the 25 Bombers walking in the Wauwatosa Independence Day Parade on Monday, July 5th. Wauwatosa, is a suburb of Milwaukee and has the largest Independence Day Parade in the Milwaukee area. The crowd, well over 10,000 people, loved the Bombers as they kicked and marked the footy. Extra publicity was gained through the live broadcast on cable TV and spots on a number of the Network TV newscasts that evening. After the parade a junior clinic was help with over 250 kids participating in the event.


 


A patriotic, but tiring, weekend ended over a club BBQ (of course!).





- Steve "The Rock" Smith
(370)

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