Australian Rules Football Tournament

[Totster]

BANGKOK HOSTS AUSTRALIAN SPORT EXTRAVAGANZA

An action-packed weekend not to be missed

BANGKOK - Asia’s biggest-ever Australian rules football tournament has been confirmed for Thailand in July as the sport continues to expand in the region with competition for the trophy sure to be intense through Singapore attempting a three-peat.

Ten teams from China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia (two teams – Bali and Jakarta) Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and of course Thailand will compete for the coveted Asian Australian Rules Football Championship at the Patana International School on Saturday July 14.

Dubai and Vietnam will be making their debuts in the tournament this year, with Dubai tipped to give regional powerhouses Bali, Hong Kong Jakarta and Singapore a real push in the tournament.

Home team, the Thailand Tigers, also have the advantage of not travelling and will have a full squad to select from who have been in full training under the watchful eye of coach and former Fitzroy star Geoff Everett.

In what will be a super weekend for Australian sports fans, the Socceroos international soccer team play Iraq in Bangkok on Friday July 13 and Thailand on Monday July 16 in the group stages of the soccer Asian Cup Championship.

The Thailand Tigers have extended an invitation to the Socceroos and their travelling supporters to the Australian rules tournament where the Australian Ambassador to Thailand H.E. Mr. William Paterson will preside over the day.

Thailand Tigers Organising Committee Chairman, Stephen Richards, said logistics planning for the event commenced in January and the response to the annual tournament has been so over whelming, organisers are claiming the international tournament may be the largest of its kind outside Australia.

“We are saying this will be Asia’s largest Australian football tournament ever because we know it is, but a lot of the teams involved think this might be the biggest international carnival outside Australia, which would make this event the biggest of its kind in the world,” Richards said.

“They have some pretty competitive leagues around the world particularly in Europe and North America, but we will have ten teams from different countries all together playing on the one day and through the Australian footy international grapevine we have not been able to come up with an event that will outmatch this in terms of the number of teams playing.”

The tournament will use a round robin format with the teams being drawn into two groups of five. The five teams will then play each other once with the results collated to form a ladder using standard methods. The two top group teams will then play off in the grand final.

Such is the size of the tournament, the Thailand Tigers will be using two grounds adjacent to each other to ensure all games are played from the 8am start, with the Grand Final to start around 4pm.

“Many of the guys from within the Thailand Tigers club are putting in a lot of time and effort to ensure the tournament will be a success,” added Richards.

“And it will be a great weekend of sport with the Socceroos games sandwiching ours.

“I know many of the teams involved in our tournament are coming early to catch the Socceroos game on the Friday night and some are staying on for the Monday night game as well.

“It’s a great weekend of sport and many people in the Australian community around Bangkok and Thailand are already very excited about it.”

-thailand-tigers.com

[Austhaied]

Go Tigers. And remember, it's not about who wins or loses, it's about the piss-up after the game..

[MiG16]

great! just my luck that I have to be away working that weekend grrrrrrrr

will miss the thailand-aussie game on 16th too

there goes my chance to perve at all the cute aussies

[Siam_superfly]

Great to see some football comp's that England has nothing to do with....

Australia will win the Asia cup undefeated.... but hope that Thailand make it to the final as well....