Australian Football International Cups

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Welcome to the World Footy News home page for the Australian Football International Cup tournaments, regarded as the pinnacle of international Aussie Rules. Also now known as the AFL International Cup. In many ways the forerunner was the Arafura Games in Darwin which saw several international sides compete. New Zealand's Will McKenzie then pushed for a World Cup which ultimately became the International Cup. Currently the players are primarily amateur and are not expatriate Australians. Although not strictly required by the rules, the few international players in the AFL are unlikely to be released from professional commitments and may not be sought by their country anyway.

A women's Division was held for the first time at the 4th Cup (2011) as well as using a seeding round to separate the men into two divisions.

Thus far Australia has not competed given the relatively early stage of development of the game outside of its ancestral home, although a deliberately non-full strength Australian indigenous and multicultural side has now competed in the women's division. From this page you can access our main page for each of the Cups, or view the summary of finishing order.

2002 - The tournament was first played in 2002 with 11 nations competing in Melbourne. Ireland defeated Papua New Guinea in the final. The other teams were New Zealand, Denmark, USA, Great Britain, Samoa, Nauru, Canada, Japan, South Africa. Click on the logo at left to access stories and images (note that the first Cup pre-dates World Footy News so we provide a single summary story here).

2005 - The event returned in 2005, again to Melbourne and also the regional town of Wangaratta. 12 countries were expected with Spain the fresh faces, but funding and player availability saw Denmark and Nauru as late withdrawals, reducing the total to 10. Papua New Guinea again made the final, but went down to New Zealand. Click on the logo at left to access stories, images and video.

2008 - The third Cup was held in Melbourne and Warrnambool in Australia in 2008, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of what is widely recognised as the first game of Australian Football (though the roots of this and all codes of football go back much further). 16 teams attended, with Papua New Guinea finally winning the Cup, defeating New Zealand in the Grand Final at the MCG. Click on the logo at left for all the details.

2011 - The fourth Cup was held in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia in 2011, for the first the time including a women's division. 18 men's teams and 5 women's teams attended, with an opening day lightning competition to seed the men into Division 1 (top 12) and Division 2 (next 6). Ireland defeated Papua New Guinea in the Div 1 grand final at the MCG, becoming the first nation to win the men's competition twice. Fiji defeated France to win Div 2. The women's competition included an Australian indigenous and multicultural side although it was deliberately selected from mostly inexperienced players so as not to dominate. Click on the logo at left for all the details.

Men's International Cup Finishing Order:

Country	2002	2005	2008	2011
Ireland	1	4	4	1
Papua New Guinea	2	2	1	2
New Zealand	3	1	2	3
United States	5	3	7	4
South Africa	11	8	3	5
Nauru	8	-	5	6
Great Britain	6	6	9	7
Denmark	4	-	11	8
Tonga	-	-	-	9
Canada	9	7	6	10
Sweden	-	-	12	11
Japan	10	9	8	12
Fiji	-	-	-	13
France	-	-	-	14
Peace Team	-	-	13	15
India	-	-	16	16
China	-	-	15	17
Timor Leste	-	-	-	18
Samoa	7	5	10	-
Finland	-	-	14	-
Spain	-	10	-	-