Island Boys Contribute to International Success

The three boys from the Isle of Wight chosen in the England Dragonslayers under 14 Aussie Rules football team all made valuable contributions to the team success in winning the inaugural “King Canute Cup” played in Copenhagen on Sunday 17th September.

The Dragonslayers dominated the game and won by a margin of six goals four points (40 points) after setting up a winning break early in the first quarter by kicking four goals one point (25 points) to zero. The Danish Vikings were never able to recover and were surprised by the aggression and team skill displayed by the English side.

Ben Armstrong, who played across the centre line, was named in the team’s best players and Aaron Roach who played as an interchange player were both able to make the best of the opportunities provided by their team mates. Simon Hudson played in the back pocket as a last line defender and made his presence felt in the few opportunities that came his way.

This was the first time that the Dragonslayers had ever played together which made their performance even more meritorious. The Danish organisers were full of praise for the English team and the standard of their performance.

Paul Armstrong who was a ‘runner’ for the team had a busy day delivering messages from the coaches to the eighteen players on field for the team but was elated by the success even though very leg weary by the end of the game.

Steve D’Giacoma was the architect of the team performance as assistant coach and was responsible for the game plan and playing strategy as he was the only member of the entire team that had experience of playing the game with full contact rules on the large oval pitch.

Denmark has had a junior Australian Rules football competition for the past eight years and their national junior team has travelled overseas to play in each of the last three years. Their last trip was to play in Australia earlier this year.