2019 Euro Cup Team Previews: Part Five
Not long now until the 2019 AFL Europe Euro Cup, this year the tournament will be held in Norrtalje, Sweden for what is set to be a thrilling day of football as national teams from 16 different European countries field their nations best players and over 350 players battle it out for the Cup.
This year’s edition of the Euro Cup will see all the games take place on Saturday the 29th of June. As part of the buildup, AFL Europe will be previewing all the teams competing. In our fifth edition of the team previews, we will be taking a closer look at the Israeli Beasts and the German Eagles in the men’s side of the competition and in the women’s, the reigning Champions, the Irish Banshees.
Men’s Competition:
Israeli Beasts
Coach: Shir Shalev / Yonatan Wengrowicz
Captain: Shir Shalev and Matan Polke
What has your preparation been heading into the 2019 Euro Cup?
We haven’t stopped training for the winter – thankfully Israeli climate allows this, and we were just too pumped after last Euro Cup in October, working on getting better for this one. In the last two months leading up to Sweden, we started training twice a week and were able to have some training games because we managed to recruit a lot new players in the past months.
How many clubs are represented in your national team?
We have two clubs represented in the national team.
How many of your players are going to be making their Euro Cup debuts?
Around 5 to 8 players.
What can we expect to see from your team this Euro Cup?
First of all we plan to play our hearts out and leave everything on the field, fighting each game till the end. We hope to improve our position and to finish in top 8 teams.
What does competing in the Euro Cup mean to your team?
We don’t have a domestic league and regular tournaments in Israel yet, the Euro Cup is our main opportunity to play with other teams. It also means a lot to all of us have this chance to represent our country on an international event, and this year is the official debut for the Beasts (last year we came as Tel Aviv Cheetahs).
What are your expectations for the Euro Cup?
As always we’re expecting to have a fun and competitive tournament, and hopefully to have more wins than last time. It is also just great fun to hang out with footy players from other countries, to exchange experience and forge new friendships.
Who are the players in your team that we should be watching out for?
Hadar Moran and Eli Lipshitz.
Do you have any extra bits of information about the team, like past years funny/interesting stories?
We actually have a funny story from last year’s Euro Cup. Matan Polke who joined our team just a month before the Euro cup, was looking to buy cleats for the Euro cup. But his father who is an Australian and often umpiring our tournaments, told him to not sweat it and take his his own old football cleats which as it turned out much later were about Matan’s age. The cleats looked perfectly fine. But then in the morning of the Euro cup, during our warm up, when Matan ran in the wet grass, the sole separated off the boot and the boot pretty much fell apart. Because it was less than an hour before the games started, we didn’t really know what to do, and at the end, we just wrapped the cleat with all sorts of tape, keep adding more after each game, and in the end it lasted for Matan to play 4 games. Since then we have a saying “to pull a Polke” which means to destroy your boots to the point that the sole falls off. By the way Matan’s dad still hasn’t thrown the fallen apart old cleats away, it seems to have become Polke family’s heirloom.
One more fun fact about Team Israel is that half of the Israeli Beasts have degrees in math and physics!
The Israeli Beasts will be remembered in the 2019 Euro Cup for…
Fighting hard on the field, and having fun during the day.
German Eagles
Coach: Mark Woods
Captain: Florian Naumann/Jakob Jung
What has your preparation been heading into the 2019 Euro Cup?
We had a two-day-training camp in May in Dresden with team building activities and a lot of tactical sessions between the breaks. With the camp we gathered more german players around the Eagles than ever! Our coach Mark Woods had some hard decisions to make when nominating the final squad. Some well-earned Eagles and very experienced players didn’t make it into the final squad, because of the big resume of the camp.
How many clubs are represented in your national team?
With the Hamburg Dockers, Berlin Crocodiles, Rheinland Lions, Frankfurt Redbacks, Zuffenhausen Giants and the Munich Kangaroos nearly every club has one or more players in the final team. Only the Dresden Wolves are missing on the list for the Euro Cup. But a few of them are not far away to make the next team for the next tournament.
How many of your players are going to be making their Euro Cup debuts?
Four players are making their debuts for the German Eagles. This is quite a lot, regarding the shorted team list for the Euro Cup-Team. But we are already looking forward to next year’s International Cup and therefore it is important that a lot of players know what it feels like to wear the Eagles Jumper in a real tournament.
What can we expect to see from your team this Euro Cup?
We are improving year by year. We know that we can beat every team in Europe on a good day. We want the gold medal.
What does competing in the Euro Cup mean to your team?
For the German Eagles competing in the Euro Cup is a highlight every year. We have a really good and hard crack on the field during the day and leave everything on the ground but then we’re not enemies anymore for the other teams but friends. I think the rest of Europe hates to play against us during the day but loves to party with us after the tournament.
What are your expectations for the Euro Cup?
I think this goes along with the answer to two questions earlier. We aim high and want to see what we can achieve with that.
Who are the players in your team that we should be watching out for?
We have a really good mix with good and experienced players all over the field. In the backline, our captain Flo Naumann is a wall. His strength is just superb. With Fabian Probst, we have one of the best ruck men in Europe. Tobi Menzel and I will be around him (former European Legion, Team of the Tournament IC 2017, …). Our forward line is probably the strongest. Phil Evermann is one of the most talented players Germany has ever had.
Do you have any extra bits of information about the team, like past years funny/interesting stories?
Mate, one night with the team and you can write a book full of interesting or funny stories! For example, Thilo Mayer and Timo Ebert (both on the team this year) didn’t make the squad for the Euro Cup last year in Cork. They didn’t care and just flew to Ireland to support the team. And that will be the same with other people this year. That’s the team spirit we’re talking about. Our Coach shortened a business trip to Canada, just to be with us in Stockholm. He skips the last couple of days and flies directly from Canada to Sweden.
The German Eagles will be remembered in the 2019 Euro Cup for…
For winning the Euro Cup for the very first time.
Women’s Competition:
Irish Banshees
Coach: Mike Currane
Captain: Mella Morey
What has your preparation been heading into the 2019 Euro Cup?
Here in Ireland we are in the middle of our Australian Tax Solutions Super 7’s League which is our taster and development comp. We were very excited to pass the 200 player mark in Round One of the League. Unreal progress from a standing start under 18 months ago. We also have new teams coming on stream all the time. This means there has never been as many players vying for Banshees Selection. Competition for spots is massive. We have also had a very successful inaugural Universities Cup in March and the first ever Universities International Cup in April. And of course we had West Clare Waves make it 2 AFL Europe Champions League wins in a row in Amsterdam. So lots of action in the first half of this year, and lots of opportunities for players to impress in the run up to Euro Cup and some massive International Comps including European Championships 2019 in London in October and AFL International Cup in Australia next year.
How many clubs are represented in your national team?
We have a lot of club and university teams represented on our squad and that includes some of our established teams and some of our relatively new club teams and new uni teams. The squad of 16 includes players from West Clare Waves, Dublin Angels, Cork Vikings, West Dublin Garrisons, South Dublin Swans and University Teams represented include UCD, AIT, Trinity and our Irish Universities Team.
How many of your players are going to be making their Euro Cup debuts?
What can we expect to see from your team this Euro Cup?
With so many new players it’s a bit of an unknown, and our aim is to develop these new players, but one thing for sure is these Banshees will give everything on the oval, so you can expect a huge amount of energy and effort all day and a fast & furious style of play. Every one of these players will be proud to wear a Banshees Guernsey and will no doubt do it justice! And the most important thing is they will enjoy every second of it.
What does competing in the Euro Cup mean to your team?
What are your expectations for the Euro Cup?
Our expectations are that we will see huge energy and effort all day from every member of the squad. We are looking for performance across the board and the players to gain vital experience at this level. If all of the above boxes are ticked then it will have been a successful day. If we are bringing the Euro Cup back to Ireland for another year at the end of it then that will be a huge bonus.
Who are the players in your team that we should be watching out for?
Do you have any extra bits of information about the team, like past years funny/interesting stories?
A number of our Euro Cup Winning Irish Banshees Team from 2018 have gone on to play professionally in Australia. Ailish Considine and Aisling McCarthy both played AFLW with Adelaide Crows and Western Bulldogs respectively, with Ailish making history by becoming the first ever Irish player to win an AFLW Premieship in her first season, something we are immensely proud of. And something everybody that played with these players and against these players in Euro Cup, and everybody involved in women’s footy across the continent should be very proud of.
Banshee Aisling Curley is currently playing very well for Collingwood in this seasons VFLW. Numerous players from our teams/ comps have been signed professionally for AFLW 2020 and watch out for these stars in the Banshees Guernsey over the next few months. We cannot wait to see them all play on the big stage down under and look forward to a few more Irish Jigs!
The Irish Banshees will be remembered in the 2019 Euro Cup for…
Hopefully the Banshees will be remembered for taking out an unprecedented 7th Euro Cup title. But regardless we will be remembered for being a high energy high tempo team who love their footy, play relentlessly all day and have a whole lot of craic along the way!
