IC17 Team Announcement – European Crusaders

What’s been happening since European Championships in 2016?

The European Crusaders took part in the European Championship held in London last August. As the squad in composed of players from different countries, we haven’t done another competition all together. But most of the girls living in Europe have attended the Euro Cup in Lisbon and the Champions League in Amsterdam. For the players living in Australia, they are taking part in their local tournament.

When did you finalise your IC17 squad?

Actually, we have not finalised it yet. But we should finalise it by mid-June, as we have some girls who don’t answer all criteria and so we need to have an accord from AFL.

What’s scheduled/planned for the months leading up to IC17?

Isabella, one of our Australia based players, has an ASCA Level 1 accreditation. She has prepared for us a program in order to get fit and ready for the competition. Otherwise we are all assiduous at training to be as ready as possible. We will also all join earlier to get to know each other to build a strong team spirit!

Who’s impressed on the training track/trials?

One of the players to watch would be Isabella Rositano as she tried to be part of the inaugural Women’s AFL competition this year. But all the girls would be to watch as they are very proud to be able to represent Europe in the International Cup.

Coach’s thoughts?

I’m very much looking forward to coaching the first ever women’s team to compete in an International Cup. While we’ll be starting a bit behind some of the other teams, coming from many countries, I’m confident we will quickly overcome this with a few good training sessions. We’ll go out to win every game, with our first goal being to make the finals in our first outing. Go Crusaders!

The squad