Dan Lehane is a 17 year old New York native who is in his fourth season with the New York Magpies. Dan has been selected in the World 18 team that will compete in the 2011 NAB AFL National Championships in Sydney, Australia during the week starting July 11.
As part of his preparation Dan embarked on a 6 week training program to ensure he is in top match condition for the tournament. He also travelled to Australia a few weeks early to play some local games and get acclimatized.
Dan’s itinerary is a follows:
- Friday 17-Jun-11: Arrival in Melbourne
- Saturday 25-Jun-11: Play with Uni Blacks U 19’s
- Saturday 02-July-11: Play with Uni Blacks U 19’s
- Monday 04-July-11: 11am – Arrive at Melbourne Uni for 5 day high performance camp
- Friday 08-July-11: Travel with team to Sydney
- Sunday, July 10, 2011: Blacktown Olympic Park – World XVIII vs. Northern Territory
- Wednesday, July 13, 2011: Bruce Purser, Rouse Hill – Queensland vs. World XVIII
- Saturday, July 16, 2011: Blacktown Olympic Park – South Pacific vs. World XVIII
- Sunday 17-July-11: Head home to NYC
Dan has been writing a blog and will be updating it weekly so we can keep up with the young Magpie star during his adventure down under. Good Luck Dan!
Last Wednesday saw the Lady Pies with special guest Brett Kirk hosted Aussie Fare For Freedom. The wine tasting and dinner at The Australian helped raise money for the Lady Pies representatives from the USA Freedom team competing in the International Cup in August.
The delicious five course meal included delicacies such as crumbed shrimp, kangaroo skewers and mushroom ravioli paired with six great Australian wines. A highlight of the night was Brett Kirk entertaining the crowd with stories of his playing days, details of his current travels and participating in a Q&A session. The evening ended with New York Magpies representatives Glenn Ormsby and Myles Walkington presenting Brett with an official New York Magpies guernsey (including his #31 playing number).
Brett (and his energetic son Indhi) also attended round 2 of the NYCAFL held under Friday night lights. Brett joined Arne Pulle umpiring the 2 match NYCAFL matches with both games being great contests. Brett and Indhi also took part in the Rec Footy game with the Lady Pies giving their team a strong defence and excellent delivery into the forward line.
Brett has visited football clubs across 18 different countries, promoting the game and the camaraderie associated with Aussie Rules. To read about his adventure go to www.brettkirk.com.au or follow him on twitter @brettkirk.
The Lady Pies still need assistance to get to Australia. Help them by donating here.
As part of his duties of being an AFL Ambassador, Brett Kirk is travelling across the world promoting the AFL International Cup (to read about his adventure go to www.brettkirk.com.au or follow him on twitter @brettkirk). Part of that trip landed him in New York for a week and the NY Magpies were more than happy to learn all they could from the Premiership Captain, All Australian and all round good guy.
Brett took the New York Magpies training and although the conditions were a little wild he took charge showing the Magpies a range of drills and skills. The players and coaching staff soaked up what Brett had to say and he imparted a tremendous amount of knowledge on everyone.
The New York Magpies would like to thank Brett and his family for their time whilst in New York and wish them all the best for their rest of their trip. The Magpies will be keeping up to date on Brett’s journey through his blog.
New York travelled to Philadelphia looking to extend their unbeaten run. However, the Magpies were slow to start and a committed Philadelphia team took advantage kicking out to an early 3 goal lead. New York seemed to be lethargic, was second to the ball and with Philly kicking with the aid of a slight breeze they took a 2 goal lead into quarter time.
The second quarter was much of the same with Philly winning plenty of contested ball and taking the most of their opportunities. NY was still being outplayed but some individual solo efforts managed to snag a few goals and only go into the major break down by 2 goals.
After a few positional adjustments at the major break, the Magpies worked their way back into the game and started to win their own ball. However, they continued to struggle to penetrate the Philadelphia backline and went into the last quarter down by a goal.
The last quarter was desperate football from both sides and NY controlled plenty of the ball in the middle however Philly managed to continually repel Magpies attacks. The Magpies drew level, but Philly kicked the last goal of the game to take out their first win against NY.
NY Magpies assistant coach Jeremy Spiteri lamented the Pies ordinary first half saying “We were terrible in the first half, playing undisciplined football and not sticking to team structures. When we were able to get back into the game Philly were up and about and we just couldn’t over run them in the end. Full credit goes to them as they were the better team on the day. We have Philly again in 3 weeks so we’ll go away and make some adjustments”
New York Magpies 8.7.55 def by Philadelphia Hawks 10.1.61
Goals: Walkington 2, Brennan 2, Hine, Spataro, Lin, Guarino
Best: Kyle, Davis, Norman, Walkington, Walker
