Sri Lanka finished 5th in their first ever Australia Footy League (AFL), Men’s International Cup Division 2 tournament played in the suburbs of Australia.
Australian Rules Football also known as “Footy” is a fast, free-flowing game that is the most popular sport in Australia.
The game looks to be hybrid of rugby and soccer with a few skills from other sports such as basketball, hockey, football, lacrosse and volleyball thrown in for good measure.
This international tournament consisted of Eight teams, playing in two pools of four.
Pool 1 consisted of the likes of China, Croatia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka while Pool 2 comprised of Japan, Germany, Pakistan and India.
The first three rounds, played in the round robin format saw China topping pool 1 with 3 wins out of 3 while Croatia and Indonesia finished second and third respectively as Sri Lanka finished last.
Japan topped pool 2 with an unblemished 3 out of 3 record while Germany and Pakistan followed in second and third place while India finished in final position.
As the top two from each group made the semifinals, Sri Lanka played Pakistan in the play-off semifinal for 5th and 6th position.
Sri Lanka made easy work registering their first win of the tournament, 39-18 and proceeding to the 5th-6th play-off match against Indonesia.
In the play-off game, Sri Lanka were put to the test but prevailed by a single point beating Indonesia in a cliffhanger of a game. The scores read 44-43 in favor of Sri Lanka handing them the 5th place in the tournament.
