GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 20 – February 22, 2015 | Page 14

“Representing their country is the highest accolade for players in
Australasia so you can imagine how the team and management
can’t wait to get on the planes (they are travelling on 4 different
flights from points in Australia and Wellington) and onto the
pitches in Abu Dhabi.
“Excitement plenty down here, none more so than with the captain Kate Fenton, who after being selected 8 times as an All Star,
finally gets to fulfil her dream of playing in an International
Tournament overseas.”

EUROPE has two clubs/regions representing Europe GAA
comprising of 4 teams in total.
Australian Kate Fenton is Team Captain. (Photo: Courtesy of
Gerard Roe)

and Kieran Olwell who has coached New South Wales to the
last three Australasian Champions titles.
Australasian Ladies teams have performed well at previous
global tournaments, mentioned earlier, going unbeaten and
winning all three that they were involved in. However, this
time the competition is that bit stiffer and more representative
of a truly World Games so the stakes
will be higher.

In the Tier 1 World Cup competition, Belgium has the honour
of sending a ladies and men’s team. Belgium Ladies, the power
houses of ladies football in Europe over the past 7 years (winning the last seven championships) go as European Champions, while the Euro male representatives are Belgium men. The
Belgium men’s side are the 2012 European 11 a-side champions
and are one of the strongest outfits in senior football in Europe.
Europe GAA with 75 clubs is one of the fastest growing GAA
international regions with 15-20% new club growth each year.

“We would like to see it [further success]
but in reality it is going to be very difficult as there will be many exceptional
teams they will come up against,” said
Roe.
“[The] 9-a-side is not a format that is
played in Australasia very much so that
will make it a difficult competition to
win for us. Still with two experienced
Coaches and a skilful group of ladies,
we have our fingers crossed.

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European Champions Belgium Ladies in 2014. (Photo: Belgium)