National Team
The Swedish National team is nicknamed the Elks, drawn from teams across Sweden.
The team wears the national colours of Sweden (represented on the Flag of Sweden). The Elks have worn two different jumpers in international competition, their first being a yellow jumper with a blue V featuring three gold crowns and the Swedish name for Sweden (Sverige) on the belly, and their second being a blue jumper with a yellow Scandinavian cross and Elk logo.
The first appearance of a Swedish national team was in 1997, when the Elks were defeated by Denmark's Vikings in Helsingborg. The next Elks match was in 2004, when the Elks defeated the touring North London Lions by 11 points at Malmö. In 2005, the first test match between Sweden and Denmark is some time was held at Farum, Denmark, with the game played out as a draw. This match consisted of an all-Danish Vikings side, although the Sweden side contained a number of Australians.
At the 2007 EU Cup in Hamburg, Sweden performed very well, eventually winning the tournament. The Elks thrashed Austria by over 100 points in their first group match, then beat France by 41 points to top Pool C. In the Quarter-Finals, Sweden defeated Pool B runners up the Czech Republic by 31 points. In the Semi Finals, they met Pool B champions England. The Swedes ran out 26 point winners, moving onto the final where they would play hosts Germany. In the Final, Sweden won 14.9.93 to Germany 8.5.53. Sweden's Cameron Crooks was Best on Ground.
Strong growth in the Swedish league has the Elks sent a squad to the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.
Read more about this topic: Australian Rules Football In Sweden
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or team:
“Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores; let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God’s right to come.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)