November 25-December 1, 2004

city beat

A Good Fight

Game On: After the Remembrance Cup, national teams from the U.S. and Australia will battle for bragging rights. : Courtesy of American National Rugby League

A rugby match at Franklin Field will honor victims of terrorism.

by Mike Newall

In October of 2002, 11 members of the Coogee Dolphins Australian Rugby squad took a postseason holiday to Bali, an Indonesian resort island about 400 miles off the coast of their homeland.

As part of an amateur team, the players eke out blue-collar livings as tradesmen. Bali, a popular travel spot for many young Aussies—think Cancun for Americans—offered an affordable getaway for the Coogee boys.

On their second night there, six players were drinking in the outdoor beer garden of a popular tourist nightspot called the Sari Club. Clint Thompson, the tough-as-nails team president, was there. So were team manager Adam Howard, team trainer Shane Foley, speedy winger David Mavroudis, team playboy Joshua Iliffe, and 20-year-old Gerard Yeo, the youngest player to make the trip.

Shortly after 11 p.m., a Muslim man with six pipe bombs packed into his sleeveless black jacket walked into Paddy's—a smaller bar across the street—and blew himself up. Seconds later, a van pulled up in front of the Sari Club and exploded.

More than 200 people, including 88 Australian tourists, seven Americans and all six of those Coogee players, were killed. The bombings were carried out by an Indonesian radical Islamic organization linked to al-Qaida.

"We picked [Bali] because we wanted to target Americans and their allies," a key suspect in the bombing would later explain.

In total, 20 people who lived in or around Coogee, a small middle-class suburb on the east coast of Australia, lost their lives.

"The world became a little smaller on September 11," says Coogee team president Albert Talarico. "And even smaller after Bali."

Earlier this year, David Nui, an Australian native who is president of the Philadelphia-based American National Rugby League, began to dream of a memorial U.S.-Aussie game to honor the victims of 9/11 and the Bali bombings.

Tuesday night, Nui's dream will become a reality when the Coogee Dolphins take on the Glen Mills Bulls at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. Billed as the Remembrance Cup, the match will be a "curtain-raiser" for an historic, first-ever face-off between the Australian and American National sides. The 18th-ranked USA Tomahawks will face the world champion, No. 1-ranked Australian Kangaroos in the Liberty Bell Cup match.

"It's a great opportunity to symbolize the relationship between the United States and Australia," says Nui. "And remember our lost friends."

"We both experienced loss and pain," Talarico adds. "This game will honor our mates that are no longer between us and pay respect to the mateship between two countries."

Players from all over Australia offered their services to the Dolphins in the aftermath of the bombings, says Talarico. The team carried on—with the uniform numbers of their lost teammates emblazoned on their logos—and this year won the league championship.

Raising the $120,000 necessary for travel and boarding expenses was no easy hurdle for the Dolphins.

"We're a working-class team," he says. "But this is an incredible honor. To honor our mates, to play in America, to stand alongside our national side, it's just so special. We held fund-raisers. Guys budgeted better, took overtime, drank less on the weekend. Whatever had to be done."

A pregame ceremony will include U.S. and Australian armed forces color guards, as well as a short tribute film to the victims. Family members of the lost Coogee players will be in the stands. Brock Thompson, who lost his brother Clint in Bali, will be suiting up for the Dolphins.

As powerful as the symbolic nature of the game may be, both sides say it will be all-out, no-holds-barred rugby once they take the field.

"If you play this game at half-speed, you're going to get hurt," says Glen Mills coach Bill Hansbury, who last year led his team to a national championship. "Besides, these guys aren't traveling halfway round the world to go easy."

As for the Americans' chances against the visiting Australians?

"It's a David-and-Goliath situation," admits Hansbury. "What's the likelihood? Probably slim-to-none. But there's always a chance."

Talarico declined to pick a winner and focused on the symbolic undertones of the match.

"As a team, we just do our best to make every day a little better than the last," he says. "And this will be a good day."

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