At half-time of Saturday night’s match at The Dome, teams participating in the AFL International Cup paraded around the ground. All the countries competing were introduced to the crowd during the half time break: Canada, Denmark, Finland, UK, USA, China, India, Japan, Nauru, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Africa and Tonga. The AFL International Cup is being staged in Melbourne and regional Victoria over a two-week period finishing this weekend, on the 7th September. 

One of the competitors is the AFL Peace Team, which is an initiative of the Australian Chapter of The Peres Centre for Peace.  The Peres Centre was established in 1996 by President of Israel Shimon Peres as a non-political, non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation, with the aim of bringing Israelis and Palestinians together through joint peace-building projects across a range of sectors – including sport.

Comprising of 13 Israeli and 13 Palestinian sportsmen, the AFL Peace Team is a ground-breaking initiative, and for the first-time ever, Aussie Rules Football will provide common ground on which the players can build mutual understanding and respect.  The Peace Team has been organised by the Peres Centre (Israeli NGO), in partnership with the Al-Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue (Palestinian NGO), the Centre's partner for all sports programmes.

Last week the Peace Team were at Visy Park for a short training session under the watchful eye of ‘Dipper’, former Hawthorn great Robert Dipierdomenico. Prior to the training session the players and officials of the Peace Team met with Chris Judd, Nick Stevens and Brendan Fevola and learnt more about the game and in particular the Carlton Football Club. Carlton is the ‘host’ club of the Peace Team during the International Cup.

Following the training session the team was hosted by Richard and Jeanne Pratt at a special reception at ‘Raheen’. The Pratt Foundation is one of the key sponsors of the Peace Team and this reception was a who’s who of AFL. Adding to the Carlton flavour with the Peace Team is the support of Carlton’s joint major sponsor, Hyundai, as a sponsor of the team.

“Hyundai is an active supporter of AFL through its sponsorship of the Carlton Football Club and we are delighted to extend this involvement through such a worthy cause,” said Ian Juster, Hyundai’s Southern Region General Manager.  “The AFL Peace team is a great initiative and we have been able to support the team as the official provider of their vehicles.”