Denmark's berserk warriors

THE DENMARK Vikings have this year returned to the International Cup for the second time. They were first involved in the inaugural International Cup in 2002 where they finished in an impressive fourth place out of the 10 nations competing. 

After not competing in 2005, this year's outfit has fallen short of their lofty expectations, losing all three of their pool matches. 

We caught a couple of the side’s players, forward Michael Jensen and backman Kristian Stetter, who discussed how they got into footy, the International Cup and how they are finding their stay in Australia. 

Player: Michael Jensen
Position: Half-forward
Age: 27
Height: 192 cms
Weight: 97 kgs
Club: Farum Cats (Danish Australian Football League)

Q: How long have you been playing Australian Football?
A: About seven years.

Q: How did you get into the game?
A: One of the players in my local area in Farum asked me to play. They needed players my size and asked if I wanted to come and have a try. I went to a winter indoor training session and then was invited to a Christmas lunch and then just kept coming to training.

Q: Do you support any particular AFL club?
A: I support Geelong. We are sponsored by Geelong back at home where we are also the Cats (Farum Cats), though it’s hard to follow the league as we are in Denmark.

Q: How are you finding the International Cup?
A: The first game against the US was pretty tough physically. The game against South Africa was less physical but involved lots of running. We had to run hard against them.

Q: How are you finding Australia and have you done any sightseeing?
A: I’m really enjoying my stay here. We went yo Torquay yesterday and most of the players will be in Melbourne until September 10th. I will stay an extra 10 days and spend lots of time sightseeing.

Player: Kristian Stetter
Position: Half-back
Age: 31
Height: 178 cms
Weight: 83 kgs
Club: Jylland Shinboners (DAFL)

Q: How long have you been playing Australian Football?
A: I’ve been playing for eight years.

Q: How did you get into the game?
A: A mate of mine had asked me for some time to play and eventually he talked me into it and it was fun from the start.

Q: So you play for the Jylland Shinboners?
A: First I played for the Aalborg Kangaroos, then we had to create a regional team and our region is Jylland. Since our town’s team was called the Kangaroos, we had to create a name that was related to the Kangaroos since our colours were the same as North Melbourne, so we named ourselves the Shinboners.

Q: How did you get into the national side?
A: I’ve been playing for eight years so I’m one of the veterans. I just kept playing good in the league (DAFL), coming to training and being a regular got me picked in the national side. Then it’s just maintaining your skills to continue being part of the team.

Q: Do you support any particular AFL club?
A: Well I follow the league a bit and watch a couple of games where I get the chance but I don’t follow a particular team. I always watch the 1989 Grand Final so I cheer a bit for the Hawks largely because Michael Tuck was so awesome in that game.

Q: How are you finding your stay in Australia and the International Cup?
A: It’s great! It’s awesome being in a place where there are so many footy fields around. It’s awesome turning on the telly and there’s footy on the telly, there’s ‘The Footy Show’, all the news, teletext and such. The tournament’s really great. I do feel we have been a bit let down by the umpires (laughs) ...other than that all the rest is great.

Q: Have you been up to any sightseeing?
A: Not really, we’ve just been relaxing. We got here a day late due to a typhoon in Hong Kong, so our schedule has been a bit compressed for the first couple of days. I’m here for another two more months, so I will get up to plenty of sightseeing.