World Footy News

Chen Shao Liang may ring some memory bells with our readers. He was the Chinese athlete identified at the AFL's Combine in China last year and he subsequently took part in the main Combine in Melbourne.

This week he flew into Australia and on the weekend suited up for the Southern Dragons in the VAFA. The Dragons are a club that is mainly based around Melbourne's Asian immigrant community, in particular having a good number of Vietnamese players.

After trialling with the Carlton Football Club last year, Ciaran Byrne was back at Princes Park again in the past couple of weeks and has been confirmed as the latest Irish import to the AFL. Byrne will be officially taken in the AFL's national draft later this year as an International Rookie.

Following the last two notable failures in John Heslin and Ciaran Kilkenny at Richmond and Hawthorn respectively to make it past preseason, clubs may have become understandably shy of bringing out young homesick Gaelic footballers.

The Bachar Houli Program, which provides mentoring, education and leadership sessions for students in Islamic schools, and the opportunity to play football and compete for the Bachar Houli Cup has received a grant of $156,000 from the Australian Government. The grant allows the program to continue for at least one more year.

The announcement was made last week by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Kate Lundy.

According to the AFL's Jason Mifsud, “the Bachar Houli Program engages 30 Islamic colleges nationally and more than 5000 participants annually. It plays an integral role in fostering greater cultural understanding and promoting social inclusion.”

The program is considered a great success and has been shortlisted for a Beyond Sport Award; which seek to find the best projects from around the world that use sport to address social issues within communities.

Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph has reported that the Sydney Swans have signed Patrick Mitchell, one of the three athletes to come out of the AFL's US combine earlier this year.

The three athletes trialled at the Swans and in front of other AFL clubs in June. Swans' head of recruiting told the Telegraph "The other two were impressive as well, but we felt the thing with Patrick was he was going to give it absolutely 100 per cent."

Beatson's opinion on whether he would make an AFL footballer "Is there a guarantee Patrick is going to make it? No, there's not. But we're going to give him a go and provide him with the resources to give him a realistic chance of making it."

The first day's play at the DCU Sportground in Dublin has been completed, with Ireland, Great Britain and Croatia winning their respective matches.

A wrap-up of Day 1's matches with best players and goal kickers is available on the dublin2013.org tournament website here. The tournament organisers have also posted a highlights video, available for viewing here.

[youtube:lfDrwkRMIiA]

The AFL Europe Championships kick off in Dublin tomorrow, with Europe's six strongest footballing nations battling it out for the cup. Hosts Ireland will again go into the tournament as hot favourites, although with healthy competition from arch rivals Great Britain, Scandinavian powerhouses Denmark and Sweden, and the relative underdogs Croatia and Germany.

The round one pool matches of Ireland vs Sweden and Great Britain vs Denmark will go a long way towards deciding who will meet in the final, with a large advantage to the winners in those matches.

Fans will be able to check up on the full draw, squads and live results via the tournament website dublin2013.org, with scores also to appear here after each round, along with resultant changes in the WFN World Rankings.

Peter Ross from the Irish Warriors has also published a form guide on his blog, which is available here.

This weekend's international match in Edmonton between Canada's Northwind and the US Revolution will be streamed live.

The event will be be broadcast live from 10:00am on Youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/edmausfc with streaming commentary and video of the games.

Broadcast Schedule

10:00 am MDT (GMT-6hrs) 
Canada's Northern Lights versus USA Liberty 
 (Women's Development match)

12:00pm MDT (GMT-6hrs)
Canada's Northwind versus USA Revolution 
(Men's Development match)

2:00pm MDT (GMT-6hrs)
Canada's Northern Lights versus USA Freedom
(Women's Championship match)

4:00pm MDT (GMT-6hrs)
Canada's Northwind versus USA Revolution
(Men's Championship match)