World Footy News

AFL trade week is underway with the 18 AFL clubs playing a complicated game of bluff and dare with players and draft picks ahead of season 2012.

Already one deal has been done that sees Ireland's Marty Clarke return to Collingwood after a two year absence.  Because he was no longer listed by the Magpies the "rights" to Clarke belonged to new club GWS Giants, but they agreed to send him on to Collingwood in a multi-part deal.

Less certain but also possibly on the move is long time Carlton player Setanta O'Ailpin.  The tall Irishman (also of Fijian descent) has been in and out of the Blues' team for most of his career and has asked to be traded if the club can find an interested team.  If not it seems likely he will still be kept given that Carlton so often call on him in ruck or up forward when they get some injuries.  At times it has appeared that his team-mates have not shared the ball with "Carlos" as well as expected, perhaps lacking faith in his erratic disposal.  It would certainly be interesting to see him given a fresh chance at another AFL club.

The Denver Lady Bulldogs have defeated a joint New York Lady Magpies-Montreal Angels team by 3.7(25) to 0.1(1) to become the 2011 USAFL National Tournament Women’s Division Champions. The Lady Bulldogs are now back to back USAFL Women’s Champions, having also won the Women’s National Tournament the previous year in Louisville, Kentucky.

Earlier on Day 2, the Denver Lady Bulldogs overcame the Minnesota Freeze by 7.3(45) to 1.2(8) in Semi Final 1, and the New York-Montreal team overcame the Arizona Lady Hawks by 2.7(19) to 1.0(6) in Semi Final 2.

Congratulations are also due to the Denver Bulldogs men’s team who are the USAFL Men’s Champions, defeating Calgary Kangaroos by 3.2(20) to 0.5(5) in the Men’s Division 1 Grand Final.

Division 1 Champions Denver Bulldogs - Calgary Kangaroos 0.5 (5) def by Denver Bulldogs 3.2 (20)

Division 2 Champions Dallas Magpies - Austin Crows 1.3 (9) def by Dallas Magpies 8.6 (54)

Division 3 Champions - Arizona Hawks - Arizona Hawks 5.2 (32) def Atlanta Kookaburras 3.1 (19)

The Women’s Division results for Day 1 and the draw for the semi finals has now been announced by the USAFL.

Calgary are the standout Division 1 team in the USAFL after Day 1 in Pool A. They seem likely to defeat Orange County on form tomorrow morning and would then play the top team from Pool B, Orange County of course will be looking to try to put paid to those plans.  Pool B is a battle between Seattle and Denver who were both undefeated on Day 1 and will play each other tomorrow morning with the winner to go to the final.  Denver will go in favourites but Seattle will always be a chance if they can defend well in the short format.

Division 2 is dominated by the Texan teams in Austin and Dallas undefeated in their pools and in Division 3 Atlanta leads it's pool undefeated while Arizona and Florida are undefeated in the other pool.  You can follow tomorrow's matches as USFootyNews

All mens division results follow:

Division 1

POOL A
Saturday
Golden Gate 4.0 v Orange County 7.5
New York 2.5 v Calgary 4.4
New York 5.7 v Orange County 2.2
Golden Gate 2.2 v Calgary 5.4

POOL B
Saturday
Denver 5.4 v San Diego 3.1
Seattle 4.2 v Baltimore DC 0.5
Denver 9.3 v Baltimore DC 0.1
Seattle 3.9 v San Diego 2.1

Can't make it to Belfast to see the 2011 Euro Cup in person? No worries - you can catch up on the games live via UStream.

Visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/afl-europe this weekend during match time to see Europe's biggest footy tournament and the biggest 9-a-side footy tournament in the world.

With the 2011 Euro Cup kicking off in Belfast this weekend, we present our third batch of team previews - this time profiling the Scottish, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic sides.

The final draw includes 18 sides, with the teams from Poland, Portugal and Norway pulling out, but the Denmark Vikings having been added to the original list we received.

The full schedule can be found at the AFL Europe website.

Ed: We didn't receive word back from the Russian, Catalan or Spanish camps in time for inclusion in our Euro Cup previews, but we hope to have an update on their domestic progress in the near future.

The Arizona Cardinals have re-signed Ben Graham after cutting him at the NFL season's start. The former Geelong captain has been recalled due to injury to his replacement, Dave Zastudil. Zastudil remains on the roster though so Graham's return could be short lived.

Other former Aussie rules players in the NFL are Matt McBriar who continues his long career with the Dallas Cowboys (and hit a 68 yard punt this week) and Sav Rocca who has moved to the Washington Redskins for this season and may be having his best season so far.

Former Brisbane and Port Adelaide player Scott Harding has also recently debuted in college gridiron football for University of Hawaii as a wide receiver.

Ireland has named a preliminary 31 man squad for the upcoming Cormac McAnallen trophy squad.  The squad includes current AFL listed players Tommy Walsh, Michael Quinn, Chrissy McKaigue, Zach Touhy, Tadhg Kennelly and Pearse Hanley and former listed players Colm Begley and Brendan Murphy.  Martin Clake who has been linked to an AFL comeback with both Collingwood and Carlton was not available for selection.  A final 23 man squad will be named on October 23rd.

The Australian squad is expected to named after a meeting today to discuss who is avaialble from Saturday's Grand Final teams.  The Australian team will be coached by Rodney Eade who has just joined the Collingwood coaching staff and the team will train in Torquay near Geelong prior to the first match in Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

WFN has updated its unofficial World Rankings after the recent 2011 AFL International Cup. With so many matches played (54) there was quite a bit of movement on the ladder, and 4 teams moved into full ranking status for the first time (Tonga, India, China and the Peace Team).

Ireland's unbeaten tournament was enough to push them up into 2nd, making them effectively the number 1 contender to Australia. Papua New Guinea, so often runner-up in the IC, slip down one spot to 3rd.

Tonga impressively debut in the top 10.

There are now 19 fully ranked sides and 6 provisionally ranked nations (yet to play 8 eligible games).

Read on for the full list.

The last week of September in Melbourne in particular saw most footy attention aimed squarely at the knee of Stevie J and the groin, or rather abductor, of Darren Jolly. In fairness, the partnering of the AFL and Federal Govt in launching a PNG AFL taskforce to expand Australian football in the region isn’t really core news for the regular AFL media.

During the week, with the gradual building up of expectation for the fortunes of Geelong and Collingwood at the ‘G on the first Saturday in October, it’s little wonder then that the simultaneous announcements of the AFL and MP the Hon Richard Marles failed to raise much of a profile.

The Volunteers, the Specialists, the Honchos, WFN and other Media…

The International Cup is a major logistical as well as football exercise. It featured several hundred players and officials playing at three main sites, Blacktown International Sportspark, at Royal Park and the MCG as well as one day of matches spread around Sydney. Local volunteers are crucial for a tournament with over 500 players and two weeks of matches. While the AFL provided organisational support – and, crucially, insurance for the international teams – the key people are the volunteers. It is a given that the players arrive with the support of coaches, managers and in some cases trainers, the international volunteers, but the local volunteers are equally important.