Apologies for this flippant post, but "lost in translation" doesn't quite do this one justice. The Japan AFL website has a story on it leading up to the 2007 AFL Grand Final. Not being a reader of Japanese I clicked on the English translation link at the top right, which uses the Excite engine. The headline was now so much more clear to me - "AFL grand final. Let's rise with the orgy". We can only conclude one of two things - the translator isn't quite on top of the modern English vernacular, or Japan is getting into footy with even more passion than most Australians!

Following from their match against Melbourne-Vietnam the previous weekend, the All-Japan Samurai continued their 2007 Australian tour this weekend with a match against top Melbourne amateur side St Bernard's Old Collegians. The Samurai stayed close to the Bernards all day, thrilling the local crowd with their intensity before going down 14.8.92 to 11.10.76.

Melbourne-Vietnam tonight defeated Japan in what is becoming an annual match between the two sides. Around 50 people braved very cold conditions in Melbourne to see the home side run out 13-7-85 to 6-9-45 victors, at Elgar Park in Box Hill.

The Vietnamese squad, comprised mostly of Elgar Park Dragons players performed strongly, but were frequently tested by a Samurais outfit keen to avenge last year’s 103 point drubbing. Recognition should be given to the Japanese players, their coaching and support staff and Troy Beard on the side’s continually improving performances.

A full report on the Samurais tour will follow in the next few weeks.

About five months ago Mick Hassett and Marty Staples got together for a kick of the footy in Vientiane, capital of Laos. Since then, the "Lao Elephants" have grown to around 10-15 regular participants at weekly training sessions, with players from Laos, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Norway and the UK.

Armed with plans for a pink jumper featuring a grey elephant logo (an idea which some say may rival Sweden's Landskrona Bulldozers strip for original design), the Elephants are planning their debut international match against neighbours the Vietnam Swans later this year. The Swans played host to a few of the Elephants earlier this year, with seven Laos players joining the Vietnam team for last month's Asian Championships.

The Malaysian Warriors will kick off an Auskick program for kids aged 5-12 in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, with a clinic organised for every Saturday from now until the end of October. The clinics will be held at different locations, including the Australian International School Malaysia (AISM), Warriors' home ground Alice Smith School Equine Park and Warriors' training ground Kelab Alam.

The clinics on August 25th and September 8th will be held before Malaysian Warriors matches, giving kids an opportunity to see some real-life senior footy action. The program, which is receiving materials through the AFL's Auskick department, has 20 kids registered as interested so far, with the cost for the program at 50 Ringgit for the season.

The full planned program follows, any queries to Greg Catterall at wogory@hotmail.com - or via the Malaysian Warriors website.

Footy in China has received plenty of attention in recent times, with Tom Mattessi and Andrew Sawitsch both working hard to kick-start local participation. Along the way they've had the assistance of a sister-city arrangement between Melbourne and Tianjin, as well as active Australian expat-based footy clubs in Shanghai and Beijing.

Currently footy is established in two main regions of China (three including Hong Kong). In the north, the Beijing Bombers are a mainly Australian footy club in the national capital, with some fairly new mainly Chinese university teams about two hours away in Tianjin. On the coast further south the Shanghai Tigers are also about two hours' away from the city of Suzhou, where a burgeoning juniors program is taking root in local schools.

The people working on the ground in China believe the potential to be massive, although there's talk the next step could require a funding injection from the Australian end to really create a solid, self-sustaining footy scene. Certainly many consider a Chinese team at the 2008 IC to be a strong possibility - and possibly a huge surprise packet on the field. Could China become the "new South Africa" with regards to development funding?

Held on the 14th of July in front of hundreds of spectators at Bangkok Patana School, the 8th Annual Asian Championships of Australian Football have been hailed a great success by all involved and once again raised the bar on the standard of footy played in Asia. The following report is courtesy of the Thailand Tigers' Asian Cup coordinator Steven Richards.

The Hong Kong Dragons defeated the Bali Geckos 43-34 in a tight Asian Champs final yesterday, pulling ahead in extra time after scores were level at full time. Full results and report soon, in the meantime there is an interesting report of the final available from Thailand's English-language newspaper the Bangkok Post.

Update: The link is now invalid. Here's a few snippets from Alan Parkhouse's article:

The Hong Kong Dragons hung on to win their first Asian Australian Football Championships in a thrilling grand final at the Patana School grounds in Bangkok yesterday. The Dragons won a nail-biting grand final which went into extra time against the Bali Geckos in a match that had the noisy crowd of more than 1,000 on the edge of their seats.

It was a fitting finale to the biggest Australian Rules football tournament ever held outside Australia, which saw 10 teams from Asia and the Middle East in action on the plush grounds of the Patana School grounds in suburban Bangkok, trying to kick goals and behinds through the bamboo goalposts.

As the full time siren approached Bali kicked a behind to level the score and take the match into extra time. Two five minute halves of extra time were then played.

After the extra 10 minutes, with the crowd cheering loudly for the popular Bali side, the Hong Kong boys scored a scrappy goal with two minutes to go, followed by another behind on the siren to take a well-deserved 43-34 victory.

The draw for the Asian championships has been announced, with 20 pool matches scheduled between 10 sides on two grounds in one day. The tournament will also feature Australian rock legends "the Fauves" and has received coverage on Australian national radio station Triple J as part of "This Sporting Life", the program of legendary sports reporters Roy and HG. The AFL's Footy Record will also feature the Champs this weekend, which might help a few of the footy fans out there still unaware of international footy's existence to come on board.

The draw can be viewed in PDF form here.