On the 17th of March was AFL England Central-North West League’s St Patrick’s Day tournament, hosted by the Manchester Mosquitoes at their home ground in Burnage. Six teams participated in the event, with the hosts facing off against teams from Sheffield, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

WFN managed to catch up with the Huddersfield Rams before the tournament, and Sheffield Thunder's coach afterwards.

 

On the 10th of March on Clapham Common, London, the Sussex Swans and some of the AFL London teams got together with London’s Kanga Footy touch players to compete in the Kanga Footy pre-season competition. Unlike normal football played in AFL London, Kanga Footy is 9-a-side, non-contact and the teams are required to have at least two female players on the field at any time. To further encourage the involvement of women in the game, the rules are modified so a goal kicked by a female full forward is awarded 9 points.

Eight teams took part in the competition: Two Kanga Footy “All Stars” and combined “Allied Forces” teams, the Sussex Swans, and five AFL London teams- Wandsworth Demons, Wimbledon Hawks, North London Lions, Putney Magpies and West London Wildcats. The games were two halves of 8 minutes, played on two ovals on the Common.

Australian Football in Scotland is following the trend towards "metro footy" leagues seen in other countries, i.e. having a main club in a city also break up into smaller sides for a local league, without taking away from the city competing in a wider competition.

The Glasgow sixes league had been running for a year now and is a great way of playing footy in a semi competitive environment. The format is simple, two teams compete in a six a side game on a shortened pitch.  This year will be slightly different in that with increased participation teams have bigger numbers and so where possible if a game can be played 9-a-side or even 12-a-side then that shall be the format. Lessons were learnt from last year and this year the league has been reduced to three teams to help make sure teams had enough numbers to play a game without borrowing players from another team too much.

 

It is clearly a hard road for the Irish rookies to make it in the AFL. In the past 12 months we have seen Jamie O'Reilly and Michael Quinn delisted after promising starts but failure to back up in year two, Setanta o'hAilpin delisted by Carlton, Tommy Walsh frustrated by lack of opportunity leave St Kilda and Richmond rookie John Heslin going home before preseason was even finished.

Of course there have been some positives too, particularly the form of Hanley and McKeever at Brisbane and Zac Tuohy at Carlton, and the return of Marty Clarke to Collingwood - but they will all admit it has been a hard road.

So it is a great disappointment and potentially a big setback over the weekend to Collingwood's Paul Cribbin who was hospitalised after an unprovoked attack at 2am. The club says he was under the influence of alcohol and will have a case to answer for that later on, let's hope this does not set his journey as an AFL hopeful back to any great degree.

The statement released by Collingwood on Sunday can be read below.

The Melbourne Football Club will today unveil an Irish-themed training guernsey, to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.  The players will train in the guernsey for the first time at Gosch’s Paddock, with the guernsey to feature an Irish green and white colour scheme and shamrock.
 
“Ireland forms a unique chapter in both our club’s heritage, but also the history of the game,” said CEO Cameron Schwab.  “Our home playing strip tells the story of our club, and through this jumper we have an opportunity to highlight and celebrate a unique part of our history.”

The annual Anzac match between the French national team and the "Aussie Spirit", a team drawn from Australian expats resident in Europe, is back on this April, with the event now in its fourth year.

The call has been put out for players to join the Aussie Spirit - the team will assemble on Friday 20th of April for a training session followed by an informal battlefield tour of the Somme region.

A pre-match dinner will be held with both teams together on the Friday night and the match will be played on Saturday 21st of April. Celebrations will continue through Sunday. For the rest of the week until the dawn service on Anzac Day, Wednesday 25th of April, the city will organise a few events.

More detailed information regarding the Anzac Cup weekend will be available in the coming weeks, but to signal your interest in being part of the Aussie Spirit, contact the organisers via alban.schieber AT gmail.com

Finally Alexander Clark, who has been up for the vote since Jacko's Challenge began, has got his shot at the champ.

With a new member to the commentary team and some new technology to assure viewers of correct decisions, Jacko's Challenge is continuing to grow.

Watch it here.

The next Jacko's Challenge will be back in a few weeks with other programs coming from Sharks T.V.

In its continuous effort to promote footy in France the CNFA is releasing a DVD explaining the basic skills of aussie rules. The DVD features Cyril Talon and Pall Finnsson demonstrating how to ruck or kick the footy.

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It was reported last Friday in Fairfax press that Tadhg Kennelly’s new AFL ambassadorial role had upset the Irish GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), following the hosting of an Australian (rules) Football recruiting ‘camp’ (combine) in Dublin.

The article suggested that the GAA had been uneasy about it and that the GAA bosses repudiated a claim that they had been informed. Stating that it had been reported in Ireland that the GAA bosses “denied receiving any formal notification of Kennelly's new role or the AFL's strategy on the recruitment of amateur Gaelic footballers”. Even if this is the case, the question really is how big a deal is it?

The AFL Europe has announced its under 23 Legion and open-age Titans squads to take on the AIS/AFL Academy touring squad this Easter,

The Legion are a predominantly under 20 team, with provision for 8 of the 24-man squad to be Under 23. Twelve of the twenty-four members also took the field in 2011's AFL/AIS tour match.

Ben McCormack from the AFL Europe says "We are very excited to have players from Italy, Germany and Finland for the first time. Young Italian Filippo Alloisio was voted as player of the 2011 Euro Cup and now gets his chance to impress on the big stage. The selection of 7 Danish players is a testament to their focus on junior development and the blooding of young talent at IC11."

Peter Schwab, Tadhg Kennelly and Glenn Lovett are involved in coaching the team, along with Swedish National coach Dan McClaer.

The open-age Titans team includes many players with extensive International experience at ICs, Euro Cups and the European Championships. European stalwart Ciaran O'Hara (Ireland) will coach the team, with Troy Pedder (Germany), Armando Colombo (Italy) and Cyril Talon (France) all confirmed as Assistant Coaches.

Full squads and schedule below.