We recently reported that Ireland's Michael Finn had achieved a remarkable series of successes in 2011, winning the International Cup with his country, again making the World Team named from the tournament, and taking home the Frank Rosbrook Medal for the best & fairest player in Division 1 in Victoria's Northern Football League, playing for Heidelberg.

Just to add another accolade to round out the year Finn has comfortably won Heidelberg's best and fairest, polling 121 votes with the runner up Josh Houlihan getting 72 votes.

Every bit as important amongst the personal awards was winning the his club's MVP as voted by his teammates, an award that aims to recognise the club's most valuable player in the eyes of the playing group.

worldfootynews.com spoke with Finn and started by asking about the difficulties of juggling club and country commitments.
 

The AFL had a number of its deadlines today, Tuesday November 29, in regard to the rules relating to club lists.  The deadline for all categories was 2pm today.

Unfortunately there are no surprises this year with international recruits from out of the blue.  From an  international perspective we take particular interest in the following two list deadline categories.

Unlike most AFL drafts where all the talk is about who will get the best young talent and who will go at number 1, this year with GWS Giants holding all the aces much of the focus was on whether ex-Carlton Irish-Fijian-Australian Setanta O'hAilpin would find a new home.  Reportedly a cheer went around the room when GWS took Setanta at pick 79.

The media was quick to interview the passionate player, who at 199cm and 98kg is expected to help "protect" the young players in the Giants' first AFL season.  It also seems that some are just discovering that this particular Irishman was actually born in Bankstown, near the Giants' heartland.

For some of the many articles about his move to GWS, see GWS draftee Setanta O'hAilpin confesses West Sydney origins (not sure why it's a "confession"), O'hAilpin over the Blues and ready to be a Giant among boys and Giants pick 'big leprechaun' Setanta O'hAilpin.

Currently on 80 AFL games, hopefully the move to New South Wales will give Setanta the opportunity to become what we think would be the 4th "Irish experiment" player to play 100 VFL/AFL games, after Jim Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly and Sean Wight, noting of course the late Sean Wight's Scottish heritage and O'hAilpin's Australian birth.  Of course other Irishmen have played senior footy across Australia, but would not be considered part of the "Irish experiment" in which VFL/AFL clubs actively recruited them from Gaelic football or hurling in Ireland.

The 2011 AFL draft will take place this morning in Sydney.  With the GWS Giants having the ability to take what it considers the best talent in the draft early on, it is expected to be their later picks that Irishman Setanta o'hAilpin will be sweating on.

GWS coach Kevin Sheedy has admitted in the press over the past few weeks his own interest in giving him another chance, and if they can fit him in the salary cap are expected to draft o'hAilpin are likely to add him to their list.

Sheedy hopes to tap into the Irish community in Sydney but Setanta's Fijian heritage may be more relevant in the Western Sydney suburbs.

The audio below is an interview that Setanta did with SEN Radio in Melbourne last week.

This Sunday, the Manchester Mozzies Aussie Rules Club will host the Nathan Blakey Movember Cup. Named in honour of a former high flying Mozzie who tragically passed away last week, the Movember Cup will see teams from Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Leeds compete in a 4 team lightning cup tournament.

In conjunction with the Movember Foundation, members of all 4 teams have spent the last 3 weeks grooming and styling some killer Moustaches as part of the worldwide Movember movement, in which men give up their upper lip during the month of November to help raise much needed funds and awareness for men's health, particularly men's cancer.

The Wolverhampton Wolverines recently completed their debut AFL Britain Central & North West season, and although they had a tough year and didn't manage a win in the home and away season, they were successful in growing their very young playing list to more than 30 members, only one of whom is an Australian.

Towards the end of the season the Wolverines also became involved with a charity that had been set up locally; Balls To Cancer. The charity was established by Mark Bates, who has since worked tirelessly for the cause of raising funds and awareness to the dangers of male cancers, predominantly testicular and prostate cancer.

Around ten members of the squad completed a 5km fun run for the charity and a further four players had some shots taken for a calendar that the charity will be bringing out in time for 2012. It is hoped that 2012's West Midlands Charity Cup will be bigger and better than last year and that all proceeds will benefit Balls To Cancer.

A new footy club has been born in the town of Cergy-Pontoise in France. Located in the French department of Val d'Oise, about thirty miles north west of Paris, Les Coyotes de Cergy-Pontoise are awaiting you for training every Sunday at 10 am in Parc des Larris de Cergy.

Composed of a small group (for now), they hope the team will evolve, compete and reinforce the next season of the French league, which for its 2011-12 season will include 7 clubs: Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Perpignan, Toulouse, Aix-Marseille and Montpellier.

For more information, visit the official facebook page here.

After an absence of a few years, there are signs that Australian rules football will again be played on an organised basis in Belgium. Long-time followers of footy in Europe will remember the Brussels Saints, who put some strong sides on the field around 2005-06 and had some success in tournament play (see Brussels Saints March into 2005 for some history). However, the Saints went into recess after only a few seasons, and since that time there hasn't been an active club in the country.

Local Bjorn de Bruyn and Aussie expat Brendan Stead are currently holding training sessions and hoping to create a club in the city of Antwerp, while another new group are kicking the footy in the capital city Brussels.

The Leeds Minotaurs are England's newest footy club, having been formed by expat Australian student Rhys Long after an ad posted in Leeds' Walkabout Bar on AFL Grand Final day brought a barrage of interest from potential fans and players.

Since then, the Minotaurs but in a valiant effort in their debut match against neighbours Huddersfield Rams, and are planning to take part in a tournament with Manchester, Sheffield and Wolverhampton at the end of this month.

The Scottish Australian Rules Football League has won the rights to host the 2012 EuroCup in Glasgow for the first time, narrowly winning the vote over a bid from Randers, Denmark.

The Scots have a record of hosting international tournaments, such as the long-running Haggis Cup, though this will be the biggest event on Scottish soil to date.

A statement from the AFL Europe read "Both Denmark and Scotland are to be commended for the quality of bids put forward, and we hope that it is a sign of the event going from strength to strength."

More information will appear on the AFL Europe website in the near future.