Ted Richards from the Sydney Swans was languishing in the Swans' reserves last year, and had lost so much confidence in his future as a professional AFL player, that he was considering leaving the AFL entirely and joining his brother Jake, who is studying for his MBA in Stockholm and plays with Stockholm regional league club the Solna Axeman.

He has since found some form and signed on with the Swans until 2013, so the Sweden project will have to wait, but Richards and Swedish footy got a bit of a write-up on the AFL website here.

The Leverkusen Wombats are hoping to launch Germany's 7th club in the coming months, with the goal of entering the AFLG as soon as next year.

Tim Böger discovered the sport whilst spending 18 months traveling and working in Australia, and decided to try and start a club upon his return to Germany. So far he's recruited around eighteen players to the squad, but is on the look out for some experienced Aussies. "Unfortunately we have no Australians in our Team, but they are more than welcome to join us. We have German and Polish players so far."

"We chose the Wombat because of one major reason. Everyone expects it to be a cute and harmless animal. But no one realises that if it is in danger, he can be really strong and can fight."

Leverkusen is located in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, only 10km away from the city of Cologne where AFLG power club Rheinland Lions are based.

Anyone hoping to contact the Wombats can do so via their Facebook page.

The Huddersfield Rams will take on the Nottingham Scorpions this weekend in the AFL Britain Central & North West Grand Final. The Rams last weekend defeated the Sheffield Thunder, earning the right to take on minor premiers Nottingham this Saturday July 30th at Manton Colliery in Worksop.

It was a hot summer’s day at Lockwood Park, Huddersfield last Saturday, and as expected the game got under way at high intensity from the travelling Thunder, who sat in 2nd place on the ladder, one position above the Rams. The home crowd saw their Rams go 2 goals down in the first few minutes, with some great work from Thunder captain Garth Nevin and half forward Luke Childs.

The Rams were caught on the back foot and a bit slow out of the blocks compared to the visitors, conceding again to go 3 goals down in 7 minutes. With some harsh words from the back men and the touchline the Rams eventually got going, although not to the level they had reached in previous games.

This report courtesy of Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams.

AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou has congratulated Cadel Evans on creating sporting history by becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France. “On behalf of the AFL, I want to pass on my congratulations to Cadel on a magnificent achievement which ranks right up there with some of Australia’s finest sporting moments,” Mr Demetriou said.

Mr Demetriou has spoken to Victoria Premier Ted Baillieu and the AFL will invite Cadel Evans to participate in the celebrations for the 2011 Toyota AFL Grand Final so all football fans can acknowledge his achievement.

“I know Cadel is a keen Geelong supporter and has strong relationship with the club and we’d love to honour him in the appropriate way during the AFL’s biggest week of the year,” Mr Demetriou said.

Of course an Australian winning the epic European cycling race may have been seen in the past as impossible or unlikely. Just as many would today see Europeans learning Aussie rules in Europe ever becoming champions of our game here. Never say never.

Saturday July 16th, 2011 saw the 2nd ever AFL Italia Grand Final played at the Capitolina Rugby Stadium in Rome, with the Genova Dockers overcoming the home-town Roma Blues to lift the cup.

The Roma Football Club were clear favourites going into the match, after having finished 1st on the ladder, with the Genova Dockers finishing 2nd. Notably both sides were made up entirely of local Italian talent, with not a single Australian taking the pitch.

Both teams had shown during the season that they played the best footy among the AFLI clubs, combining strength and agility with notable improvement in skills and technical ability and the introduction of tactical solutions and schemes by the coaches that allowed the respective teams great flowing passages of play.

The GWS Giants have arrived in Prague with master coach Kevin “Sheeds” Sheedy and CEO Dale Holmes landing on Sunday 17th July for 3 days. Kevin is making this special trip thanks to GWS Giants co major partner Skoda whose head office is based in Prague.

“It’s important to the future of this partnership that we can meet with the heads of Skoda and show them the passion and vision we have for the game and importantly the GIANTS and our hopes of turning this partnership into the best and most successful in the AFL” Sheedy said.

Importantly Sheedy feels trips such as this give him an opportunity to share his love for the growth and wider development of the game, particularly in new markets. “I’m excited to see first-hand the brilliant work being done by the local AFL Czech group and the support of AFL Europe” Sheedy continued.

AFL Europe General Manager, Ben MacCormack views the visit as a growing recognition of the opportunities that Europe presents both AFL clubs such as the Giants and the AFL itself. “Commercially Europe offers the AFL brand many opportunities and AFL Europe are continually on the lookout for partners to help promote the growth of the game in Europe” MacCormack said.

The trip will consist of a training night with the AFL Czech Lions, Skoda based events, Czech Ice Hockey training visit with an eye open on finding the first big thing out of the Czech Republic for the AFL.

There are a number of ties between top level Rugby and top level Aussie rules. Coming up to the Rugby World Cup in NZ this year, former Hawthorn player Mick Byrne continues his long involvement with Rugby as a kicking/skills coach with with the All Blacks (and Japan). He has also had stints with the Wallabies as kicking and catching coach when they won the 1999 World Cup and he's also worked with the Brumbies (1998-2001), Springboks (2001-02), Scotland (2002-03) and Saracens prior to his appointment with the NZRU in 2005.

Rugby fans will also be very familiar with England fly half/inside centre Jonny Wilkinson and his elite place kicking and drop goal record. The video below where he answers fan questions reveals that he has connections with Geelong and is a Cats fan. He also has practiced with an Aussie rules footy for some time to hone his kicking skills.

Last weekend, Saturday 2nd July, saw the Brit Cup played for the first time ever in the North of England at Manton Coliery Worksop, with the Nottingham Scorpions lifting the trophy and breaking the 8-year winning streak of the West London Wildcats.

The Brit Cup is the traditional locals-only annual tournament, which has been showing off the best of British footy talent for a number of years.

With the IC2011 taking priority this year (something that was agreed to at the National Conference in November 2010 in Putney), the AFL London are pushing forward their fixture to get their season finished before the the Bulldogs fly out to Australia, and thus could only send up a West London/Wimbledon combined team under the name "London Wild Hawks".

The Wild Hawks were joined by 4 regional rep sides - the Northern Warriors, Southern Saxons, West Midlands Wolves and WARFL Red Devils - and the Nottingham Scorpions, who were eventual champions and the sole stand-alone club side on the day.

Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams was event organizer and also umpired on the day, having stood down this season as Northern Warriors captain, assisted by Rams head coach and last year's Northern Warriors head Coach Neil Morrison, along with long-time English footy identity Andrew Markham who covered much of the umpiring duties and was behind the media and publicity.

This report courtesy of Karl Haigh.

The new group bringing Australian rules football to Moscow were the subject for the following report in the English-language Moscow News this week.

Mentioned in the article are the group's plans to attend the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast, which will mark the first appearance of a Russian national team on the international stage.

The Moscow footy circle kicked off at the start of June, and are planning to launch their first two local league teams in the coming weeks. This is in addition to the group in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, who also started playing footy in Russia earlier this year.

The full article from the Moscow Times is reprinted below, at left is one of the proposed designs for the inaugural Russian national team jumper.