The Norway Trolls and Iceland Ravens met for the first time last weekend, with the Trolls coming out 33-point winners. The home team Ravens put up a fair fight, only being 3 point down at half time, before the Trolls pulled away to win 9.7 (61) to 4.4 (28).

Best on ground was René Damborg Jensen for Norway, who recently returned from competing with the Denmark Vikings at the IC11 in Australia. Runners-up were the Icelandic duo of Magnús Þórarinsson and Viðar Kristinsson, with Norway's Kurt Jensen topping the scoring with 2.5 for the match.

The 16-a-side friendly was a warm up for the Euro Cup in Belfast, as well as the first test match held in Iceland, and was umpired by AFL Europe GM Ben MacCormack.

Icelandic footy stalwart and IceAFL president Friðgeir "Fritz" Ásgeirsson told WFN that the greater experience of the Norwegian team proved the difference on the day, saying "as this was a friendly match, there were no restrictions on the numbers of Australians in the teams so Norway fielded 9 or 10 Australians, while Iceland doesn't really have any. The closest we have is Leifur Bjarnason whose mother is Australian. He did learn the sport in Australia though and is clearly one of Iceland's best players."

Fritz also managed to score the first goal in the match, as he did against Denmark at the 2010 European Championships, earning the honour of being first goalkicker in both Iceland's first home and also first away test matches.

More photos and reports are available via the Oslo Crows website.

The Russian national team will make its inaugural Australian rules football appearance at the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast next month, along with at least 14 other European nations who will return after previous Cup campaigns.

Besides the Russian Czars, AFL Europe General Manager Ben MacCormack told WFN that Norway, Portugal and Poland are also hoping to make their Euro Cup debut this year, with the full list of competing sides to be released in the near future.

In the meantime, anyone interested in seeing a little more about the nascent Russian footy scene can check out this video on the ABC website.

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.