Saturday the 21st of May saw a milestone day for Australian Rules Football in Ireland, with the contesting of the country's first ever inter-school match.

The match took place between Gaelcholáiste Mhuire A.G. and Coláiste an Phiarsigh, two all Irish-speaking schools in Cork City, in Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown. It came about as a result of a decision made at the league’s AGM in December to appoint Vincent Manning as a schools development officer to introduce the increasingly popular sport to a younger playing spectrum.

"A lot of work has gone into this, both on and off the training ground," said ARFLI President Ciarán O’ Hara. "After ten years of Aussie Rules in Ireland it’s great to see it finally being played by a younger generation."

The Madrid Bears defeated Belfry Valls by 62 points last weekend, in the first ever match to see a Catalan footy club travel to the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Instead of playing a three-way tournament as planned, the Belfry Valls squad combined with members of the Móstoles Kangaroos. The first two quarters were hard-fought, with the Bears holding more possession of the ball but the Catalans' greater accuracy in front of goal kept them in the game, only trailling by 11 points at half time.

The second half saw the Bears pull away from the Catalans, eventually running out 116-54 winners.

The Bears are planning to organise an international tournament in June to promote Aussie Rules in Spain, in addition to a promotional event on May 28th to recruit more players and find a sponsor for the national team.

Besides preparing for the Euro Cup over the northern summer, the Bears are planning to play a match against Portugal's Lisbon Dockers and visit Catalonia for a rematch later this year.

The Oslo Crows, Norway's oldest Australian rules football club, opened their account for 2011 with wins against Western Sweden's Göteborg Beserkers and Karlstad Eagles in a three-way tournament held in Göteborg last weekend.

After arriving into Göteborg to see the tail end of the match between the two Swedish opponents, the Crows scraped a 3-point win over the Beserkers, then saw off the Eagles by 18 points.

The AFL Sweden West will this year see Oslo, Karlstad and Göteborg clash on three occasions during 2011, with each club hosting the other two for a triple-header.

The Crows' next fixture will be against the Ås Battlers on May 28th, the first Norwegian domestic match for the year. Oslo will also play a home-and-away fixture against the world's most northerly footy club Tromsø this year, marking the first time the northerners have played a match against outside opposition.

On an international level, the Norway Trolls national team will be heading to Reykjavík on September 10th for their first clash with the Iceland Ravens, and have been mentioned by the EAFA / AFL Europe on the list of possible debutants at the Euro Cup in Belfast on October 8th, along with Portugal and Poland.

The Bordeaux Bombers are French Premiers for the 2010-11 season, after they defeated the Toulouse Hawks 77-52 in the Grand Final tournament held in Perpignan last Saturday.

The Bombers had finished top of the northern league, winning the right to take on the Hawks, who had topped the southern division.

The northern clubs continued their dominance in the other matches of the day, with the Paris Cockerels defeating the Aix-Marseille Dockers 171-38 for third place, and the Strasbourg Kangourous defeating the hometown Perpignan Tigers 178-66 to avoid the wooden spoon.

A full report of the Grand Final tournament will be available soon, but in the meantime the French national team is preparing for their first 18 a side international test match, to be played against Germany in Paris on June 11th. The clash against the Germans will be a prelude to their first International Cup campaign in Australia in August.

For more information, visit footballaustralien.com.

The Welsh Australian Rules Football League will kick off its 2011 season this weekend with the annual pre-season Cymru Clwb Challenge on Saturday May 21st.

Held at Heol-y-Cyw RFC in Bridgend, the competition will see last year's winners South Cardiff Panthers try to defend their trophy against the league's new teams, the Bristol Dockers and the Bridgend Eagles (who are combining with Vale Warriors for the day), as well established teams the Cardiff Double Blues and Swansea Magpies.

Ball-up in the first match is at 1pm, in what looks to be an explosive prelude to the season, which gets under way on May 28th.

The WARFL will consist of 6 teams in 2011, with the Cardiff Double Blues, South Cardiff Panthers, Swansea Magpies and Vale Warriors joined by new Welsh club Bridgend Eagles and the Bristol Dockers from England's West Country, who are joining the WARFL after almost 20 years playing in the BARFL and AFL London.

When the AFL released the current list of IC11 hopefuls last week, the Finnish Icebreakers were one of the sides that had pulled out. Like with many other teams, the decision was mainly due to financial constraints, with Craig Primmer from the FAFL saying that "We don't have any sponsorship deals and the lack of information from the AFL regarding possible financial support or airline deals meant that flight prices were getting too high for it to be feasible."

"We had about 20 guys interested, but this included 5-6 guys of Finnish origin in Australia that had never played the game before, so we decided it was better to hold back and focus on the domestic front as well as the Euro Cup in Belfast this year."

On the domestic front, the Finnish National League will start the season with 5 teams, up from 3 last year. The two new sides are the Waasa Wombats, based in the northern city of Vaasa, and a second team from the Turku Dockers. Turku will field A and B teams, with the A team not including any Aussies.

Craig Primmer says "The aim with this is to make sure that all players get as much game time as possible, and to increase the on-field responsibility of the non-Aussies with a few years experience."

"It is also promising that numbers in Helsinki are looking good and there is again talk that maybe the Espoo team could be re-started at some stage."

The FAFL season kicks off on May 21, and then from May 26-30 Brett Kirk will be visiting for a couple of FAFL matches as well as some training sessions. Shortly after that, a double-header will be held in Turku on June 2nd, with AFL Europe General Manager Gerard Murphy in attendance.

The Perpignan Tigers are hosting the French National League's grand final tournament this Saturday May 14th, with all six teams from the regular season in attendance at the Stade Roger Ramis.

The French sides played in two pools this year, with Aix-Marseille, Perpignan and Toulouse in the southern division, and Paris, Strasbourg and Bordeaux in the north. Unlike most Australian rules football leagues in Europe, the French played their season over the northern winter, beginning late 2010.

The first match kicks off at 10.30am, with the Perpignan Tigers taking on the Strasbourg Kangaroos for 5th place. The Aix-Marseille Dockers clash with the Paris Cockerels for 3rd at 2pm, and in the main game, the Bordeaux Bombers and Toulouse Hawks will clash for the national premiership at 4pm.

The premiership cup will be presented by Damien Blanch, professional Rugby League player from the Perpignan-based super league club Dragons Catalans, with cheerleaders and the Dragons' official mascot also adding some colour to the event.

For more information, visit perpignantigers.com.

In partnership with AFL clubs Port Adelaide and Fremantle Dockers, AFL Femminile Italia is proud to present their first of a number of fundraising projects, aimed at helping the AFL Italia women’s team take part in the AFL International Cup, being held this year in Sydney and Melbourne in August.

The Fremantle Dockers have supported AFL Italia for the past 18 months through their partnership with AFL Italia club Genoa Dockers. Port Adelaide also have connections with the Italian community in Adelaide and last year included AFL Italia representatives in their Famiglia di Port dinner and fundraiser.

The AFL Round 9 clash between Port Adelaide and Fremantle Dockers is being tagged as the “Indigenous Round” and Port Adelaide and the Fremantle Dockers boast the highest number of indigenous players on their lists.

Both clubs see this as a great opportunity to promote Indigenous Art, but also as a way to show support for the growth and development of Australian Football internationally.

Poland's first Australian rules football club is under formation in the city of Poznań, dubbed the Polish Bisons.

Maciej Makarewicz says the team is hopeful of making their international debut at the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast, and are also hoping to be able to schedule some friendly matches with the clubs in Berlin and Prague, both of which are within a few hours' drive. The team currently has 13 players, none of whom are Australians, although there is some playing experience through squad member Wlodek Przygorzewski, who took part in the European Crusaders side at the EU Cup a few years back.

Closer to home, the Bisons intend to encourage the creation of teams in other Polish cities and kick off a domestic competition.

The Bison is a popular symbol for Poland, with Białowieża Forest in the east of the country famous for having been the last wild home of the European Bison, also known as the Wisent, whose population had almost been hunted to extinction by the 1920s, but is now slowly recovering around Europe thanks to breeding from the wild Polish herds.

Whilst the new club is yet to create a web presence, anyone interested in contacting them can try their "Official" Fan Page.

This past weekend saw an extravaganza of footy in London, as the GB Bulldogs and Irish Warriors continued their preparation for the International Cup and the touring AIS Academy team of rising stars faced the youngsters of the European Legion, drawn from club sides across the continent. Held at the scenic Dulwich College, the occasion was blessed with good footy, bright sun and an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

The match between the Academy and European Legion, although fairly predictable on the scoresheet - the academy coming off a victory against Geelong’s reserves! - provided a fantastic spectacle of play for the supporters, who really got behind the individual victories that each Legion player enjoyed against their direct opponents.

Tackles, bumps, dodges and the well-earned goals were all greeted with great cheers, and the youngsters forming the Legion team will have picked up new skills from their experience against players we’ll no doubt see on the screen in the not-too-distant-future. From a GB Bulldogs point of view, it was great to see the competition from squad hopefuls Adam Ballard, Danny Armitage, Josh Davey and Sam Brunton.

This report by Adam Bennett, President of AFL Britain. The full squad selected by the Great Britain Bulldogs for the 2011 International Cup is listed below.