Russia's set to go from having no organised Australian rules football presence a month ago, to having clubs in two separate cities by mid-June, with the fledgling club in Krasnoyarsk to be joined by a new group in Moscow who will begin training on the weekend of June 12th.

Australian expat Roger Scott is leading the charge in the Russian capital, after being inspired by news of Paul Kube kicking the footy with locals in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Phil Porublev from the EAFA / AFL Europe, being an Australian of Russian background, has also been working hard to support a footy presence in Russia, sending materials such as balls to Moscow.

Scott has found around a dozen initial interested players so far, with only two of those, an Englishman and another Aussie, being non-Russians. Judging by the size of Moscow's population and the positive response to the idea so far, he believes that having a number of 9-a-side teams playing by the end of the summer isn't out of the question.

A small group of enthusiasts are hoping to found Russia's first footy club, based in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The current project is led by Paul Kube, who first came to Krasnoyarsk in 2007, but on that occasion was only in Russia for a year and wasn't able to get footy going beyond some kick-to-kick.

Since returning to Russia last year, he's been more successful. "We returned as a family in May of 2010, but spent the Summer settling in, and since we didn't know many people I did not start anything then either."

"But this year is the beginning of something. I have been running very informal clinics for about a month now. This has mostly been with locals and neighbours at the school soccer field. I have just persisted in inviting people every week and the numbers are slowly growing."

Kube's fledgling squad held their first training match last weekend. Although there was only a small number of players in attendance, the experience of getting a game underway has seen the members keen to grow their numbers and get some regular games happening in future. "It's still very early days here, and we will have to see if it takes off," Kube says.

For anyone who reads Russian, Paul received a write-up on a local blog here.

The rumours of Marty Clarke's return to Collingwood seem to have been flowing since he returned to Ireland after the 2009 season. Having made a meteoric rise to the senior ranks and performing admirably at senior level, he left the Australian game to return back to the GAA football that he grew up with. Had he stayed he may have been part of the 2010 AFL Premiership team.

Some thought 2011 would see his return but it was not to be. Now after persistent rumours this year it looks like Clarke will return to Australia after this weekend for a brief period in which he is likely to meet with Collingwood about returning to the professional ranks in season 2012.

With Paul Cribbin on the list already and Caolan Mooney signed to come onto the list in 2012, it would have to make those who this year have called "The Irish Experiment" in the AFL to be finished, have second thoughts.

The South Cardiff Panthers were victorious for the second year running in the Cymru Clwb Challenge which was hosted by the Bridgend Eagles at Heol-y-Cyw RFC last weekend. In a tournament featuring all the clubs who will play in the WARFL in 2011, the Panthers managed a perfect record on the day, with four wins from four games.

The winners were decided in the last round where the unbeaten Cardiff club faced off against an unbeaten Swansea Magpies team.

Unfortunately for the Magpies the Panthers were in great shape going in to the game, coming off a bye going in to the decider. Ruckman Chris James proved unbeatable in the contest, ably assisted by no less than four of his GB Bulldogs team mates. The inexperienced Magpies managed to put in a brave effort but the fitness and skill of the Panthers proved too much for them.

The Bristol Dockers made their WARFL debut in the tournament, securing third place. They proved they are not to be underestimated in the league this year, which is certain to be highly competitive.

Congratulations to Billy Hall from the Dockers who was voted Best Player for the tournament.

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.