Westmeath teenage star John Heslin looks set to sign with an AFL club. While it is yet to be confirmed which club, he has just returned to Ireland after a week long trial with a club and will not say which club it is until it is made official. Irish website Hoganstand is reporting that the club is the Gold Coast Suns while elsewhere it was speculated that a Melbourne based club was involved.

Heslin, is just 18 and possibly one of Ireland’s most promising young footballers and will be a blow to the Gaelic system that may have been breathing a sigh of relief on St Patrick’s Day last week when high profile Australian Ricky Nixon was suspended as a player agent.

Lotus Renault F1 drivers Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov today had a crash course in Aussie Rules Football from Hawthorn's Buddy Franklin and Josh Gibson at the home of AFL, the MCG. As one of the smallest drivers on the grid at 163cm tall, Nick Heidfeld had his work cut out for him matched against the 196cm frame of Buddy Franklin.

 The Hawthorn footballers taught the internationals some basic AFL techniques before they took off to Adelaide for their round 1 clash against the Crows on Saturday night while the F1 drivers tack to the Albert Park circuit for their own season opener.

The inaugural European Legion squad has been named to take on Australia's youth when the AFL/AIS Academy tours Europe in April.  The day will also see Ireland's Warriors take on the British Bulldogs, in what will no doubt be a crucial match for players heading to IC11 in August.

As reported on the AFL Europe website, the European Legion Squad to face the AFL/AIS Academy in London on April 23rd contains representatives from Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Wales. The team will be coached by AFL Europe Commissioner and former Melbourne Demons Player, Glenn Lovett. Glenn will be assisted by visiting coach Brett Kirk and Daniel Maclaer from Sweden. 24 players were invited to participate, with one player Sylvain Maylie having to decline his invitation. His place in the squad has been taken by Sam Brunton from England. The Squad is as follows.

The Bristol Dockers will be playing in the Welsh Australian Rules Football League in 2011, after the WARFL committee last weekend voted unanimously to admit them to the league.

The Dockers are one of England's oldest clubs outside London, starting as the Bristol Bears in the old BARFL back in 1991. For the past few seasons, they have competed in the AFL London Social Division, but after the 2010 season were keen to move to the 9-a-side format and play locally.

Jason Bryant from the Dockers says that "there were a few reasons we moved away from the London Social league, firstly the London league didn't inform us in any discussions about the 2011 season so when we contacted them, everything had already been decided and unable to join. This was the same case for the Southern League. We were told by AFL GB heads that the only option left to play in 2011 was the Welsh league as they hadn't decided their competition schedule."

The West Midlands of England will again be home to 3 clubs in 2011, with the reformation of the Birmingham Bears for play in the AFL Britain Central & North West Division. The Bears went into recess just before the 2010 season, with the league asking the newly-formed Wolverhampton Wolverines to take over most the Bears' fixtures for the year.

Wolverhampton president Ian Mitchell says 2010 was a challenge for the Wolverines, with most of the players still learning the game. "Last season we played in a social capacity in the C&NW Division of AFL Britain, taking many of Birmingham Bears fixtures that they couldn't fulfil. We lost the majority of our games that we played, it was a steep learning curve as all of the players were new to the game, apart from myself and one or two Australians that we managed to collect on the way. We finally won our last game of last season against the other new club in the area, the Hull Mariners."

This weekend will see the Wolverines take on the Bears in a pre-season friendly, with the following weekend seeing them joined by the Birmingham Uni Sharks for the inaugural 3-team West Midlands Charity Cup, which will raise funds for the Queensland Floods Appeal.

The Croatian Knights are one of Europe's rising Australian football teams, consistently winning 9's tournaments and starting to challenge the more established nations.  In 2011 they are striving to continue growing the game and to reach their first AFL International Cup but face an uphill battle in sponsorship.  But the players and officials lack nothing in energy and ingenuity, taking their campaign to both the streets and the internet.

A key part of that push has been through the slogan Imaš muda? (Got balls?) and the corresponding website.  They also have the obligatory Facebook page.  Tireless footy enthusiast Kolja Koracak told worldfootynews.com that the "Croatian Knights are working hard to make people aware of us and to gain new members. They organized a guerilla marketing campaign where they hung 15 banners at each of Zagreb's bridges and overpass with the words 'imaš muda' which means 'got balls'."

We wish them all the best in their quest to both promote the game and to make it to Australia in 2011.

This Sunday the 27th of February sees the Glasgow Sharks kick-off their Super Six League at Glasgow Green. The Sharks Super Sixes is an intra club league made up of six aside teams from the Sharks players. The league is designed to help players gain more match experience, fitness and for those who want to play or try Aussie rules in a friendly semi competitive manner. The Sharks also hope in future to allow start-up teams in Scotland that perhaps cannot get the number of players required to play in the SARFL Competition proper to play in the sixes, as an induction to Aussie rules.

Sharks President and Coach Stephen Connor had asked for volunteers to be captains earlier in the year, and the first four that stepped forward would be the Captains. The Sharks that stepped forward were, Adam Jack, John McIntyre, Scott O`Hara and Ross Thomson. The Captains along with Stephen had the first ever Sixes Draft at the beginning of February to choose the teams, each Captain drew a number to determine who got first draft pick etc. players were selected by each captain in order until all those available had been put into 1 of 4 teams. Games will be played at Glasgow Green in the city centre on a shortened field and will consist of 2 x 20 minute halves, it's thought the central location and shortened format may capture the public interest as well as being a good tool to develop new players to the sport.

The Sharks Super Sixes is part of the ‘Sharks are circling’ campaign, aimed at getting more people in Glasgow and surrounding areas involved in Aussie Rules and along with this year’s Schools programme and other initiatives will help grow the game in Scotland. For more Information on the Sharks Super Sixes league including Fixtures, results and Stats please visit www.glasgowsharks.co.uk

The AFL Europe will soon welcome Ben MacCormack as its new Regional Manager, after the previous apointee Peter Romaniw had to return to Australia following visa problems.

Gerard Murphy says he was disappointed Romaniw could not stay in Europe, stating "He was doing an excellent job and we were disappointed that he couldn't stay with us. Peter is working for the AFL in Melbourne and is continuing to provide us with support from Australia until Ben starts in mid-March."

The AFL Europe only received its current name after last year's Euro Cup in Milan, with the move creating some talk in the international footy scene. Murphy explains that "At the initial meetings, there was lots of discussion about what the relationship with the AFL should 'look like'. It was agreed by the countries that we should have a strong relationship with the AFL and that this relationship should be fostered and developed to produce maximum benefits for the region."

"The decision to establish ourselves as the EAFA was taken in order to create a 'neutral' brand that would enable everyone to join regardless of previous alignments. However, 9 months later in Milan, it was decided by the general assembly that we should change our name to AFL Europe, pending some clarification from the AFL on a small number of queries."

"We now have a very close relationship with the AFL and we have just appointed our new Regional Manager, Ben MacCormack, a position funded by the AFL. The appointment of Tony Woods has also been an excellent step forward as he is able to deal with any concerns that we have promptly."

The AFL Italia have deciding to withdraw their men's team from the 2011 International Cup, with league president Nicola Giampaolo saying "Only in the last few days we have taken the hard decision to not go to the IC. The main reasons are the financial difficulties of funding a 30 person squad between players and staff, and the availability of the best squad of players for a period of three weeks."

Giampaolo remains upbeat about the AFL Italia's progress and believes they will be a strong position to compete in 2014. "We are a very young association. AFL Italia just stared kicking a footy around in mid 2009 and was formally registered in april 2010 and has already made huge steps forward both on the playing field (6th overall in the Euro Cup) and off the field hosting a great Euro Cup in Parabiago."

"We want to concentrate our attention on developing the national competetion and expanding the number of registered players and begin to play some 18-a-side matches. Our main goals are the European Championships in 2013 and the next International Cup in 2014 when we will have much more experience under our belt and will be able to field a competitive team."

Update: The AFL Italia women's team are still planning to attend, it is only the men's side that have withdrawn.

It was a first for Welsh ARFL club the Swansea Magpies on Tuesday 14th February 2011 where two of their senior players, Tim Atkins and Aled Morris, took Australian Rules Football into the classroom of Bishop Gore Comprehensive School. The club was invited by the local 5x60 officer, Louise Snelgrove, to introduce Aussie Rules to the Year 9 boys and girls.

The lesson went very well, with the children responding positively to a brand new sport that all but one of them had never heard of. The pupils are at a stage where they will soon choose which G.C.S.E. subjects they will take in years 10 and 11. The school were looking to use the session to help promote Physical Education G.C.S.E. and potentially offer an alternative pathway to football (soccer) and rugby. Maybe Aussie Rules will find its way into the curriculum at some point in the future.