The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland's preparations for the International Cup are in full swing, with the Green Machine taking the unorthodox step of announcing that they are aiming to field a team consisting of only around 50% players from the Irish domestic league.

The remaining fifteen in the squad of thirty are to be selected from Irish expats currently playing footy in Australia, a move which ARFLI President Ciaran O'Hara says reflects both their belief that the Warriors should contain the best Irishmen playing Australian Football wherever they are, and also the fact that a number of former ARFLI players are now playing Down Under, particularly since last year's financial crisis saw a large number of Irishmen emigrate.

With a large dose of Australian suburban and country footy experience, the Irish could be very tough to beat at the IC11, although O'Hara is expecting old rivals such as PNG, New Zealand, South Africa and Nauru to have stepped up in standard since 2008.

The 2011 International Cup will be the first to feature a women's division, with the USA, Ireland, Canada, PNG and Italy among those who have expressed an intereste to head to Australia.

Despite being relative newcomers to the international footy scene, the AFL Italia are planning to send both a men's and women's squad Down Under, after their women's side faced off against Ireland in Europe's first-ever international women's match last October.

Peta Lowry from the AFL Italia spoke to WFN about the Italian national women's team and their preparations.

The Australian Football League Germany will return to a six team competition in 2011, with the return of the Hamburg Dockers to the main draw.

A two division structure was implemented in 2009, to help Stuttgart ease into the league, allow Berlin a season to rebuild, and give the reserve teams from power clubs Rheinland and Munich somewhere to play. This hasn't been repeated since, with clubs instead starting to move towards the "metro league" model of concentrating on 9-a-side local footy between the national league fixtures.

Germany's first 9-a-side metro league was founded by the Munich Roos last year, with the squad divided into three teams and over 50 players playing a match in the Bayernliga over the course of the 2010 season. This year, the Rheinland Lions and Berlin Crocodiles are looking at starting their own metro competitions.

David Mudge from the Roos says "the Bayernliga was a huge success last year, generating a pile of new recruits to the sport. We thought about expanding to four teams but in the end will keep it to the established three, with the exception that if Nürnberg get a team together, or even half a dozen guys, they have a standing invitation to participate as the fourth team."

The AFL Britain have a new committee coordinating the regional English clubs north of London, with Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams recently appointed president of the newly-formed AFL Britain North.

This committee includes all clubs from both the Central & North West and North East leagues, after the 2010 season saw the North East league struggle for numbers and come close to collapsing. New secretary of the AFL Britain North is Great Britain Bulldogs and England Dragonslayers rep Alistair Dellooze.

2011 will be a big year for English footy, with not only preparations for the Bulldogs' International Cup campaign, but also the European Legion vs AFL/AIS match in London, and the first London vs Country match scheduled to be held in Worksop.

LEFT: The Huddersfield Rams in 2010

Of the potential new sides at the 2011 International Cup, the newest to footy in general are the Swiss, with the newly-formed AFL Switzerland working hard to find enough sponsorship to make it to the tournament.

A few previous unsuccessful attempts to start teams in Lucerne and Geneva aside, footy has only been played in Switzerland since 2010, when the club in Lugano was created to compete in the inaugural AFL Italia premiership season. Team Switzerland, drawn from the Lugano squad, made its debut at the 2010 Euro Cup.

Switzerland's second club, to be based in the country's largest city Zurich, will hold its first training session at the end of February under the leadership of Jono Newman. Newman spoke to WFN about the national team's chances Down Under in August.

LEFT: Switzerland at the 2010 Euro Cup in Parabiago, Italy. Photo courtesy of Daniela Scalia.

The AFL Europe this week announced that the 2011 9-a-side Euro Cup has been awarded to the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This will be the first time the cup has been held in Ireland, and the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland believe it will serve as something of a preview to the next full-field European Championships, to be held in Dublin in 2013.

The ARFLI, although a powerhouse of European footy, are relative newcomers to the Euro Cup, not sending an official side until 2010. Prior to this, the Irish Exiles, drawn from Irishmen playing in other leagues around Europe, competed at the 2009 tournament.

Formerly known as the EU Cup, the Euro Cup is the biggest annual event on the European footy calendar, and is the main opportunity to get a large section of the community together.

Readers can contact eurocup@afleurope.org for more details.

AFL Europe has announced that the European squad to take on the AIS-AFL Academy team in London during Easter on April 23rd will be known as the European Legion.

The title results from a poll conducted on their website, narrowly beating the Titans and Stars.

The elite young academy players will also visit Italy and Turkey during their tour. See AIS-AFL Academy to tour Europe in 2011 for more details.

The European Legion will be composed mainly of U-21 Players from the various European Leagues with a limited number of U-23 players to add senior experience. The team will be coached by former Melbourne Player and AFL Europe Commissioner Glenn Lovett. For those interested in having players considered for selection or for players interested in finding out the selection criteria you can e-mail team.manager@afleurope.org.

An AFL delegation, led by former Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod, has addressed a United Nations forum on racism in sport. Andrew McLeod, a dual Norm Smith Medalist and premiership player, and the AFL’s National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud spoke at the forum on `Combating Racism in Sport’ at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva on Australia Day.

The following is a transcript of Andrew McLeod’s address.

The Hull Mariners are one of England's newest Aussie rules clubs, and in addition to kicking off senior football in the town, the club is getting straight into junior development.

As part of the growth of Hull Mariners Australian Rules FC, Development officers Dan Beardshaw and Carl Hagar have being working hard to lay down firm roots within the local schools throughout the city of Hull.

“After initially contacting P.E. staff throughout the city, we were happy that we had the interest to put together our own school system, one that would suit anybody who wants to take the field," says Hagar.

“Whilst many players are happy to just play for their school, some may want to try and test themselves and play at a higher level and we want to give them the opportunity to not only represent their school, but the local community as well."

An AFL delegation, led by former Adelaide Crows champion Andrew McLeod, has been invited to address a forum on racism in sport at the United Nations in Geneva on Australia Day. The high level, interactive panel discussion on `Combating Racism Through Sport’ will be held next Wednesday, January 26, at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Panelists will include dual Norm Smith medalist and Adelaide premiership player Andrew McLeod, the AFL’s National Community Engagement Manager Jason Mifsud, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda Andrew McLeod joined the AFL as Community Engagement and Talent Co-ordinator and coach of the Flying Boomerangs in 2010 after a career spanning 340 games and two premierships with the Adelaide Crows. He is also a member of the Australian Football Indigenous Team of the Century.