At this time of year, Aussie Rules clubs the world over are getting back into off-season training. Major AFL Clubs take the opportunity to use this time to go abroad and hone themselves in different environments, Collingwood go to Colorado to work at altitude, this year North Melbourne went to the colder climate of Utah and Richmond are currently in New Zealand working on fitness and team building via some extreme sports.

This weekend’s weather in Scotland afforded the Glasgow Sharks the chance to train in some unusual conditions as well. With at least 4 inches of Snow covering the Sharks regular training venue at Glasgow Green, this Sunday’s session was less ball work and more snowball work!!

On Saturday November 20th, the Toulouse Crocodiles hosted four other teams from around Spain and France for the 2010 Mediterranean Cup.

The tournament saw the debut of the Marseille Dockers, who clashed with Toulouse, the Perpignan Tigers, the Bordeaux Bombers and Spanish side the Madrid Bears.

The sides met each other once each over the course of an intense day's play, with the home town Crocs finishing undefeated. Second place went to the Bordeaux Bombers, with the Madrid Bears taking out third.

Marseille achieved a win over Perpignan, finishing with a 1-3 record from their first-ever outing.

For more information on footy in France, see FootballAustralien.com.

With the European summer well and truly behind us, WFN takes a look at who took out the silverware in the domestic leagues across Europe.

In our first installment, we'll look at the AFL London, the leagues around regional England, Scotland and Wales.

Australian sports news and opinion website The Roar today ran a story profiling Sam Stranks, an Adelaide native who received Oxford University's prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and has now become the Uni's Aussie Rules captain.

The article describes Stranks' background in the SANFL, as well as the growing collegiate footy scene in England, where Chichester and Birmingham have recently joined Oxford and Cambridge to make a university Aussie Rules season a reality.

The full article can be read at Sam Stranks Oxford University Aussie Rules Captain.

The AFL’s Professional Approach to Developing European Footy

After 21 years of Australian Football in Europe, now that the game has reached its traditional ‘majority’, the AFL has adopted a professional approach to conquering Europe. The formation of the European Australian Football Association in January 2010 has been followed by an AFL-supported appointment to the Association. Peter Romaniw (pictured) has been selected, and now commenced work, as European Regional Manager.

The AFL has now developed a resource-committed approach to game development of the Australian game in a continent which already has Australian football from Helsinki in the north to Madrid in the west, further south to Milan and to Prague in the east. No longer is Europe forgotten due to either traditional connections or exotic fantasies.

The Croatian Knights have proven their 9-a-side class by winning the Euro Cup, held in Parabiago (Milan), Italy. The 1 day tournament featured 15 men's sides: Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Wales and the EU Crusaders (additional players from several countries).

In Europe's first women's international Ireland's Women 6.14 (50) defeated Italy's Women 6.4 (40), in hopefully the first of many such matches. A more detailed report can be read here.

Croatia have a strong history in men's 9s but with European Champions (16-a-side) Ireland debuting a strong challenge was on the table. Croatia and Ireland cruised through their pool matches, although uneven team numbers saw Eire's Warriors have to play one more game, before meeting in a semi-final. England looked dominant in their half while the Netherlands were steady in getting though to their semi-final. Then came the upsets.

worldfootynews.com has closely followed Mathias Biron's progress since assisting the young Danish player to make it down to Australia for the 2010 NAB AFL Under 16 Championships, in which he performed well for the World XVIII. Since returning to Denmark, the 18 year old (pictured front row at the far left) has represented his country at senior level during the Vikings' gallant run in the inaugural European Championships (the full field version not to be confused with this weekend's Euro Cup 9-a-side tournament). WFN caught up with Biron to discuss the benefits of the World XVIII experience.

"I think that I learned a lot in the weeks that I was there. We had some really good coaches that taught me many new things at the training sessions. I improved a lot on those two weeks, not only because of the training sessions but also the matches taught me a lot. I learned to manage the pressure before a match, but I also learned many things on ground. To play against the Australian teams, we obviously didn’t have a chance, but it taught me how I should play and what I should work on. I think that you always learn a lot from players that are better than you".

Irishman Michael Quinn has been awarded the Cater medal for the Best and Fairest of the Bendigo Bombers, the VFL affiliate for Essendon. It is a huge boost for the County Longford native who has struggled in his two outings for the Bombers in the AFL this season. Despite this he has consistently impressed in the lower grade.

The notion of Aussie Rules being played in Europe is no longer new but until now it has been an entirely male environment. This weekend Milan will host the continent’s first ever women’s international match of Australian Football.

The Euro Cup, an annual 9-a-side tournament, has been going since 2005. Every year Aussie Rules continues to expand, and that growth is reflected in the increasing numbers of teams taking part.

This year that expansion goes across genders as well as borders with both Ireland and Italy fielding women’s teams as well as men’s.

This article courtesy of Nic Townsend, photos courtesy of Daniela Scalia.

While Australia is being treated to a second Grand Final this weekend, on the other side of the world, another big day of footy will also taking place: the Euro Cup. This year the annual 9-a-side Australian Football tournament will be held in Milan, Italy.

The competition has only been running since 2005, but in that time it has grown dramatically in terms of nations competing and players participating, and its growth is reflective of the growing popularity of the game in Europe.

The 2010 Euro Cup will be contested by 15 countries. Wales and Switzerland will be taking part for the first time where they join other emerging football-playing nations such as Austria, France, Catalonia, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Scotland. England, Ireland, Germany and Croatia, who are all relatively well established, will also be involved.

This year’s Euro Cup will also feature the first ever women’s international in Europe, between Italy and Ireland.

This article courtesy of Nic Townsend.