Considering the contribution Greek Australians have made to Australian rules football, and that leading figures in the game including current AFL chief Andrew Demetriou are of Greek or Greek-Cypriot background, it is perhaps surprising that until now the game has not been exported back to Greece.

Behind the match were AFL Multicultural Development head Nick Hatzoglou and members of the Hellenic-Australian Cricket Federation, on tour in Corfu. The lead-up to the game included Auskick clinis in local primary schools, as well as some recruitment of local sportsmen to take part in the match.

The following article by Mike Sweet originally appeared in Australian Greek community newspaper Neos Kosmos.

Saturday 21st August saw the second leg of the 2010 Bute Series between Scotland and Wales take place at Victoria Park in Glasgow. The weather conditions for the game were good with sunshine and a slight breeze.

As in the first match both teams were up for it straight from the first bounce with some tasty tackles going in from the outset. The first quarter was again a very tight battle with the Welsh having the best of the early play. The game at this stage was evenly balanced and after Wales had taken an early lead Scotland managed to peg a couple of goals back to go into the quarter time break only 5 points behind.

The ARFLI grand final takes place this Saturday between the last years beaten finalist the South Dublin Swans and the Belfast Redbacks. Both sides came through from the eastern conference with the Redbacks enjoying a magnificent semi-final victory against perennial finalist the Leeside Lions. The Swans booked their place in the final after the Clare Crows forfeited their semi.

This weekend at Portobello Rugby Club, Edinburgh, the Scottish Australian Rules Football League (SARFL) Grand Final will be contested between 6 times winners Edinburgh Old Town Bloods and the Glasgow Sharks. The following courtesy of the SARFl's Douglas Hunter. This promises to be a hard fought contest between two evenly matched teams. Edinburgh have been the stand out team in the league this season and go into the final with no defeats and are slight favourites having been unbeaten during the league season. Glasgow have been improving with every game and are the league’s top point scorers with two high scoring and impressive wins over the Aberdeen Dingoes. The match will begin at 2.30pm on Saturday the 18th. Prior to the match there will be an exhibition match at 12.30pm between the Aberdeen Dingoes and a SARFL select team. This match is an opportunity for Scottish players to push for a place in the national team for the Aussie Rules Euro Cup in October and a two test series against England, also in October, which should add to the intensity of the match. This promises to be the most exciting Grand Final yet, so come along and join in the fun and excitement of Aussie Rules, Scottish style.

Last week Irish sports ‘commentator’ Tommy Conlon came to the attention of AFL fans via this article about Marty Clarke returning to Ireland and the GAA. The article raised the hackles of some, including in the Australian media with rebukes such as this effort from the Age : Irish crack at AFL just TommyRot

WFN was able to discuss the article with Conlon and posed a few questions.

The inaugural season of the Bayern League came to a thrilling end in Munich on August 5th as the top teams, the Sendling Blues and the Schwabing Saints, played off for the first ever Bavarian premiership. In a competition with no finals, the Saints needed to win the last minor round game by 38 points to overtake the Blues on the ladder and snatch the cup.

Former World No. 1 Russian women's professional tennis player Maria Sharapova recently took to the Sherrin as part of her fitness training with her Australian fitness adviser. If anything could inspire Russians to take up the Australian game, this could be it.

The Turku Dockers have made it two out of two by claiming their second premiership in the Finland AFL in their second year of existence. The Dockers, coached by Australian ex-pat and two-time EU Cup all star Grant Siermans, beat the all-Finnish Salo Juggernauts 19.17(131) to 8.5(53).

Although the Dockers went into the match as favourites, having beaten the Juggernauts on all three encounters during the home and away season, injuries to several key Dockers players (as a result of EC2010 duty) combined with recent reinforcements to the Juggernauts squad via their high-school recruitment program suggested that the grand final could be a different story. But it wasn’t to be.

Report courtesy of Craig Primmer, photos by Antti Lipsanen.

St Kilda today elevated Irishman Tommy Walsh from International rookie to the primary list. He comes onto the list in place of Jesse Smith who is on the long term injury list.

Walsh has been playing well this year (in all 18 games) with the senior side of the club's VFL affiliate Sandringham, mostly in defence but also going forward on a few occasions.

The big Kerry man has looked a natural fit for the Australian game all along, but it would be almost unthinkable that he could still make his debut at St Kilda in what remains of the season. Still stranger things have happened and in the event of injuries in the finals series he provides the club with another back up option.

While the other two new sides to the ARFLI this season are clubs that have reformed, the Midwest Magpies are an entirely new identity. This makes their performances so far all the more impressive.

The Galway-based club started the season with three narrow defeats, however their season was turned around when the Magpies defeated the previously unbeaten South Dublin Swans and backed it up by beating the Midland Tigers by 74 to 26. This fine form continued in a 5 point win against the Leeside Lions only for the Magpies to lose their most recent game by three points to fellow new boys the Clare Crows. Despite this loss the Pies are still very much in the mix for a place in the finals.

Worldfootynews spoke to founder member Tony McAfee about the origins of the club, how the season has gone and about playing basketball against Barry Hall.