The 2010 European Championship in Australian Football opened today with the first round of pool matches at Stefan Boldklub in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Clear skies and sunny weather greeted the teams as they assembled in front of a crowd of more than 700 spectators for an historic opening day's play in the first ever championships in Europe.

Co-hosts Sweden opened their account in a commanding fashion against a committed Croatian side, who were keen to leave a positive initial impression in their first ever full-format match. In the end, the Swedes ran out comfortable winners by 96 points: Sweden 16.17 (113) d Croatia 2.5 (17)

Great Britain took on Finland in the second game and were well held for the first three quarters, before kicking away to a comfortable 74 point win: Great Britain 11.16 (82) d Finland 1.2 (8)

Tournament favourites Ireland were never in doubt in their tie against Germany. In an often fast paced and highly skilled encounter, Ireland showed their pedigree against a tiring German side: Ireland 18.10 (118) d Germany 0.0 (0)

The day's final encounter featured home team, Denmark, against North Atlantic neighbours and newcomers Iceland. Despite a quick opening goal by the Icelanders, Denmark was never troubled for the rest of the day and finished clearly ahead: Denmark 19.16 (130) d Iceland 2.1 (13)

Quarter-by-quarter scores from the European Championship in Australian Football, courtesy of The Footy Record and the EC2010 organizing committee, updated as close to live as we can manage!

As the inaugural European Championship starts this weekend, Irish Warriors coach Tom Madigan is entering his first campaign in charge of the side in confident mood. The Irish will go into the tournament as favorites but Madigan is not taking anything for granted. He feels that the Irish preparations have gone well and can’t wait for the action to start.

“AFL is growing rapidly in Europe and this is the first European Cup so it is difficult to gauge what the standard will be,” says Madigan. “We are delighted the AFL are showing ongoing interest in the northern hemisphere countries and we are looking forward to the opportunity to meet some of the other newer teams playing across Europe. I think Denmark, England and Sweden might be the ones to watch, but we will not underestimate the potential of any of the countries in the competition.”

After a four year hiatus the Clare Crows have returned to the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland (ARFLI) and this time they are here to stay. The Crows were founded by South Australian Andrew Sexton in 2002. The Adelaide Crows donated jumpers and footballs and the Crows joined the ARFLI. The club was dissolved in 2006 and was resurrected this year by Pat McEvoy. Pat played for the Midland Tigers last year but he wanted to play for his home town team.

Richmond have promoted James O’Reilly to its senior list less than a year after he joined the club. The Tigers first Irish recruit has been in fine form in the VFL, playing 12 matches with the Coburg Tigers, and will see this as a huge lift in his chances of playing for the senior side before the year is out.

O’Reilly (22), like many of his countrymen, is seen as a hard running half back/ midfield prospect. He was recruited after being scouted playing for his native Co. Down last year and was then invited to train at Tigerland. He obviously impressed and was picked up as an international rookie at pick 70 in the Rookie draft in December.

The Australian Football League Germany has released its squad for the 2010 European Championships, which kick off in Denmark and Sweden this weekend.

It will be a new-look Black Eagles squad taking the park, with core players from the Rheinland Lions unavailable due to time and financial constraints. AFLG clubs Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin have five representatives each, including national captain Tim Horenburg from the Munich Roos.

Stuttgart, Hamburg, the Rheinland Lions and AFLG expansion club Nürnberg have contributed a further one player each.

Rounding out the 22-man squad are three Germans currently playing in Sweden. The first is AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis, who first discovered Australian rules after moving to Malmö, Sweden and taking Swedish language lessons. One of Pareigis' classmates in the Swedish course was Ricky Nolan, past coach of the Port Malmö Maulers and son of North Melbourne's legendary 'Galloping Gasometer' Mick Nolan. He is joined by Oliver Seiberlich, a German-Swede from the Göteborg Beserkers who only narrowly missed selection in the Swedish Elks squad.

The third Swedish-based German in the squad is man-mountain Mats Wurmbach from Stockholm local league club Solna. At 208cm and 120kg, Wurmbach was a crowd favourite at the IC08 in Melbourne where he played for Sweden, and he will be an imposing presence for the Black Eagles.

The South Cardiff Panthers are proud to announce that Welsh cricket legend Robert Croft and Australian cricket legend Shaun Tait have agreed to be club Patrons.

Robert Croft became the first Welshman to achieve the 'double' of 1,000 first-class wickets and 10,000 first-class runs and has played international cricket for both England and Wales. He made his England debut against Pakistan in 1996 and earned a touring place to Zimbabwe and New Zealand. He played the first five tests of the 1997 Ashes series and played in a total of 21 test matches.

Shaun Tait is from Adelaide and played for Australia from 2005 onwards, where he made his test debut against England at Trent Bridge. Shaun is a big Aussie Rules fan and recently came to Llanrhumney in Cardiff along with fellow South Australian Mark Cosgrove to watch the Panthers vs Chippenham Redbacks.

This report courtesy of Mark Horsman.

After exploding onto to the European footy scene with a strong performance at the EU Cup 09, the Iceland Ravens are preparing for their first full-field outing next weekend at the European Championships in Australian Football.

The Icelanders have been playing footy for barely a year, but have already founded a 3-team domestic league, besides now undertaking their second international tour.

The Ravens' squad will include the Iceland-native footy journeyman Pálli Finnsson, who has previously captained the Denmark Vikings, was named in the World All-Star team at the International Cup, and is currently captain of the Paris Cockerels. Pálli is also bringing a small contigent of Frenchmen to bolster the side, with Icelandic footy pioneer Friðgeir "Fritz" Ásgeirsson explaining they could have fielded an all-Icelandic team, but that would have meant a very lean squad of only around 20 players.

Regarding the core leadership group of the Ravens, Fritz says "Pálli is always a leading figure in the group and gets a lot of respect, and the same goes for his brother Jón Hrói Finnsson. Both of them have been playing the sport since around '95."

"Eyjólfur Bjarni Sigurjónsson took over as national coach from me after the EU Cup. Valdimar Gunnarsson leads by example, he's looked up to and respected by the team as he always gives 110%."

"I retain the captaincy, but I don't know for how much longer! Everyone is getting so good I'll be off the team sheet in no time."

In a season with more people playing footy in Wales than ever before, the third Welsh Australian Rules Football League (WARFL) Grand Final is almost upon us.

With their partner clubs languishing at the bottom of the ladder in the SANFL, the consistent South Cardiff Panthers and formidable Swansea Magpies have won the right for the second year running to play for the biggest prize in Welsh Australian Rules football. By the end of this week one of these proud clubs will be crowned the best team in Wales and get their hands on the coveted WARFL Premiership Cup.

The Denmark Vikings are going into the European Championships with a squad that includes young guns such as World XVIII representative Mathias Biron alongside long-time DAFL stalwarts of the calibre of Jesper Gjørup and Kristian Stetter.

Coach Jim Campion explains that the national team is still in a rebuilding phase and focussing on younger players, however unavailabilities led the DAFL to select a more experienced side than that named for the test against Great Britain earlier this year.

Among the talented youngsters out due to injury is 18-year old Morten Merhøj, whom Campion considers more than qualified to have played in the World XVIII and 19-year old International Cup veteran Joachim Secher.

"This made way for two players and they happen to be Gjørup - who has gotten over long term injury, and Kristian Stetter - who has returned from Australia," Campion says.

"We are still in a building phase, with an emphasis on the 17 to 25 age group. But with the older more experienced players back it can only improve our chances for success."