The Finland Icebreakers are bringing a lot of new faces to the inaugural European Championships, with only five players still in the squad from their 2008 IC campaign. Despite having a number of rookies, the Icebreakers are confident they can hold their own against Europe's best.

This weekend saw Finland take on the Norway Trolls in Helsinki, and although the Icebreakers were defeated 36-34, they were not by any means disgraced, with the Norwegian team featuring a large Australian contingent.

Coach Grant Siermans says the Finns are good across the ground, but are strongest in the midfield. "Ville Koivunen, Jani Saarinen and EU Cup all-star Mika Kupila will get plenty of the football and are also very physical. Their job is made easier by our very mobile ruckman Ville Suominen. The defence will be held up by Jukka Reiman and Juha-Antti Koskinen and the main target up forward will be Juuso Timosaari."

"Selection was initially undertaken through invitations which was then going to lead to trails combined with form, but unfortunately it turned into who was available, who could afford it and if they could get the time off work. The team will be arriving for the first game with either eighteen or nineteen players, and more might join the squad during the week."

Five members of the team played in the IC in Australia two years ago, and many have also played in EU Cups. However, most of the squad have only one game's experience on a full ground, which may test them against the British and Danish teams. All four domestic clubs are featured in the squad, including the new Vaasa Wombats side who are currently in development. The team is very close to all-Finnish, with the only third-country representatives being Irishman Keith Byrne and Colombian Fernando Leon, both of whom are veterans of Finnish Aussie Rules.

The Australian Rules Football League of Ireland has expanded from five teams to eight this season, and as a result the league is enjoying its most competitive season yet.

The Belfast Redbacks and the Clare Crows have returned, having previously been in the league, while the Galway-based Midwest Magpies are a brand new club.

Worldfootynews.com will be profiling all three new clubs in the coming days, beginning with Belfast.

The Croatian Knights have been an up-and-coming power of European footy in recent years, taking the silver on debut at the 9-a-side 2008 EU Cup in Hamburg, and then picking up the bronze at the 2009 event in front of a home crowd in Samobor, near the Croatian capital Zagreb.

This year sees the Knights step up to playing full-field footy for the first time, in the inaugural 16-a-side European Championships being held in Denmark and Sweden next month.

Croatian footy pioneer Kolja Koracak is managing the squad, which will consist of 20 players. "We selected from the pool of 32 players. At the end some got injured, some couldn't come because of work and other reasons, and so our list was easy to put together. We'll be taking 20 players to Sweden and Denmark, including 5 rookies." All three domestic clubs, the Zagreb Hawks, Agram Power and Velika Gorica Bombers, are represented in the national team.

Footy in Croatia has been helped along by the support of the AFL's Hawthorn Football Club, a fact reflected in the nation's first club being dubbed the Zagreb Hawks. The Hawthorn connection is also evident in Kolja's assessment of his team's stars, saying "Tomislav Cvetko is Buddy Franklin, Josip Kravar is Sam Mitchell, and Davor Deranja is Luke Hodge. 'nough said!"

At 44 years of age, Ante Loncar was set to be the squad's oldest member, but had to pull out. His 18 year old son Adam Loncar will be there however, being the youngest representative for the Knights in 2010. All squad members are Croatian citizens and grew up in Croatia, although Adam Loncar and Toni Grguric were born in Australia.

Koracak says the squad will be camping out in Denmark, with a lack of sponsors leaving a very tight travel budget. "The Croatian national team will sleep in tents in camp, because of lack of support from the country and beyond, even though this week we got so much press space after winning the tournament in Italy!"

With a reputation to uphold as a strong contender on the European stage, and a long history of Croatian champions in the AFL, the Knights will be eager to prove they can match it with all comers.

A perfect day for footy saw the 10th Brit Cup tournament run on the South coast, hosted by the local Southampton Titans. An annual tournament which only the European players from the UK clubs can compete in, the event has been held in a number of venues around the country and is a great chance for the regional clubs to level the playing field against their Aussie-rich London counterparts.

The Great Britain Bulldogs have named a squad drawn mainly from England's Southern and Central-North West leagues for their upcoming 2010 European Championships campaign. With the EC2010 coinciding with the AFL London finals series, a number of the GB regulars will be playing for their domestic clubs early August, which opens the opportunities for new faces among the Bulldogs.

GB coach Mark Pitura says the squad was chosen mostly from the teams that competed in the Brit Cup in Southampton on July 3rd, and is a good mix of youth and experience, lead by veterans Adam "Skippy" Bennett from Reading and Rob Fielder from Chippenham.

"As you can see, most players come from regional teams outside of London. A few exciting players to watch are Martyn Hinchey (Southampton Titans) in the ruck, 6 foot 6 Full forward Lee Tarn (Chippenham Redbacks) and goal sneak Mark Todd (Reading Kangaroos)."

The Bulldogs will be hoping for a strong showing at the Championships, having a history as being one of the "Big 3" alongside Ireland and Denmark, and being the only European nation ever to have defeated the Irish.

The re-branded Scottish Clansmen travelled abroad for the first time to the Four Nations Cup on July 3rd and 4th in Fontanafredda, northern Italy. The tournament was part of a Festival of Rugby and included the hosts Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Scotland has entered tournaments before, such as the EU Cup, but this was the first time the squad was exclusively players who are eligible for selection under the new Euro Cup rules. Having previously only played two Tests against Wales, the Clansmens' management team felt that this trip would be perfect preparation for the upcoming rematch against Wales, the first Test series against England and the Euro Cup in October.

The performances as much as the results have set the bench mark high for the remainder of the International season, with a competitive defeat to the highly rated Croatia and a comprehensive win over the Czech Republic. Scottish Head Coach Stevie Connor had his squad well prepared and highly motivated and the experience gained in Italy will be vital for the Clansmen in the upcoming matches.

The Central and North West Region of AFL Britain is fast approaching the final rounds of its first season, with the Manchester Mosquitoes having secured their place in the Grand Final after 7 rounds.

The race is on to see who will challenge the so far undefeated Mozzies in the decider, to be held in Wolverhampton on July24th. Huddersfield and Nottingham are both locked on points and have challenging matches scheduled for the final two rounds.

After a break this weekend for the Brit Cup, the next round of the CNW Region is on the 10th July in Manchester, with Sheffield vs Wolverhampton at 1pm and Huddersfield vs Manchester at 2.30pm. The season is far from over and it will be a race to the finish.

After a hopeful starting line-up of clubs for the season, the region finished with 5 regular clubs, the Sheffield Thunder, Huddersfield Rams, Manchester Mosquitoes, Nottingham Scorpions and Wolverhampton Wolverines.

Of those that didn't make the pitch in 2010, Birmingham are hoping to re-emerge next year, alongside Hull, Oxford and Peterborough who look set to make their belated debuts in 2011.

The third annual Coupe de France will kick off in Strasbourg this weekend, bringing together players from right across the country. After a season where they had to withdraw from the national league and focus on rebuilding their squad, the Strasbourg Kangaroos will be eager to show the rest of the nation's clubs that they can match it with the best.

The Paris Cockerels are hot favourites going into the tournament, hoping to add another back-to-back championship. Led by Icelandic-born footy veteran and former Denmark Vikings captain Palli Finnsson, the Parisians have been tough to defeat throughout their 2009-10 French national league, running out premiers.

The Bordeaux Bombers look likely to be the principle challengers to the Cockerels, having finished runners-up in the main season. Fred Zohar's charges are justifiably confident that they can make the final, and haven't given up on any dreams of knocking off the Cockerels for the cup.

The Toulouse Crocodiles are also banking on a strong performance, which could see them go all the way to the final. However they may be missing some of their key members for the tournament.

Rounding out the field will be a combined team from Languedoc-Roussillon, composed of players from the Montpellier Firesharks and the Perpignan Tigers. They also have the potential to surprise the field, with the French footy community noting that the Tigers were surprise finalists in last year's Coupe.

For more information, visit footballaustralien.com or the Strasbourg Kangourous' site.

The Finland AFL reached a new milestone last Tuesday with the first ever league game being played where both teams were comprised entirely of non-Australians.

The Salo Juggernauts, who have had a completely Finnish line-up for their entire 3 year history, took on the reigning premiers, the Turku Dockers, who rested their three Aussies for the match and had a line-up for the 9-a-side game that included eleven Finns, two Estonians and one Greek.

This report courtesy of Craig Primmer.

The Portsmouth Pirates from the AFL Britain's Southern Regional league recently hosted journalist Jordan Cross, who had a run with the Pirates in spite of his previous impression of the game as being mindlessly violent.

Cross' article can be read here on The News' website, including a video.

The Pirates started up only in 2009, and have since grown to be one of the strongest clubs in England's regional south, hosting the National Club Championships earlier this year where they finished runners-up to the Huddersfield Rams.