The Irish players in the AFL have been undergoing a tough time of late, with Tadhg Kennelly out injured, Setanta O’hAlpin experiencing a dip in form and Pearce Hanley playing his first senior game of the season before being dropped. There has however been some promising performances in the VFL with Tommy Walsh kicking his first goals in the sport for Sandringham and Michael Quinn impressing for the Bendigo Bombers, kicking 3 goals last week.

While footy clubs around the world work on setting up junior programs to bring youth talent to the game, one important source of youngsters should not be overlooked. That is school exchange programs. Each year there are hundreds of youths that come to Australia from overseas to attend school and a number of them inevitably end up playing Aussie rules with their local school or club competition.

Many of these youths show great promise, and it would be a shame to lose them to the game when they return home, often not realising that the game exists in their home country. German exchange student Bijan Muller is one such talented youth who has shown a natural talent for the Australian game. There will be many Socceroos fans out their who would welcome any dilution of sporting talent available to the German soccer team following their 4-0 defeat of Australia on Sunday.

The following article New cult hero at Hawks is from the Ararat Advertiser.

The biggest national tournament on the AFL Britain calendar is fast approaching, with this year's edition of the annual Brit Cup scheduled for Saturday July 3rd in Southampton. The tournament sees club and representative sides, drawn entirely for the EU players pool in the UK, compete over the course of a gruelling day.

It is also a key opportunity for players to prove themselves worthy of selection to the GB Bulldogs national team, who will be competing at both the EU Championships in Denmark and the International Cup in Australia within the next 18 months.

Teams can be either entered by a club, or representative of an area such as the Southern Region team which competed in 2009. The only stipulation is that all players must be eligible for EU status - no players classed as Australian or Rest of World are permitted. Games will consist of 12-a-side games using full AFL rules and be played on an oval, with a maximum bench size of 6 and a maximum squad size of 18.

Mr. Danish Football... from Andy Rew on Vimeo.

The AFL Sweden has announced its squad for the 2010 European Chapionships, with coach Daniel McClaer naming 26 players in what the league is rating as the strongest Swedish Elks side assembled to date.

Officially announced via the Swedish Footy Show, the squad is dominated by players from southern Sweden, with the Helsingborg Saints and Port Malmö Maulers providing sixteen players between them in the 26-man squad. The Göteborg Beserkers from the west have five representatives, the Stockholm league four and the Karlstad Eagles one.

Coach McClaer says this is the first time ever that they have had to do a proper selection process for the Swedish national team, with the majority of the squad chosen from national selection trials held on May 15th in Stockholm.

Captaining the Elks will be Johan Lantz from the Helsingborg Saints. Previous Sweden captain and Scandinavian footy veteran Andreas Svensson is also in the squad, along with another eight members of the Elks' 2008 International Cup team.

The Elks also have some international elements, with Englishman Daniel Scotford named alongside Americans Matt McMahan and Ross Levesque in the main squad, and Irishmen Aidan O'Reilly and Mark Rattigan listed as emergencies.

The Elks' draw sees them open the tournament against Croatia at midday on August 1st, followed by a clash with Germany two days later, then the final game of the pool rounds against Ireland on August 5th. The Elks and Irish would be early favourites to defeat both Croatia and Germany, meaning their clash on August 5th could see the winner go straight to the gold medal match. Whilst the Irish have traditionally been the team to beat in Europe, the home team Elks will be very keen to prove that they can match it with all comers.

The full squad list and Swedish Footy Show clip follow.

Rome's first-ever Australian rules football match was held last month, with the home town Roma Blues defeating Milano by 25 points.

Among the small crowd who braved the wet conditions to watch the match was former Australian deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, who is currently Australia's ambassador to the Vatican. Mr Fischer described the event as a strong standard, "better than a Hume league match", referring to the country footy league of his old electorate in southern NSW.

The Roma Blues have recruited around 30 players so far, after starting training earlier this year.

The match got some coverage in the Australian media, with this article appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In other footballing news, the AFL Italia has been awarded the rights to host the 2010 EU Cup in Milano later this year.

Norway's Tromsø Australian Football League have finally emerged from the polar winter and taken the field for 2010. 24 players made it to the first match on May 28th, including a healthy number of local Norwegians. Regular games are scheduled for Friday nights across the summer months.

The Norway Trolls also have an test against Finland in Helsinki coming up on July 17th. Last year saw the Norwegian national team make their first appearance, defeating Sweden in Karlstad, including three players who made the long trek south from Tromsø.

This year the northerners will again be hoping to have some representatives join the players from Oslo and Ås for the match in Helsinki. The Finnish Icebreakers for their part will be hoping for a good showing in the lead-up to their campaign at the first-ever European Championships, being held in Denmark and Sweden at the start of August.

Carlton's improving Irishman, Setanta O'hAilpin, is attracting increasing attention as a key in the Blues' forward line as they push for a top four finish in the 2010 AFL premiership race. With a fleet of small indigenous players complementing the tall import, the set up has become known as Setanta and his little helpers. "Carlos" has booted 24.13 so far this year, putting him equal 9th on the goalkicking ladder.

The notoriously shy player has always been reluctant to do media interviews, but recently conducted one with Martin Flanagan for The Age - Beyond the Lore and one for SEN radio below.

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The Danish Australian Football League (DAFL), Australian Football League Sweden (AFL Sweden) and the European Australian Football Association (EAFA) today announced the official schedule for the inaugural 16-a-side 2010 European Championships of Australian Football.

The schedule outlines the sixteen matches that will ultimately determine the European Champion until the next European Championships in 2013.

The participants are Europe’s best locally developed (non-Australian) international teams representing 8 different nations. As favorites, Ireland will be looking to continue its dominance in Australian Football in Europe, but will have strong competition from Great Britain and Germany, as well as host nations Denmark and Sweden.

As for Finland, Croatia and Iceland, they will be looking to make an impact, test themselves against the experienced teams, and use the tournament to continue preparations towards the 2011 International Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

The AFL Britain's Central and Northern Region has found its first full-size footy oval, with an agreement reached with the Manton Sports Club in Worksop, near Sheffield.

The new £1.2 Million pound venue hosts a 185m x 155m oval, which is fully securely fenced off with ample room around the oval for out of bounds and spectators, as well as a fully-licensed club house.

Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams says the people running Manton Colliery Athletics Club have been very supportive of the venue becoming a new base for British footy. "Half the battle finding grounds in England is the people behind the clubs, they have a dim view of new sports and are not very forthcoming when you approach them. But not here - Denise and her team are right behind new sports and anything sport related which gives youngsters new oppotunities in their life. It's near Sheffield, which is central to the whole country. The Midlands are central to England, but Sheffield is more central to the UK overall. People tend to forget about Scotland and the north east!"

The 18-a-side Central and Northern Warriors representative squad, made up of the best players from the AFL Britain's CNW and NE Divisions, will be holding their first Selection/Training day at the ground on 29th of May 2010.

The ground is set to also become the "Northern" Venue for England and Great Britain International games, selection trials and training camps.