The first ever Australian football team to represent Norway has conquered national-rivals Sweden in the inaugural match between the two countries.

The Norway Trolls team, composed half of Norwegian nationals, plus a Czech, a New Zealander, and a group of Australians including one woman, ran out 9.7.61 to 4.6.30 victors over the Elks in icy conditions at Karlstad in Sweden.

Thanks to David Stone from Norway for this report.

In probably the last footy of the year for the British representative team, the Danish Vikings were repelled from our shores with far more success than many of our medieval ancestors. In the first match under new Head Coach Mark Pitura, the Bulldogs ground out a well-contested win, 76-63 over their European neighbours.

Along with the Irish Warriors, the Danish and British teams are probably the strongest teams playing the full version of the game in Europe and the efforts to put in place regular fixtures between the nations will really benefit the squads in their preparation for the International Cup in 2011.

The England Dragonslayers yesterday defeated the Flying Dutchmen 81-57 in the final of the 2009 EU Cup held in the Croatian town of Samobor, taking their second EU Cup title in succession.

The Dragonslayers were undefeated in the pool rounds, going into the semis against the Spain Bulls. The Bulls had finished top of pool D on percentage, despite having lost to the Irish Exiles by a point earlier that day.

The Dutchmen upset Germany by a point in the pool rounds, placing them in first position in their group. They met host nation Croatia in the semi-final, again pulling off something of an upset to defeat the Knights.

Croatia took out third place in the tournament, comfortably accounting for Spain in the third-place playoff.

Of the newcomers, the Irish Exiles eventually took out 6th place, going down to Scotland in the playoff for fifth. Iceland defeated the EU Crusaders for ninth place, while Italy broke through for their maiden victory over the Czech Republic to avoid the wooden spoon, then defeated Austria in the playoff for 13th. The Andorra Crows were defeated in their Bowl semi final against the Crusaders, finishing 11th overall.

All scores are available on the Footy Record, a full report will be on worldfootynews.com in the next few days.

The Cymru Red Dragons, the Welsh national Australian rules side, will this year hold a two-test series against the Scottish Puffins, both matches played 12-a-side with only nationals of the respective countries eligible to play.

The first match will be played on October 17th in Glasgow, with the second leg being held in Cardiff the following Saturday. The Red Dragons will be eager to record their first win for the year, after being defeated in both matches of the Dragon Cup challenge series against the England Dragonslayers in September. In the first leg played in Cardiff on September 12th, the English came away with a tight 54-49 victory, followed by a comfortable 67-point win the following week in London.

Scotland on the other hand will still be fresh from their EU Cup campaign and will be keen to win at home against the Welsh. Scottish footy is currently in a rebuilding phase, with the Scottish ARFL having restructured in 2009 to include a club in Aberdeen and consolidate the Edinburgh and Glasgow sides. Plans for the future of Australian rules in Scotland include possible clubs in Dundee and Stirling.

The Welsh Australian Rules Football League completed their first full four-team season in 2009, with strong growth in the clubs in South Wales seeing plans laid for a new club in the town of Barry, nicknamed the Vale Warriors and wearing the colours of former SANFL club Woodville.

The draw for the 2009 EU Cup is online, with the 15 sides divided into three pools of four and one of three.

The match schedule and pools are available on the Footy Record here. Scores will be updated via TFR throughout the tournament.

2009 has been a great season for the Paris Cockerels who confirmed their leadership in French footy, winning both the 2009 French Championship and the French Cup. The Parisians remain undefeated in their domestic competition, but are still looking for a win against a non French team.

The French footy community has elected to change to a winter season for 2009-10, featuring Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier and Perpignan, together with the Andorra Crows. As part of their pre-season warm up, the Cockerels hosted their northern rival, the Flying Dutchmen, for a now traditional pre-season friendly.

Eager to win this game, the Parisians were off to a flying start, leading 4 goals to none after ten minutes, something the Cockerels are not familiar with when it comes to Europeans teams. But the Dutch did not back down and came back to only one goal at quarter time. The second quarter saw the Dutchmen taking the lead, leaving their French opponents only a handful of points behind.

The game got away from the Cockerels in the third quarter with the Dutch kicking 4 goals to none. As usual, the French fought back in the last quarter, kicking 3 goals to one thanks to their Icelandic captain Pall Finnsson, but the Dutch had score too many behinds during the game for the Cockerels to regain the lead. Once again the French had to let the game go to a stronger Dutch team.

The final score: Paris Cockerels 9.8 (62) v Flying Dutchmen 11.21 (87).

The Parisians will now focus on their second pre-season friendly against Danish club the Århus Bombers in October. The 2009-10 French championship is scheduled to begin in November, as is the second Paris International Rules Cup against the French capital's resident GAA club.

In the fourth and final preview of teams for the 2009 EU Cup, WFN spoke to Luke McBride from Germany, Dante Zandveld from the Netherlands, Ronan Moran from the Irish Exiles and Jono Newman from the EU Crusaders.

The Germans are undefeated in international competition this year, having hosted a full-field test against Finland and a 9-a-side clash with the Czech Republic. Whilst coach McBride is an Australian, their full squad are Germans and they will be very keen to show they have what it takes to match it with the best in Europe.

The Dutch have had a year of growth, laying the foundations for a local league to commence next year. Their national side the Flying Dutchmen has played friendlies against the Paris, Rheinland and Berlin clubs during 2008, being undefeated thus far.

The Irish Exiles, a team formed mainly of Irishmen playing Aussie Rules in the UK, could be a very strong side depending who they can bring to Zagreb. Their only match to date was a clash against the 2008 EU Cup champions the England Dragonslayers in early September, where the Irish showed plenty of class in taking out victory.

Finally to the Crusaders, who perhaps fittingly in the first year the EU Cup is held outside the EU, are captained by a resident of non-EU nation Switzerland and are largely made up of citizens of non-EU nation Croatia. The Crusaders have a mix of both experienced hands and newcomers and could surprise a few sides.

With the Crusaders, the tournament will feature 15 sides, with Catalonia and Russia missing from the original 16 sides hoped for by organisers. The Catalans pulled out very recently due to financial issues, whilst the Russian squad, a project of a group of Rugby league players from Moscow, ultimately couldn't make the starting line after much initial promise.

In what would come as a shock to most, Irishman Martin Clarke has decided not to pursue a new playing contract and return to his homeland after three seasons with Collingwood. Clarke, who turns 22 in November, played 46 AFL games with the Magpies after he came to Collingwood at the end of 2006 from County Down on a two-year international rookie contract.

He made his rapid ascent to senior AFL football with his debut in round 12, 2007 against Sydney after being temporarily elevated to the senior list due to a long-term injury, and earned a permanent spot on the senior list for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Clarke’s last AFL game was against Sydney in round 12 this year, and he was named as an emergency for the preliminary final against Geelong.

He will return to Ireland to study teaching and be with his family.

In worldfootynews.com's third preview of teams for the 2009 EU Cup, we spoke with coach of the England Dragonslayers (and new assistant coach of the GB Bulldogs) Robert Fielder about their preparations for defending the title, as well as Juan Martin and Antonio Avila in Spain and Doug Pate in Andorra about their respective teams.

Footy in the Madrid area took an important next step this year with the creation of a second team and the commencement of a local league. The Andorrans completed their debut season in the Catalan league and will be keen to make a good impression in their first EU Cup appearance.

In other EU Cup news, team Catalonia have announced their withdrawal due to financial difficulties, meaning organisers are currently looking at 14 national sides, plus the EU Crusaders to be confirmed. A finalised draw will be available soon.

Our final preview, covering the Irish Exiles, Germany and the Netherlands, will be on WFN soon.

AFL Britain has named a new Head Coach and Assistant Coach for the Great Britain Bulldogs, to prepare for and contest the upcoming International Cup in 2011 and beyond. Since the initial event in 2002, the Bulldogs have developed steadily and have been recognised as one of the stronger European teams and equal 9th in the world according to the 2008 World Footy News rankings. Now the new coaching pair have the task of taking the squad to the next level, to compete with the increasingly professional approach apparent in such teams as Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and South Africa.