For many French people, the role Australia played in the first World War may seem pretty small, but there is one village in the north of France that will never forget what the Aussies did for them.

During the first and second battle of the Somme a large number of Australians and New Zealanders died to free the small village of Villers-Bretonneux. The village was almost destroyed during the conflict, and the Australian government helped to rebuild it. Since then the village is closely bonded to Australia, and a big sign in the school courtyard saying “Never forget Australia” is here to remind everyone of what the diggers did.

Every year Villers-Bretonneux host the second biggest ANZAC ceremony behind the one in Gallipoli, involving the Australian ambassador in France, and numbers of other French and Australian officials.

We all know how important is ANZAC day in the footy community, hence the officials of French footy along with Aussie Rules Europe (ARE) have decided to organise the first 18-a-side game in France since WWI (probably played in Villers-Bretonneux) as a part of the 2009 ANZAC Day ceremony.

Paul Roos today discussed Kennelly's departure from the club “As a Club we knew Tadhg was going to go at the end of this season and we accepted that and were respectful of Tadhg’s decision...based on the last two years and Tadhg’s genuine concern for his body, the injury problems he has had with his groins, shoulders and knees, it has fast-tracked that decision by six months.

“We have always known that family commitments back home and also a burning desire to play for his county Kerry and follow in the footsteps of his late father Tim Kennelly, would one day take him back. We are totally supportive of Tadhg’s decision. It has come six months before we thought it would but we completely understand that Tadhg wants to go back and have an impact. His genuine fear is that if he got injured this year, as has been the case the last couple of years, he would never fulfil his ambition that he has long had and it would genuinely haunt him for the rest of his life.” He went on to say “Tadhg’s contribution to the Swans has been sensational and led to our Premiership win in 2005, the sacrifices he has made to play with us, leaving his family and friends, have been extraordinary. His competitive drive has allowed him to become a star player of the AFL and we'll miss him but obviously respect his decision, will continue to support him and he will always be welcome back at the Football Club.”

Tadhg Kennelly is set to announce his retirement from the Sydney Swans and AFL football this afternoon at a scheduled press conference at 3.30 pm. Reports of his return home were reported here and denied by the Swans and by Kennelly himself in the past two weeks. Obviously the cat was let out of the bag early and further reports last week suggested that the Swan's players had already held a send off party for him, again the Swans denied his departure. But it seems that with Paul Roos' return to the club this week, Kennelly has had a sit down with the coach to inform him that he will be returning home to Ireland.

His departure would seem to make it less likely that Kyle Coney will return to the Swans despite Kennelly saying last week that he thought there was still some chance of his return. Kennelly's presence may have been the best tool the Swans have at their disposal to both encourage him to return and to help him to settle in. In fact it is possible that Coney's decision not to return to Sydney may have been prompted by the revelation of Kennelly's plans prior to Christmas.

The highest profile Irishman playing in the AFL, Tadhg Kennelly has had numerous stories over past years coming out of Ireland saying he was heading home - usually on the back of conversations or statements from Kennelly about how keen he was to win an All Ireland medal with Kerry. Today's article in The Kerryman though, indicates that he had made the decision on his career which will end immediately, with the Swans premiership player to return to Kerry "full time within the next two weeks".

The article in The Kerryman - appears here. worldfootynews.com has contacted the Swans for further information.

Update: The Sydney Swans have made the following statement on the matter "Tadhg signed a three year contract, which was for seasons 2007, 2008 and 2009. He is back in training with the Sydney Swans and preparing for the season ahead." Which would seem to put the matter to rest.

It was today reported that Kyle Coney will not return to Australia to join the Sydney Swans, who returned to training in Sydney yesterday. Coney wants to play for his GAA club Ardboe and hopefully for Tyrone county side. Reports before the New Year did indicate that he was considering not returning but had been convinced to return by his countrymen at the Swans in Kennelly and Murphy.

The article in the Irish Times quotes Coney as saying “I'm staying in Ireland for the time being," Coney said today. "I was scheduled to go back on 2 January but the time came to make a decision and I decided not to go back…I weighed up my options when I was in Australia. Now I want to keep my options open and I want to be playing football for Ardboe and Tyrone.”

While this sounds like he may consider returning to Sydney other statements in the article make it seem unlikely “It was a very, very big decision. It took a lot of thinking but in my opinion, I've made the right decision," he told BBC Sport. "About a week after I came home (for Christmas), I said to my family that this is where I want to be playing football."

Many challenges await Irish Gaelic games players when recruited to AFL clubs. Full time training, a different shaped ball, a whole new country. Part of that change is the weather. Despite Australia occupying an entire continent with varying weather patterns, heat is the one thing in common. Summer is always hot - very hot.

That's something that Adelaide's recent recruit Brian Donnelly has only just had a sample of. After several weeks training with the South Australian team, the 20 year old from County Louth has experienced what has been an unusually mild start to the Adelaide summer. Maximum temperatures have rarely gone above 27 degrees, leaving more than a few locals grumbling about the lack of beach weather (although a few rainy days have been welcome respite from the drought).

Donnelly is 193cm and 82kg and the Adelaide Crows have so far been impressed with his abilities, though recruiting manager Matt Rendell has said the club would be happy if he holds down half back or centre-half back in the SANFL Reserves in 2009 (he has been mini-drafted to Glenelg), perhaps breaking through for a few SA League games; obviously Adelaide are not expecting his AFL debut this year.

The import is quoted in the article Irish recruit hot to trot as not thinking the weather so far has been mild and saying "It's pretty warm for me. I heard it gets up over 40 degrees Celsius, so [when it does] I'll be hiding". It will be a tough pre-season for him if the usual summer kicks in - extended periods with daily maxima above 35 degrees and occasional peaks of over 42. Last March had what news reports described as an "unenviable" Australian capital city record of 15 successive days of 35 or more, with one report citing a climate model that suggested it was a 1 in 3000 year event. No doubt Donnelly will be happy if it's that long before the next one strikes.

Also more on Donnelly in Irishman hammers out new football life, in which he discusses the step up in training required for the AFL.

Last December we reported on the formation of the Bordeaux Bombers - France's third club. Since then, 2008 has seen the creation of the Montpellier Fire Sharks on the Mediterranean coast and the rebirth of footy in northern Catalonia, with the creation of the Perpignan Tigers.

This month sees the French footballing fraternity welcome new clubs in the cities of Aix-en-Provence and Toulouse. The Aix Rascasses will be the first club in France's south-east, the name "Rascasse" translating as Scorpionfish in English - a venomous inhabitant of the waters around Marseille and the Côte d'Azur.

The Toulouse Crocodiles will bring footy to another of France's main centres. With Toulouse, Montpellier and Perpignan all within a few hours' drive of each other, and Bordeaux, Aix and the Catalan league not too much further in either direction, the future looks promising for an area that only 12 months ago had no clubs at all.

Late in 2007 and early in 2008 AFL Britain was formed from the British Australian Rules Football League with the intention of splitting the duties of the committee such that the individual football leagues could operate somewhat independently within the broader framework of AFL Britain. This was to free up AFL Britain to concentrate on longer term strategic goals rather than day to day running of the London leagues, as well as to provide an umbrella structure over the very fractured footy landscape, particularly in England.

12 months on and the 2009 committee has been elected, with outgoing President Sam Percy stepping aside as he predicted a year ago, having overseen some of his goals but true unity remaining elusive. He now intends to focus on the running of the AFL London leagues, while committee-member Glen Ocsko has moved up to take on the role of President.

The Australian Rules Football League Ireland (ARFLI) have had many ups and downs in their short history, although two things have always been assured - a strong squad sent to the International Cups and strong clubs out of Dublin.

But away from the Republic's capital only the Leeside Lions have thrived. Several regional sides have come and gone, such as the Clare Crows (no longer active). However in 2008 momentum has been building, and although there can be no guarantees, there are real hopes for several new clubs in time for the 2009 season.

We've previously reported on attempts to kickstart the Mayo Mariners and Kingdom Kangaroos (see ARFLI season running, Mayo and Kerry clubs postponed). Those efforts are continuing and joining them in the race to start next season are the Midwest Magpies, to be based in Galway. The club has been established by Eoin Budds, Aiden Cunningham and National team player Ray Colleran. They are looking for players and officials. More details on the ARFLI website here.

Ironically the key to having more teams in ARFLI is just that - having more teams. By increasing the number of regional sides there will be less travel and more local rivalries, thus improving the chances of retaining players and indeed clubs. Success should in theory breed success. After several false starts it would be tremendous to see ARFLI expand to 7 or 8 clubs in 2009, and it would go part way to ensuring the Warriors continue to keep pace with nations such as PNG, New Zealand and South Africa, at least in the short term.

Now the wind and rain have settled back into the British Isles, there is a chance to look back at a manically busy year of footy in Great Britain. Alongside a steadily developing raft of domestic competitions, 2008 saw huge growth in international footy being played and planned for the near future, with adult and junior fixtures being played in Britain, mainland Europe and Australia.

Probably foremost in many minds was the International Cup (IC), the tri-annual event attended by footy playing nations from across the globe and a chance for the best of the Brits to test themselves against their peers from 4 continents.

Focused preparation had been underway for over a year, giving the coaching staff opportunities to see many more players in action and decide where they could fit into the game plan.

A benefit of this was the chance to look outside the traditional recruiting grounds of the London-based competitions, with 12 players selected from clubs across regional England and the fledgling Welsh league – a real endorsement of the development of British players outside the Aussie-laden and more experienced clubs in London.