The Brisbane Lions were able to fast track Colm Begley to AFL football in what seemed like an impossibly short amount of time. Now it looks like they have done it again with Pearce Hanley. And the word from those that have watched his form with the Suncoast Lions this season is that he is better by both foot and hand than Begley.

The Lions would be keen to give the homesick Irishman a taste of the big time to focus on his career in his adopted sport, but selection would not be a token effort. The Lions are pushing to make the finals and have applied to elevate the international rookie to the senior list, possibly to play as soon as this Saturday against Carlton.

Setanta O’hAilpin will travel to Germany next week for further medical treatment on his injured calf. O’hAilpin has not played since injuring his calf in round 15 and the decision to seek further medical treatment in Germany by Dr Muller-Wohlfahrt was made today.

“Setanta and his manager met with myself and Brett Ratten this morning to discuss the options available to assist his treatment and recovery. We believe this is the best option available to ensure Setanta is able to fully recover from this injury,” said Carlton General Manager Football Operations, Steven Icke.

While Mal Michael is heading into retirement, another international connection is being explored by the Essendon Football Club, who have 19 year old Limerick lad Ian Ryan in Melbourne to trial with the club. The Limerick Leader has reported that Ryan is the first known player from the county to try out for an AFL club. And as far as we know it is the first time the Bombers have trialled a Gaelic footballer. The report implies player agent Ricky Nixon was involved, although at last check Essendon were not one of his signed up AFL clubs.

Meanwhile Tyrone's Sean Cavanagh has reportedly turned down a second offer of a contract by Carlton, and Nixon's two day talent camp at Breaffy's International Sports Hotel in County Mayo is schedule for Tuesday, 26 August and Wednesday, 27 August.

Almost three years ago WFN reported here that the Oslo Trolls had formed. It's taken a bit of time, but the Trolls crew are still kicking on in the Norwegian capital and next weekend will host the first-ever match of Australian rules football in Norway.

Western Sweden's Karlstad Dragons will be making the trip west this weekend, with the 9-a-side game kicking off at Ekeberg Rugby Pitch in Oslo at 2pm on Saturday August 23. Some of the Trolls players have already been getting in some match practice, joining in with Gothenburg and Karlstad in AFL Sweden matches.

For more information on the Trolls, visit their Facebook group, or if you're reading this before Saturday, check the page for the Karlstad vs Oslo game.

With Oslo only a few hours drive from the clubs in western Sweden, hopefully we'll see some regular action for the Trolls in the near future. It also completes the set for footy in Scandinavia, with the code now played in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, with news of some action starting up in Iceland (hopefully some more on that later).

Last Saturday former Brit Brad Moran put in a star peformance in the AFL, booting Adelaide to victory against a gallant young Carlton side at AAMI Stadium. Moran's family is from England and only moved to Australia's Gold Coast region when he was a teenager. As a late-comer to Australian football, he was given surprisingly little time to develop at North Melbourne despite a great start to his career. Traded to the Crows, he has struggled with injury for West Adelaide in the local state league (the SANFL), and we mentioned his likely eligibility for Great Britain at the approaching International Cup. However the Bulldogs hierarchy were keen to focus on locally developed talent (Brits stick to home grown talent), an admirable pursuit, and as it turns out Moran now appears to be very much required by Adelaide at the business end of the season. We weren't going to follow this up, but a reader from Britain suggested the big fella deserved a write-up, and fair enough too.

The Finland Icebreakers, outclassed by Sweden six weeks ago, looked a different side as they cruised to a 33 point victory against the Stockholm Dynamite at Salo on Saturday.

The 8.12.60 to 3.9.27 win was spearheaded by Lasse Punttilla, whose best on ground performance was remarkable for the fact it was his first time ever playing a game of Australian Rules football.

"Lassie", who has previously played American Football, troubled the Swedish defenders in the first half, before stamping his mark on the midfield when he was moved to the centre at the start of the third term.

Zac Tuohy today confirmed that he will be heading to Melbourne for a trial with the Carlton Football Club. The Irish Independent reports that the Portlaoise clubman has slightly delayed his departure so that he can play with his Gaelic football club against Stradbally in the opening round of the Laois senior football championship.

"I'm going out there to Carlton on a trial basis," said Tuohy. "I was supposed to be going over on Saturday but I have delayed it because of the Stradbally game. I think I will be going over after that," he concluded. This comes just weeks after Michael Shields departed the Blues to return to Ireland.

The Sydney Swans have beaten out other AFL clubs such as Carlton and Brisbane to sign Irish talent Kyle Coney as an International Rookie. It also will remove Coney from Ricky Nixon’s scouting pool list which has several other AFL clubs on board. The Sydney move was foreshadowed as early as December 2007, and Coney has continued to impress with good form in Gaelic minor football this year. He will join fellow Irishmen Tadgh Kennelly and Brendan Murphy at the Swans later in the year, possibly in October after Tyrone’s minor team’s bid for the All Ireland title is over.

Coney is the first that we know of to be signed this year, and the big question really is how many other new Gaelic footballers will be nominated on AFL lists by the year’s end?

The noble Emu, Australia's "other national symbol", is somewhat underrepresented in the world of footy, particularly when compared with the Kangaroos, but also eclipsed by Wombats, Redbacks and Goannas. A massive grey bird somewhat similar to an ostrich, the Emu adorns Australia's coat of arms along with the Kangaroo - and it is famously said by Australians that neither animal is able to take a backwards step.

However, Germany's newest Aussie rules club is set to remedy this, with the Stuttgart Emus ready to pull on the green and white and join the AFL Germany in 2009.

The Emus are already in training, and have held a few scratch-matches with and against other German and French teams. Their first official match will take place in just over a month, when they take on the 5th-placed AFLG side at the German league's Grand Final carnival on September 6th.

The second annual 'Battle of the Roos' between Munich and Vienna will take-off August 30th in a small Tirolean village called Kössen, the home town of Austrian & Vienna Kangaroos captain Raoul.

According to Vienna Kangaroos president Ben Chick, "it's a great day with a lot of interest from the locals & a good social get together for the Vienna and Munich boys. Munich won in the wet last year but the Vienna Kangaroos have been doing some high-altitude training in preparation for this year's hit out."

The ground in Kössen is actually the landing spot for the paragliders from the mountain up the road. As Chick says, "the playing ground is a pretty smooth paddock - I have played on worse, although never where the goal posts have been cut down from the local forest!!"

"It's a fantastic location and on a good day they have 200+ people sitting back drinking a few beers at the bar after launching themselves - so we should have a decent crowd. Real Austrian country footy."

The Vienna Kangaroos remain Austria's only club, with the plans for a club in Graz still to get off the drawing board. Says Chick, "Unfortunately we havent seen much from the Graz guys this year. The main motivator and organiser was working on a project in Latvia so he hasn't been around and things have just fallen away." Apparently though, the rest of the guys in Graz remain keen and the Kangaroos remain hopeful for the club to finally make its debut in the near future.

For more information on the Battle of the Roos and footy in Austria, visit the Vienna Kangaroos website.