While the AFL grand final fast approaching, many leagues around the world have already completed their premiership seasons.

Last month saw the Northern and Southern regional premierships going to Newcastle and Southampton respectively, the Cardiff Double Blues too strong in Wales, and the rampaging West London football club taking out the flag in all three London divisions.

While it was first time the West London club had taken out the Social division, it was their fifth consecutive crown in the Premiership and eight straight in the Conference.

Reports courtesy of AFL Britain and the West London Wildcats FC.

France, Catalonia, Spain, Argentina, Senegal and Andorra met in the Catalan city of Valls last week to compete for the inaugural "9-a-side World Cup". France and Catalonia went through the pool stages undefeated, had big wins in their semi-finals, then finished with a tight contest in the final, with the French ultimately succeeding 9.6 (60) to 6.4 (40).

The Adelaide Crows will take a chance on Irishman Brian Donnelly and rookie list him in this year’s rookie draft. The 20 year old Cooley Kickhams gaelic footballer trialled earlier in the year in Adelaide along with Carl Dias who will not be listed by the Crows at this stage. On the Irish Herald.ie website Adelaide’s football manager John Reid said "It is an exciting step for this club to take but although we think Brian has the potential to develop quickly we also have realistic expectations"

Donnelly told The Argus that the Adelaide club gave him no indications that they would make him an offer “I had no idea. I was just waiting for the call…I’m very happy with the news, and everyone at home is delighted” The Crows take on Collingwood at AAMI Stadium today in the First Elimination final in Adelaide.

The Oslo Trolls have celebrated the first ever game of Australian rules football in Norway with a thumping win over Western Sweden's Karlstad Dragons. With a side boasting plenty of Australian experience, the Trolls ran away to a 155-point victory, finishing 33.20.218 to Karlstad 9.9.63.

A big local crowd turned out at Oslo’s Ekeberg Rugby Ground to witness this historic day of Aussie Rules Footy, and the newly-formed local side bounced out of the blocks, posting the first eight goals of the match before the Dragons could manage a few majors late in the first quarter.

The Dragons side featured a few impressive new recruits, but were missing some of their more seasoned Swedish talent in Australia on International Cup duties.

The big win to the Trolls should give the club great impetus for building a permanent team in Oslo. The Dragons will take some lessons away from the game and regroup, and will look forward to a more competitive showing against the Trolls next time.

Source: Stuart Roberts from the Karlstad Dragons AFC. Full report available on the Dragons' website.

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.