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.

Just as Carlton's Michael Shields decides to head home to Ireland, two more young hopefuls have arrived in Australia. Carl Dias, 19, is a left footer from Kilmacud Crokes, Dublin, who plays through the midfield as well as having good goal-sense. Brian Donnelly, 20, from County Louth just southeast of the Northern Ireland border, is a tall defender, but reportedly quick over the ground and a good mark. Both are Gaelic footballers who have been invited to Adelaide for three week trials with the Crows. They arrived on 22nd July and have already had their first sessions.

Adelaide recruiting manager Matt Rendell (a former player with West Torrens, Fitzroy and Brisbane) made no secret of the fact that the club is looking further a-field with the looming player squeeze as two new clubs enter the AFL in 2011 and probably 2012. The Crows are impressed with the trialists' ability to read the play, but say it's early days in terms of handling the Australian footy and building body strength.

Timuçin Sindirgilioglu had a dream. Born and raised in Carlton, he played footy for his school, the Princes Hill Football Club, and was asked to try out for Carlton's under 19s team, the old development division of the VFL. His footballing career was however put on hold when his family moved back to Turkey in 1987.

Back in those days it was pretty hard for a teenager to set up a club whilst also getting used to a new culture and environment. Now, thanks to the internet and continuous communication with friends back in Melbourne during the past 10 years, his long-held dream is about to become a reality.

The Karsiyaka Dockers have hit the training track as the first footy club in Turkey, based in the western port city of Izmir. The Dockers hope to be playing matches against regional opposition and possibly other local teams by next year.

The Finland Icebreakers are making their debut this year, as one of the newer sides in the International footy community.

Footy has been played in Helsinki for a few years, with eight players first appearing as the Finnish Lions at the Prague Cup in late 2005. Since then, the Finns have rebranded the national team the Icebreakers. They formed two local teams last year with the creation of the Helsinki Heatseekers and Salo Juggernauts, and this year have kicked off a three-team domestic league.

Finland has had a few successes, with some CEAFL champion trophies heading to Helsinki, and put in a good showing at the EU Cup last year. However, the IC will be the biggest test yet for a team that only recently played its first 18-a-side test match.

Proving that the so-called Irish experiment is just that, an experiment, young Carlton recruit Michael Shields has joined the growing list of Irishmen to return to his homeland without making a success of an AFL career. The transition to a full contact, professional sporting environment can be too much for many prospective players. Some Australian draftees find the demands on their minds and bodies too great, so it's no surprise the toll is even greater for recruits drawn from a different sport on the other side of the world.

Although the announcement of the loss of the rookie-listed player is not likely to slow the search for international talent, it does come at a time when Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly continues to warn that AFL clubs are not equipped to handle the needs of such recruits.

Kennelly himself, injury permitting, becomes the third Gaelic recruit to play 150 VFL/AFL games, following Jim Stynes and Sean Wight (Scottish born/Irish raised). It's a great achievement, particularly as he has struggled through injuries this season, in one match dislocating his shoulder and knee in separate incidents, and last week popping his shoulder twice. But like Stynes before him, Kennelly battles on without missing matches.

Meanwhile the somewhat far-fetched but seriously considered idea of Western Sydney having a Sydney Celtic theme has been firmly dismissed by the AFL. The new side will look to embrace the new migrant communities of the area, which are by no means heavily Irish.

The West London Wildcats have taken out the 2008 Brit Cup, Britain's annual locals-only tournament. The Cats have won their share of Brit Cups before, taking five of the past six, but the real talking point of the day was the dominant debut of the ARUK Southern Redbacks, drawn from players across the ARUK's 9-a-side southern league.

After a close 5 point loss to the Wildcats in their first match, the Redbacks lifted with strong wins against Wandsworth, the Swans and Putney to make the final.

Led by best on ground Donny Mullen, the Wildcats were too strong in the final, with 16-year-old George Merrick doing a superb job in the ruck. Merrick is part of the junior Great Britain Bulldogs squad that will play 3 matches in Australia during the AFL International Cup. Joining Merrick with the Wildcats in the final were Ollie Ash (also a junior Bulldog) and Paul Avery (coach of the junior Bulldogs).

The Cup featured eight sides, with four from London (West London, Wandsworth, the Swans and Putney), three from regional England, (Reading, the Southern Redbacks and Nottingham) and the Wales Red Devils.

Next Sunday July 20th will see the grand final of the inaugural London under-16s league, with the game being held at Clapham Common. This year will also see the first appearance of the junior Bulldogs down under, with games planned against school sides from Geelong and Warrnambool so far. The Junior Bulldogs squad was named recently, available at AFLBritain.com.

There has been an unprecedented amount of activity by AFL clubs in regards to Ireland and young Irish players in recent weeks. While Ricky Nixon has been in Ireland, meeting with the GAA and setting up his recruiting program, Gerard Sholly has been upsetting many in the GAA for using their facility at Kingspan Breffni Park to try out a few young potential recruits for the Carlton Blues and the Brisbane Lions are looking to add to their Irish stable. Also making moves are the Adelaide Crows, with two youngsters heading down for a trial in August.