The traditional opener to the London footy season, the ANZAC Cup, has been run and won, with the Wandsworth Demons taking the day. The tournament also saw Great Britain's national side in action against the best players in the land and they fared very well in an a further encouraging sign for their chances Down Under later in the year.

As usual the event was staged as part of the ANZAC Sports Challenge, held last Saturday (26/04/08) at Twyford Park, Acton, England. Against quality opposition in North London, the Bulldogs twice hit the post only to lose by five points. Their match against the London Swans was more successful, winning by two goals. But up against the very top sides with a host of dominant Aussies the Brits were still going to fall well short, being well beaten by Wandsworth Demons.

As it turned out, there was no shame in the result, as the Demons had such a great a day, they went on to easily defeat European powerhouse the West London Wildcats in the final, successfully defending their 2007 title.

A full report on the tournament can be read here on the AFL Great Britain website: Wandsworth Demons Win ANZAC Cup.

On Saturday May 3rd, Karlstad is set to host the largest gathering of Australian Football participants ever in Sweden. As many as 10 clubs from all over the country will descend on Värmland to compete in the inaugural Swedish Lightning Tournament, the "VB Cup".

The 2008 VB Cup will be a one-day 9-a-side tournament between club sides from across Sweden, with an outside chance the Oslo Trolls from Norway may make their long-awaited debut.

The tournament will also be an important step in getting the best local talent in the country together for the Swedish Elks' International Cup preparations, with numbers in Sweden now around 300 regular players - two-thirds of which are locals.

The newly-reformed AFL Britain is soon to kick off the 2008 season, with draws for the London, Southern and Northern regions released and Scotland already playing.

The ARUK-run Southern league features the new Chippenham Redbacks side, although Thanet and Swindon are gone from last year. The Northern league has held steady with four clubs back in the race for the title. The Central league, this year to feature clubs including the existing Manchester Mozzies and Nottingham Scorpions alongside some new teams, will release its feature in the near future.

The pre-season ANZAC Cup will be held in London this Saturday, with the British Bulldogs to compete as part of their preparation for this year's International Cup. As the ANZAC Cup has no eligibility rules, the all-local Bulldogs will likely be up against some seasoned Australian opposition on the day.

The British Bulldogs showed some major improvement last year, giving the Irish a thumping in Dublin to claim bragging rights as the strongest national team in Europe. With a number of training camps already held, and a series of practice matches coming up, the Bulldogs may be a major threat to the top sides in Melbourne and Warrnambool come August.

In other exciting news from England, the under 16s league in London is looking likely to go ahead, featuring teams from schools running junior footy programs.

For more information on the upcoming season, visit the AFL Britain's new website at www.AFLGreatBritain.com.

The Edinburgh Australian Rules Football side has won the 2008 Walkabout Haggis Cup competition in Glasgow. The competition, held on Saturday 12th April, survived 2 late pitch cancellations by Glasgow City Council to bounce back in great style at a damp Bellahouston Park.

The tournament saw Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Dublin Demons, the Welsh Red Devils and the England Dragonslayers joined by the new Aberdeen footy club for the first time, with Edinburgh too good for the Dublin Demons in the final.

Council officials pulled the plug on the use of a rain-affected Victoria Park Oval late on Friday afternoon, giving organizers less than 24 hours notice of the cancellation. A substitute venue was organised by the SARFL at Nethercraigs at short notice, only to again be cancelled incredibly by council officials on the morning of the competition, with no solutions being offered to save the competition.

The Finland Icebreakers played a 14-a-side friendly match against Stockholm's Södermalm Blue Saints on the weekend, with the Icebreakers winning three quarters but ultimately going down 75-37.

According to Finland's Heikillä Kimmo, "Finland's team is young on average and still learning the ecrets of Footy, although the skill level has improved a lot since last season. Test matches against Sweden are valued practice for Finland and are best we can get at the moment since the overall skill level in Sweden is quite high amongst the footy nations in Europe. The more international games Finland can get, the better it is."

The game was played in windy conditions, at a very chilly 3°C. The Finns rated the match as good training, considering their experience has mainly been 9-a-side footy until this game. Next step will be an 18-a-side Test against Sweden in Salo, Finland on the 26th of July, with a return leg in Sweden later this year. The Salo Test will be the first 18-a-side game ever held in Finland.

The Southampton Titans held the first "Titanic Cup" a few weeks ago, with the Reading Roos defeating the Titans, Sussex Swans, Bournemouth Demons and Chippenham Redbacks for the trophy. Leading goalkicker for the tournament was Reading and Great Britain Full Forward Andy Whitaker.

Despite cold, wet and windy weather seeing the games struggle on in the mud, the day was a great success and the Titans hope for the event to become a regular pre-season fixture.

This report courtesy of Southampton Titans' President Michael Krischunas.

Journalist Jake Niall has an interesting piece on the Real Footy website regarding Carlton's Irish O'hAilpin brothers. Niall discusses the players' futures with Carlton football operations manager, Stephen Icke. Whilst Icke plays down the angle that the Blues' patience is running out, Niall makes a persuasive argument that this author tends to reluctantly agree with.

Whilst we've long noted the achievements of Setanta (pictured leftmost) and Aisake, we've also questioned whether their conversion to first choice AFL footballers will be a success. General opinion amongst the football public has ranged from those Carlton faithful sure they will be champions, to sceptics who say they won't be around in 12 months. So how are their careers progressing?

The newly rechristened Welsh Australian Rules Football League hosted a pre-season friendly tournament on the weekend, with the Manchester Mosquitoes, Bristol Dockers and new team Chippenham Redbacks converging on Cardiff for a four-team round robin with the WARFL Red Devils.

The Bristol Dockers went through the day undefeated, with Manchester taking second spot with a 2-1 record. Newbies Chippenham had a tough day at the office, finishing without a win - although only went down to the Welsh 4.4.28 to 4.0.24.

The Welsh ARFL Red Devils will next tour to Scotland this weekend for the Haggis Cup, hoping to show their development since footy began in Wales last year. This year they are going it alone without any English sides in the comp, with the season kicking off next month.

Gaelic footballer Declan Lally is reportedly on his way to Australia to switch codes. Lally looks to have left his St Brigid's team and Dublin County to take up Aussie Rules. Lally was on the 2006 Dublin side that won the 2006 Leinster senior football championship against Offaly and on Dublin’s winning team for the 2008 O'Byrne Cup winning team which defeated Longford in the final. In recent times Lally was dropped from the Dublin senior football squad and that has prompted his move.

The report on The Press Association site suggests he will be meeting with a “team manager and club chairman of an unnamed Australian rules club” in Sydney (but not with the Sydney Swans). It looks like he will try to be placed with a feeder club for 2008 with hopes of making it to an AFL list for 2009. Given that Eddie McGuire has recently been in talks with the Dublin Blues in relation to his Collingwood AFL club playing them in a future International Rules clash, we might speculate that Lally could become a Magpie. If Collingwood were the club involved we may see Lally line up at in the black and white stripes in the VFL near future. Carlton and Brisbane’s taste for Irish recruits would also put them high on the list of possible clubs vying for the Dubliner’s services, but we can’t rule out other clubs getting on the Irish bandwagon. Against him is that players often take time to adapt and AFL clubs have therefore targeted younger players, so at 26, his age may be a deterent

And Lally may get a chance to see his countrymen up close later in the year, with the AFL expected to shortly announce whether they can squeeze in the International Rules series against the Irish this October. The GAA appears to have given the go ahead for the series to continue and the ball is in the AFL’s court as to whether 2008 will see its return under the conditions agreed upon when the two bodies met in Dubai earlier this year.

With several new Irish players on AFL rookie lists, it will be interesting to watch their progress in 2008 and see how many might get a chance at the top level. Meanwhile, four players from Ireland were named in their club's starting line-ups for Round 1 of the AFL season. Setanta O'hAilpin started the year in Carlton's senior side (though ultimately used off the bench), Tadhg Kennelly has been named in the back pocket for Sydney, Colm Begley off half-back for Brisbane and Martin Clarke at half-forward for Collingwood.

Disappointingly Setanta was used in the ruck where Carlton are under-manned but the tall Fijian Irishman again struggled to get his hand to the ball. His brief time in the forward line yielded 1.1 and he's also looked more accomplished in the backlines previously. Hopefully when the Blues establish a better ruck setup Setanta will be used elsewhere, rather than demoted.