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.

The Zagreb Hawks are planning to host this year's CEAFL championships on May 3rd. While the list of attendees is still unconfirmed, this year could include teams from Switzerland and the Dubai Heat in addition to previous attendees possibly to return from France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and defending champions the Finland Icebreakers.

This would be the first time Croatia has hosted the event, with the home team Knights already in training. The Zagreb Hawks club has seen a steady increase in player numbers at training and has started holding an intra-club series between the "Hawks" and the "Saints".

With the Hawks and Saints playing a metro game on the first weekend of every month, there is a possibility that there may be two clubs in Zagreb as early as next year.

Further north in Helsinki, the Finland Icebreakers have also increased their number of domestic games in the lead-up to this year's IC, with the Helsinki Heatseekers and Halikko-Salo Juggernaughts playing matches against new sides representing Espoo and Turku.

The Sydney Swans latest Gaelic football recruit from Ireland, Brendan Murphy (pictured), has played his first game of Aussie Rules, taking part in a reserves grade trial match against the New South Wales ACT Rams.

"It's a moment I'll never forget, with my brother here watching on and all the boys here to support me," Murphy said. "It was great to get a game. In training you can only develop so far but in a match you learn so much more. I was just loving it out there, I could have played another match". He also slotted his first goal in Australian Football.

You can read more about Murphy in Irish rookie makes his debut, and he is obviously enjoying some craic with compatriot Tadhg Kennelly, as evidenced by their new hair cuts in Irish stars shave down.

The Putney Magpies are continuing the tradition of British clubs touring Europe for pre-season tour matches with a clash against the Flying Dutchmen in Amsterdam on April 13th.

The Magpies' first European tour will also be the first British club tour to the Netherlands. Joining the Dutchmen on the day will be players from the Brussels Saints, a club who have been quiet of late after a strong few seasons around 2005-06.

The North London Lions and West London Wildcats have been trailblazers in the touring tradition and this year will again be heading across Europe.

The Lions are heading to Berlin to take on the Crocodiles on the weekend of April 5-6th, with the Wildcats visiting Copenhagen on the same weekend to take on the Denmark Vikings, keen to start their IC preparations with a strong showing.

The Wildcats have visited Copenhagen, Stockholm, Barcelona and Croatia over the past four years, each time having a good hit out with the locals. The Lions have played in cities including Madrid, Strasbourg, Glasgow and Dublin.

The Catalan Australian Football League has rebounded this season, returning to four teams after 2007 saw the league go back to only Valls and Barcelona fighting it out for the title.

The founder club Belfry Valls will be joined by a second team from the town, dubbed the "Valls Fire". The Barcelona Stars have been renamed the Cornellà Bocs (Catalan for "Goats") and the fourth team will be based in the tiny nation of Andorra, situated high in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain.

The first round sees the Bocs take on the Fire on March 9th, followed by Belfry versus Andorra on March 16th.

In addition, interested parties are hoping to start teams in Pamplona and Valencia, two cities located not too far from the Catalan league.

The Catalan metropolis Barcelona is currently the likely host city for this year's EU Cup, to be held in October. Organisers are hoping for a delegation from the AFL to make an appearance, the event being just after the US Nationals where a few big names have been attendees in the past.