The Manchester tournament held last weekend saw four representative teams from around Britain - representing the best locals from the British ARFL, Scottish ARFL, Welsh AFL and Aussie Rules UK - mix it with the home-town Manchester Mosquitos for a five team tournament.

The BARFL's British Bulldogs finished the tournament undefeated with a massive percentage of 829.6% - having defeated the ARUK England Dragonslayers 86-1, Manchester 62-7, Wales 37-1 and Scotland 38-18. The SARFL's Scottish Puffins finished second overall on the points table, but as they were fielding more than the quota of Australians, the Grand Final saw the Bulldogs take on third-placed Manchester, winning 28-3.

Full scores follow.

The successful 2007 CEAFL Championships tournament hosted in Vienna earlier this year pitted many of the newer Australian Football countries on the continent against each other in what was a great exhibition of footy, played by a vast majority of non-Australians, with most of those running out on the paddock being nationals of the country represented by the jumper they pulled on for the day. Now the championships has honoured some of the competition's best players. Report courtesy of Julian "Rooster" Clark.

Saturday 25th August saw the Austria Kangaroos, Czech Lions and Croatian Knights descend on Prague for the second leg of 2007's Central Europe Tri-nations. The battle-hardened Croatian squad, featuring a few Croatian-Australians with experience kicking the footy down under, again proved too strong for the Czech and Austrian sides, although the Austrians were notably improved and broke through for their maiden tri-series win over the Czechs.

In the second part of our preview of the 2007 EU Cup and emerging nations of European Aussie Rules, we spoke to Germany's Malte Schudlich and Austria's Ben Chick. The 5 teams of the AFLG and the Vienna Kangaroos in the capital of Austria give a total six teams in the German-speaking areas of Europe, with at least one more on the cards for 2008.

Update - The report now also has an interview with England Dragonslayers' coach Rob Fielder.

The Nationalist in Ireland this morning reported that Brendan Murphy has returned from a trial with the Sydney Swans and will return to Sydney in November. It seems that the Swans will win the race to sign Murphy after it earlier seemed that Brisbane were the front runners to obtain his services.

As we reported some weeks ago it was expected he would be checking out the Brisbane setup (Lions in first for Irish Talents), and we also speculated that other clubs may try to sign up players already targeted by the Lions.

With news of Murphy today and Kevin Dyas yesterday coming to Melbourne to trial with the Magpies, the sentiment out of Ireland is one of disappointment for the Gaelic game and the poaching by Australian clubs, but support and well wishes for the individuals to go well in their new professional pursuits.

This year's European autumn will see the biggest season of test matches across northern Europe for a few years, with a few big clashes which will give a few indications of where teams stand leading up to neat year's IC. Heading the card are matches between the big three of European footy - the Irish Warriors hosting the Great Britain Bulldogs in Dublin, then travelling to the Danish city Århus to take on the Denmark Vikings.

Add to this the EU Cup, this year's Sweden-Denmark match and matches between the Scottish Puffins, the England (ARUK) Dragonslayers and newcomers the Welsh Red Dragons and possibly the biggest story of the whole schedule - an 18-a-side match on October 13th between the BARFL's Bulldogs and the ARUK's Dragonslayers. The stage is set for an encounter where both sides have a lot of respect on the line.

UPDATE - Our sources in Scotland tell us that while they have been talking to the guys in Wales about a game, this is not yet confirmed. Reports from ARUK that the Dragonslayers are to play Scotland it seems are also premature. According to the SARFL's Eddie McAvinchey: "Both interesting games for us to have (in theory) but in practice we may not be able to organise any of them, as the SARFL season isn't finished for a few weeks and then it may be getting too late to arrange anything."

Dromintee's Kevin Dyas was an integral part of his team drawing with All Ireland Club Champions Crossmaglen last week as Collingwood’s scout looked on at the Gaelic football fixture. A week later they lost to Crossmaglen and Dyas' season was over.

It now appears that Dyas is on his way to Australia for a month long trial with the Pies, just as Martin Clarke did in July 2006. It is also believed that Brisbane had been interested in Dyas and possibly also offered him a contract. Collingwood were able to keep Clarke under wraps when he came out just over a year ago, we think Dyas might get a little more attention – even if he is hidden away in the Lexus Centre.

It is unlikely that Dyas saw Martin Clarke cop the crude high hit from the Swans' Amon Buchanan on Saturday night but if he did it just might have him thinking twice about the conversion.

The stories and speculation as to where, when and by whom Australian rules has been played in Britain have been discussed at great length. A thriving league is said by many to have existed in the Clyde area of Scotland around World War I, although others claim the league is an urban legend. Similarly, there is much speculation as to whether footy could have gained - or maybe even did gain - a foothold around the turn of the 20th century with a touring British Lions rugby tour playing some matches under Australian rules while on tour.

Matches at Oxford and Cambridge Universities have been played for many decades, although neither institution has ever taken the sport past an annual novelty fixture or entered a side in the BARFL or ARUK.

But there was also a league - the Australian Rules Football League in England - which existed in the 1960s and 70s, supported by "Professional Australian in Britain" Rolf Harris among others. This league got a mention in the obituary of one Michael Cyril Hall, a Western Australian who died in May this year.