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.

The West London Wildcats have again crushed their rivals to win two of the three senior Grand Finals in the finale to the British Australian Rules Football League's 2007 season. The Wildcats were home by 90 points over the Wandsworth Demons in the Premiership League after their second side, the Sheperds Bush Raiders (pictured at left), knocked over Wandsworth's second team, the Clapham Demons, by 46 points in the Conference League final. It wasn't all doom and gloom for Wandsworth, as their South London squad savoured victory by 31 points against the Wildcats' third side, the Ealing Emus, to end the inaugural Social League season.

Eleven teams are currently scheduled to take to the pitch for this year's EU Cup, with a diverse range of team backgrounds. Although this year's cup will include a quota of non-Australians in the squads, there is great variation between the local content of teams - some based heavily around Australians, some consisting entirely of locals. The selection processes relfect the difference stages of development the clubs display - some teams have active local leagues and a formal selection process, some have to work pretty hard to get fifteen guys together for the tournament.

WFN recently caught up with Pere Casan from Catalonia, Marc Jund from France and Israel Barker from Finland to see how their preparations are going.

The Newcastle Centurions and their founder Rick Shrowder were in the news this week, with a summary of the first season for the Aussie Rules UK northern league and a preview of this weekend's grand final in Newcastle's "the Journal". Shrowder, who played for SANFL club Norwood until he was around 20, talks about footy in the area and his plans for the future, including taking the Centurions from a social-based side to more of an organised club.

Full article can be read here.

The Reading Kangaroos are a well-established, fairly well travelled UK footy club. Based 40 miles West of London, England, the club has enjoyed success in the BARFL regional league (2 Grand Final wins), the Nordic Sheep Station Cup (3 wins) and has played in Denmark, Sweden, France and the US. This year, the club made the step up to the London Conference, a 16-a-side competition with a 14 Aussie/2 EU player split. Being outside the capital, it’s tough for regional clubs to field anywhere near that number, but it does enable more British players to play against, and learn from, their more experienced Antipodean cousins.

This report from Reading Roos President Adam Bennett.

Regular readers will recall that the Manchester Mosquitoes were set to host the 2007 Brit Cup, the annual event for British and other EU players to compete purely against each other, but due to flooding the tournament was transferred to London. Kat Conner, the Mozzies' President, explained at the time that the club lost money over the loss of the event after they had gone to great lengths to ensure facilities were in place. Other clubs understand the effort that goes into such preparations and shared Manchester's disappointment. At the time Manchester and at least one other group expressed a hope that something could be arranged later in the season, and this is it.

The club is hosting a carnival from 12 noon on 8th September in Manchester at Turn Moss. Conner explained that the carnival is open to all Aussie Rules team from across the country (and no doubt any from further afield), with entries needed by COB 24th August. So far they have teams from Wales, Scotland, Reading, the British Bulldogs national squad and of course the Mozzies themselves. "It's a 12 a side comp with teams of 18 (6 on the bench), max 8 Aussies per team".

More information will appear on www.manchesteraussierules.com in the next few weeks. Note also that in our Brit Cup story we reported some suggested improvements to the tournament from Wales' Bryce Stone, and said we'd bring you a full report later. Bryce has decided that although those suggestions were meant to be constructive it's probably best to keep them out of the public arena and we will respect that decision.