Ireland has been a great recent success in Australian football, but a few cracks have appeared in the past year.

A lightning premiership attracting teams from across Denmark, Sweden and the rest of Europe, the annual DAFL Sheep Station Cup will be played on the weekend of September 25th and 26th.

July the 10th was an important date for Aussie Rules in Central Europe. In Düsseldorf, Germany, five sides representing Belgium, Austria, Germany, France and Spain met to contest the second annual Central European championships.

Irishman Setanta O'hAilpin is on the rise for AFL club Carlton.

A year with more footy played in Germany than ever before, one that saw the Düsseldorf Lions enter the competition as club number five and a season culminating in a finals carnival in Berlin, 2004 was a year of consolidation for the AFL Germany.