The Carlton Blues may be having their issues on and off the field recently. But on the weekend a shining light for the club was the debut of Irishman Ciaran Sheehan (who first trialled with Carlton in 2009)  for the club on Saturday against the Gold Coast.

The lad from County Cork had 8 kicks, 5 handballs, 5 marks and two tackles.  He also had two "goal assists" with some impressive delivery to Carltons forwards.

Video of Sheehan in action and interview after the game can be seen below. 

Tomorrow sees the AFL London Grand Final matches take place as footy in London reaches the season crescendo. Thanks to Chris Rea for the previews.

PREMIERSHIP DIVISION WANDSWORTH - DEMONS VS WEST LONDON WILDCATS

Once again the old rivals will meet in an AFL London decider.   If games to date this year are any indication, this one will be a ferocious contest. It has three years since these two proud Clubs last faced off in a Grand Final.  Don’t expect that to reduce the tension however, as over the course of 25 years of Aussie Rules footy in London there is no bigger rivalry.

The Demons rebuilt over the off Season, following a disappointing 2013 (by their standards). With plenty of new recruits joining and new leadership from within, they tackled 2014 with renewed confidence.   Their first (and only) misstep was a 1 point loss to the Wildcats in Round One and since then the Demons have taken all before them.  A narrow win over the Wildcats earlier in the finals series gave them a direct path to the Grand Final, and they’ll be hoping the extra rest gives them an edge.

The Manchester Mosquitoes strengthened any claims that they are the powerhouse of the AFLCNE competition when they dispatched a worthy foe in the Huddersfield Rams in the 2014 Grand Final.

Clubs often don’t want to blow their own trumpets too loudly for fear of setting themselves up as the hunted, but the statistics for Manchester are impressive. The last five years has now netted four grand final appearances for three premierships: a consistency that would be the envy of all other opponents.

After finishing the home and away season on top of the ladder, undefeated but sharing a controversial tie with the Wolverhampton Wolverines in Round Three, the Mozzies ran out comfortable winners in their semi-final against the Birmingham Bears. The Huddersfield Rams finishedthird after the home and away season and had to get past the highly improved Nottingham Scorpions to reach the grand-final, which they did.

On 2 August 2014 the small town of Drniš in Dalmatia, Croatia, will play host to a friendly match between Croatia and the Netherlands, a reply of the 2010 Euro Cup final.

With the Croatian Knights unable to attend this year's International Cup, the match will be a chance for the national team to prepare for this year's Euro Cup.

The Drniš town council is excited to see footy for the first time and host an international match, providing transportation, field, dinner and a tour to the nearby national park.

The match will kick off at 6pm. During the game, funds will be raised for parts of Croatia devastated with recent foods. All are welcome to join in the BBQ event after the match.

LEFT: A view of Drniš from a nearby hill.

A team is still a team without a uniting jumper or jersey. A team is made from the bonds among the people within that club. But to wear a jumper that symbolises that club and brings it together in a visual sense is one of the most powerful images in sport.

Some examples highlight this. Collingwood supporters would struggle for breath if they lost their iconic black and white stripes. Would the “Old Dark Navy Blues” still be so mighty in another shade of blue? (Remember those ghastly pale blue M & M jumpers!) The red strip of Manchester United? Liverpool? The green and gold of the Brazilian national football team and most Australian teams playing anything.

The hearts and souls of the people make the club, but the emblematic face of that club is often the jumper.

A Norwegian team comprising players from the Oslo Crows has crossed the border into neighbouring Sweden and stolen the silverware – the 2014 Sweden Cup.

The annual event was held over the weekend, and the following details from the AFL Sweden website give an indication of what the event entails.

AFL Sweden comes together on neutral ground in Jönköping for a civil war between all the clubs in the country to determine who is the strongest, who is the best, who is the champion of Sweden.

The Swedish Cup is the only time in the year where all of the Aussie Rules players and teams from around the country come together to face off against one another in a festival of footy.

The Toulouse Hawks have made it back to back French titles in their home city overnight, defeating the Paris Cockerels in a stirring match. The final score of 104 to 62 suggested a big win, but the Cockerels never stopped taking the game up to the Hawks.

Words on the Perpignan Tigers Facebook page summed up the feelings well: “The new shield will return to the Toulouse Hawks who prevailed 104-62 against the Parisians. Kudos [go] to the Hawks for their domination in this [season’s] championship (unbeaten) and to the Parisians who fought to the end.”

For the Toulouse team the day marks their first ever championship match victory, though the records show back to back titles. Last season’s victory was achieved without the ultimate match of the year being played, the title awarded after the match could not go ahead for reasons discussed in a previous WFN article Hawks v Cockerels battle for French premiership glory.

That was the maiden championship for Toulouse, but yesterday’s victory is the first time the team has enjoyed the experience of playing an opponent on field to win the battle based on talent, courage, strength and commitment – one of the best feelings in football.

An entry on the AFL Europe website showed the allocation of a start-up grant for a Budapest based Australian Rules football team in 2013. Whilst many readers possibly salivated at the thought of breaking into the Hungarian market, others may well have thought it was a misprint. But Geordie Est has returned to Australia from Hungary with the story of Aussie Rules progress in Budapest.

“I carried out several clinics during my time in Budapest. They were predominantly for foreigners either living in the city or passing through. I started the clinics in late autumn when the weather was getting a bit chilly so I didn't get a huge amount of traction. Nonetheless, I would like to thank Ben MacCormack for sending the balls over. It did give me the opportunity to showcase the game in some small way. I also collaborated with a Frisbee group and introduced the ball and the game to those that were interested. I held the clinics at Margaret Island which is very central and provided an ideal location.”

Australian Rules football is well and truly under way in Norway for 2014, with the second round of the Kenguru Cup being played last weekend. Again the competition was made of the two Oslo based teams – Oslo East and Oslo West - as well as the Ås Battlers.

After just two rounds it is the Oslo East team leading the way and issuing the challenge for the other two teams to “come and get them”.

Earlier in mid-May, Round 1 took place with the Oslo East team taking the honours to kick off the new season.

Read on for Round 1 Results: (match played in Ekeberg, Oslo)

The following story comes from the Connacht Tribune newspaper in Galway. It is written by Steve Glennon in his Talking Sport column and looks at the efforts of the Galway Magpies in Ireland to develop their club and keep it on the field each week. This is an interesting insight which is likely true of many other clubs across Ireland and, indeed Europe.

One thing you can say about sport in Galway – be it mainstream sport or not – is that it certainly does not lack choice. If there is one that tickles your fancy, there is a fair chance it can be found somewhere in the Corrib region. No wonder then that Aussie Rules should boast of a small claim on this landscape.

Although the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland (ARFLI) has been up and running for over a decade, the West of Ireland branch has only been in operation about half of this time, according to Galway Magpies President and Coach Shaun Murphy, who hails from Bunbury, just south of Perth.