Sean Hurley is on trial with the Fremantle Football Club and trying to win an International Rookie spot on the Docker's list for the 2014 season. He speaks of his first day of training in the Aussie sun.

Hurley attended the 2012 National Draft Combine in Melbourne.

The following story looks at the Australian Rules football scene in Russia. It has been given to World Footy news to reproduce as a way of highlighting the tremendous work by Roger Scott and his crew to build the game from scratch in a country not usually associated with the sport.

Roger Scott began learning Russian while still in Australia. He works in commercial real estate in Moscow, and on Sundays teaches all those interested how to play Australian football, a game little known in Russia.

Moscow. One of the first warm days in August. At a small stadium in Lefortovo park, there are two dozen immigrant workers from Central Asia playing football (soccer), and several more people playing frisbee on the edge of the field. At five in the afternoon they are replaced by strongly built guys, about eight of them, carrying an oval ball.

"Whenever you come here, somebody is always playing football (soccer): in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Were there more of us, we would have just occupied this field and that's it," one of them says with a slight accent. The playing field in Lefortovo is free, therefore clashes of certain "subcultures" are inevitable. 

The guy with an accent is called Roger Scott. "Like the rabbit," he says, when we are introduced. Roger is from Australia, but has been living in Russia for eight years already. 

He has a double-headed eagle tattooed on his right shoulder. "It helps in difficult situations with the police. Although I don't have to show it that often these days, Moscow has become more civilised," he says, with a faint nostalgia in his tone. 

Jason Lassey of Bigfooty Media interviews Finland AFL's President Janne Hokkonen.

Carlton will list it's second Irish International rookie this year during the upcoming draft period with Ciaran Sheehan signed to join the club after Ciaran Byrne also signed up in August. Most readers here may remember Sheehan from the dominant Irish team that defeated the Australians in the recent International Rules series in Ireland.

Those with a longer memory will also recall the 18 year old Cork youngster coming to Carlton for a trial in 2009 before knocking back a rookie list spot and remaining in Ireland. 

In signs of footy in Europe taking the next step beyond its more casual beginnings, four locals have recently gained their Level 1 Umpiring Accreditation.

Shane Hill, AFL Europe Umpire Co-ordinator assessed the umpires over three separate matches and gave the umpires the tick of approval. Ian Kafka (England), John Enright (Ireland), Josh Davey (Wales) and Nilss Lode (Germany) all have vastly different journeys to umpiring and earning their accreditation.

John Enright and Josh Davey's names will be familiar to many readers in their playing capacity, with Enright having represented Ireland and Davey playing for Wales and the Great Britain Bulldogs. Ian Kafka is the current Universities Coordinator for AFL England and is presently in full time eductation. He has been instrumental in growing the game at university level with the UK. Nilss Lode from the Munich Kangaroos this year umpired matches at the both the Euro Cup in Bordeaux and European Championships in Dublin, being awarded the Golden Whistle in Bordeaux.

For more, read European Umps Gain Level 1 Accreditation.

Bigfooty Media's Jason Lassey interviews Thomas Urban and Alan Schieber from French footy's CNFA. You can read more about this interview here.

In the next installment of Jason Lassey's interviews for Bigfooty Media about footy outside Australia he speaks to the President of the Croatian league, Josip Kravar. You can read more about this interview here.

Interview and article courtesy of Scott Patching

In what is surely a rare, if not unique, dual achievement for an international player in Australia, Great Britain’s Will Worthington has captained a premiership side, and claimed the team’s best and fairest award. Worthington led Onkaparinga Valley Bulldogs to victory in South Australia’s Hills Central Division B grade on the 14th of September, before taking out the highest individual prize, and the Players MVP, the following weekend.

The stories of people from overseas that come to Australia to play footy are often intriguing as we struggle to imagine our game being played anywhere else. Will’s is no different. 9-a-side footy on rugby fields in the south of England must seem a distant memory when playing in front of a few thousand people at a country Grand Final. In between there have been the lows of injury and the highs of national representation.

In this final instalment of the interviews arranged by the Bordeaux Bombers and the CNFA after the recent tournament in France, the focus is on women’s footy. Vanessa Degrave, a player for the French team – the Inattendues – looks at how she became involved in Australian Rules football – in France.