Sweden's win over Croatia on day two of the European Championships has lifted them to 11th Ranking above Denmark. Ironically the win against Croatia has left the two nations with identical rating points (39.55) although Croatia has two more matches to qualify to be fully Ranked.

The second day's play at the DCU Sportground in Dublin has been completed, with the higher seeds triumphing in each match, though not without some strong challenges.

Sweden defeated Croatia in the first match of the day, despite the Croatians making a good contest of it. The next match then saw Great Britain comfortably account for Germany in the first-ever encounter between the two nations.

The evening's play ended with Denmark threatening a major upset, leading the Irish at every change before the Warriors were able to overtake them in the last quarter. The Vikings will surely be disappointed, after similarly being overrun in the last quarter of the round 1 match against Great Britain.

Sweden	1.3	3.7	4.10	5.11 (41)
Croatia	1.1	2.1	4.1	5.2 (32)
Great Britain	3.1	7.7	7.7	9.12 (66)
Germany	0.1	0.2	2.3	2.3 (15)
Ireland	0.1	2.3	3.5	7.7 (49)
Denmark	4.0	5.1	6.2	6.3 (39)

Full match reports with best players and goal kickers are now available on the tournament website:
Warriors deny Vikings again
Bulldogs reach their First Final
Elks win over Knights

The GB Bulldogs have now booked a spot in Saturday's final. Their opponent will likely be Ireland, although there is still another round of group matches to play and a win for Croatia over the Irish could change the standings.

The 2012-2013 French season has ran its course, officially closing on the 22nd of June with the annual French Cup.

In the development league, consisting of France's newest and struggling teams, the Montpellier Fire Sharks won their second title in a row. Unfortunately the Marseille Dockers, could not play any of their games this season, effectively making this year's edition of the development league a two team contest.

Montpellier won their first confrontation against Cergy in a one way game at home during the winter. The decider was played in Cergy a few month later with the travelling team narrowly winning the game to secure their second title: Cergy Coyotes 10.8 (68) – 9.17 (71) Montpellier Fire Sharks.

In the Super league, things turned out for the worst for reigning champions Bordeaux. At the end of the winter the Bombers were on top of the ladder hoping to hold on their crown. Unfortunately for them at string of defeats at home against the Toulouse Hawks and the Paris Cockerels put an end to their hopes of title.

After trialling with the Carlton Football Club last year, Ciaran Byrne was back at Princes Park again in the past couple of weeks and has been confirmed as the latest Irish import to the AFL. Byrne will be officially taken in the AFL's national draft later this year as an International Rookie.

Following the last two notable failures in John Heslin and Ciaran Kilkenny at Richmond and Hawthorn respectively to make it past preseason, clubs may have become understandably shy of bringing out young homesick Gaelic footballers.

The first day's play at the DCU Sportground in Dublin has been completed, with Ireland, Great Britain and Croatia winning their respective matches.

Great Britain	1.1	1.1	3.1	7.1 (43)
Denmark	1.2	2.7	3.8	4.9 (33)
Ireland	1.0	3.2	3.2	3.4 (22)
Sweden	0.4	1.4	1.4	2.4 (16)
Croatia	6.2	6.2	7.4	7.5 (47)
Germany	0.0	3.1	4.3	5.3 (33)

A wrap-up of Day 1's matches with best players and goal kickers is available on the dublin2013.org tournament website here. The tournament organisers have also posted a highlights video, available for viewing here.

Reminder that the championships are now uderway. Matches now being streamed at http://www.aertv.ie/#afl-live

Game 2 Now underway.

Quarter time Ireland 1.0 to Sweden 0.4
Half time Ireland 3.2 to Sweden 1.4
Three Quarter time Ireland 3.2 to Sweden 1.4
Final Ireland 3.2 defeated Sweden 2.4 in what was a heated final quarter.

The AFL Europe Championships kick off in Dublin tomorrow, with Europe's six strongest footballing nations battling it out for the cup. Hosts Ireland will again go into the tournament as hot favourites, although with healthy competition from arch rivals Great Britain, Scandinavian powerhouses Denmark and Sweden, and the relative underdogs Croatia and Germany.

The round one pool matches of Ireland vs Sweden and Great Britain vs Denmark will go a long way towards deciding who will meet in the final, with a large advantage to the winners in those matches.

Fans will be able to check up on the full draw, squads and live results via the tournament website dublin2013.org, with scores also to appear here after each round, along with resultant changes in the WFN World Rankings.

Peter Ross from the Irish Warriors has also published a form guide on his blog, which is available here.

On the 17th of July, the leading women involved in football in Europe (outside of Ireland) got together via tele-conferencing to discuss this year’s Axios Euro Cup, which will be held in Bordeaux on the 21st of September.

For the last few years, Ireland has managed to a field a team, and another country (or a collaboration of countries, such as last year’s European Crusaders) has also put a team in to play them in a women’s exhibition match. However, with the women’s game finally beginning to grow outside of Ireland, it might finally be possible to have a genuine women’s competition alongside the men’s competition at this year’s Euro Cup.

As this year’s Euro Cup will be hosted in France, and with a number of female players in Bordeaux, Paris and Toulouse, AFL France’s Women’s Football Co-ordinator, Berengere Portal, has confirmed that the French aim to put out a home side.

In our previous story An Avalanche of Austrian Talent about the rebuilding of Australian Rules football in Austria, Oliver Krajacic painted a picture of a re-birth of sorts, due mainly to hard work and a connection to the Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.

That was on the back of a hectic off-season which saw structural and planning changes for Austrian footy, but was also rather theory-based. The measure of success would be tangible progress and change for the better as the 2013 season wore on.

At this point, Oliver can fill in the blanks.

“Our president Martin Schittegg had come up with the idea of holding an Austrian championship of sorts after we picked up some new players throughout the course of the year. By adding some retired veterans, some interested newcomers and our new additions to the team, we managed to put together the Murtal Mountain Goats, Gradec Earthmovers and Castle Rock Mammoths.”