Zach Tuohy and Marty Clarke continue to be solid weekly contributors in Carlton and Collingwood's AFL teams. Pearce Hanley returns from injury this week for Brisbane, Niall McKeever played two weeks ago for them but won't be in the senior side this week. Setanta o'hAilpin is sidelined with injury this week after kicking eight goals in the past two games at GWS while across at the Swans Tommy Walsh has been named on an extened bench and will be hopeful of his first senior match for 2013.

But another Irish youth (albeit Australian raised) will debut for the GWS this week. Eighteen year-old defender Aidan Corr will make his AFL debut against Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

The GWS Giants have released the following official interview with European scholarship player Aksel Bang from Denmark, including some talk about his time in the Danish military in Afghanistan and footy in Europe. Aksel will play for the GWS reserves next weekend, before returning to his military service in Afghanistan.

The 5th annual ANZAC Cup was played in Villers-Bretonneux, France last weekend, with the French running out 41-point victors over the Aussie Spirit - a side drawn from Australians resident across Europe.

The match has become a staple of the European footy scene, played in a town whose wartime history has a particularly strong link to Australia.

The following report is courtesy of AFL Europe.

Ireland defeated arch-rivals the Great Britain Bulldogs 9.4 (58) to 3.4 (22) on April 12th in Dublin, avenging their earlier loss in the curtain-raiser to the AIS vs Europe match in Guildford.

In stunning conditions in Islandbridge, Shaun McElhone’s charges won out in the Jeep International, with goals from John Enright, Vince Manning (2), Paul Comey, Tom Browne, James Flavin, Kevin Brennan and Ryan McCloskey (2).

WFN will have an update to the World Rankings reflecting the match's results as soon as we are able!

Irish convert to Australian Football Setanta O’hAilpin has been named in the Greater Western Sydney GIANTS 25 man squad to play Melbourne at the MCG this Sunday. O'hAilpin, who has not played for nearly 12 months since undergoing a knee reconstruction, is one of eight inclusions for the GIANTS. Some thought the injury might be the end of his AFL career. But the Giants have stuck by him, and he's back.

O’hAilpin has been named at full forward in place of Jon Patton, who’ll miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

GIANTS Head Coach Kevin Sheedy says O’hAilpin deserves his spot back in the team. “He (O’hAilpin) kicked five goals last week and has been in very good form in the NEAFL,” Sheedy said. “It’s a shame we lose (Jon) Patton but I’ve got faith that Setanta can do the job for us up forward.”

The GIANTS final 22 will be named tomorrow.

Of course, the above title should finish “…the more they stay the same.” Yet, oddly, in the case of Australian Rules footy in Ireland, that whole saying could be reversed. The more the game seems to be staying much as it was last year, it is in fact changing by degrees…and for the better.

Cian Quigley, president of ARFLI (Australian Rules Football League Ireland), points out that the league has the same teams as last year. Cian explains that “We have the same number of teams as always but the Midwest Magpies have rebranded to the Galway Magpies. Playing numbers in the Irish league are slowly increasing and the competition between teams is very close. The reigning premiers the Belfast Redbacks lost their opening game to a team [North Leinster Giants] that didn't make finals last year!”

But bubbling beneath the surface, change is occurring. This is best seen through the arrival of the UCC Bombers in Cork. Whilst they are some way away from playing in the national league on equal terms, the fact they now exist, and are actively playing games, means an eighth Irish team is potentially near.

One Sunday I headed to the MCG. In the interests of full disclosure I am a Hawthorn fan. But today I went along to see what Marty Clarke's game was like. The Irishman made the quickest transition from Gaelic football to Australian football of any of the Irish to come to play at senior level in the AFL.

Of course he went home to play Gaelic football after successful seasons in Australia, before returning last season to the AFL.

This is how I saw Marty's day pan out.

With the snow on distant hills still thawing and the sun enthusiastically beating down on Moscow, the 2013 Gagarin Cup was played this weekend in Russia.

The Gagarin Cup takes its name from the Russian Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human into space when he completed an orbit of the Earth in a Vostok spaceship on April 12th 1961, hence the choice of date for this weekend’s footy carnival. Cosmonautics Day, or Den Kosmonavtiki in Russian, is a national holiday in Russia.

In an enormous show of strength for the Australian Rules football code in Russia, and a shot in the arm for those who have been working so hard for years to establish the game in the country, there were 5 teams consisting of 9 per side, ranking this as one of the best days in Russian football.

The fifth edition of the ANZAC cup, organised jointly by France's CNFA and AFL Europe, will be held this year on April 20th in the village of Villers-Bretonneux.

The game which sees France take on Australian expats, is now a well established feature of the ANZAC celebrations held each year in northern France thanks to the great support from the local community. This year the australian TV channel Seven News will be covering the game for the “Sunrise” show to be broadcast on April 25th before the Essendon-Collingwood game.

Although previous editions were played on a full sized oval, this year's confrontation will follow the 9 a side format so common in Europe. This change in format is only due to the cost of renting the field previously used as the oval. Thomas Urban hopes the CNFA will be able to gather enough funds to get the game back to full format for next year's centenary of the start of World War I.

After some difficulties in the past in finding players for the Australian team, AFL Europe is pulling out all the stops to make sure it assembles the best team possible. As usual, France will use this game to test its national side against some tough opposition and hope to hold on the cup they won last year.

One thing that is clear after interviewing Adam Pearce, president of AFL Norway, is that the year 2013 will be one of consolidating their achievements of last year to build a stronger Australian Rules football product for the future.

“After a very successful debut in the Euro Cup in Edinburgh last year with our national team taking out the unofficial trophy for the best team of "developing nations", we are again making the 2013 Euro Cup in Bordeaux our focus for the year” explains Adam.