Round 1 of the Foxtel Cup, a designed for TV competition between the top Australian state league teams, has completed with no real surprises.

The knock-out matches are played as curtain-raisers to AFL games. 16 clubs from 7 states and territories are competing, with the first round featuring 8 games spread across March, April and May. The results from Round 1:

Northern Territory Thunder (NT) defeated Morningside (QLD) by 15 points
East Perth (WA) defeated North Ballarat (VIC) by 2 points
Williamstown (VIC) defeated Swan Districts (WA) by 37 points
West Adelaide (SA) defeated Ainslie (ACT) by 77 points
Claremont (WA) defeated Clarence (TAS) by 71 points
Northern Bullants (VIC) defeated GWS Giants (NSW) by 89 points
Port Adelaide Magpies (SA) defeated East Coast Eagles (NSW) by 92 points
North Adelaide (SA) defeated Labrador (QLD) by 85 points

AFL “F” is a new organisation which has been established to help support the growth and development of women in Australian Football both in Australia and Internationally. It is founded on the ideas and collaborations of individuals and organisations with a passion for female sports, but aims to have the financial freedom to invest in and support the growth of women’s football around the world.

AFL “F” stands for much more than just female football players: In addition to the “Chick-kick” girls, Youth Girls, Women’s seniors and female coaches who bless our game with their efforts and achievements each weekend, there are increasing numbers of female umpires, administrators and operational staff as well as girlfriends, wives, mothers and daughters who all have an important and often unseen impact on the game.

Each month, AFL “F” focuses on a new “F” word and this month’s word is “funding”. They’re trying to develop some new and exciting funding initiatives to help create more opportunities for women to get involved in football. If you want to be a part of their global female football community and have an idea, skill or product that you think will support women in football, then tell AFL "F" about it by contacting them at ideas@aflf.com.au.

AFL “F” is also putting together a “telemovie” of women involved in Australian Football around the world. The video will be distributed to domestic and international leagues to promote female participation in Australian Football. If you have a story which you would like to share with the female football world, please contact AFL “F” at yourstory@aflf.com.au or visit their YouTube channel - here.

For more information on AFL “F” please visit their website - aflf.com.au or better still, join them on Facebook here.

The Queensland Sunfire Women’s AFL Team has been selected following some outstanding performances at the Women’s State Championships. Players from AFL Cairns teams dominate selection, after their victory in the State Championships over AFL South-East Queensland’s North and South teams.

The Sunfire will compete in the National Championships Division 1 alongside teams from Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. The National Championships are to be held in Adelaide from 7-12 June, 2011. The Grand Final will be held at Gliderol Stadium, Glenelg, on the 11th.

The Sunfire will be coached by AFL Queensland’s Community Development Manager Richie Lyons, with Deion Menzies as Assistant Coach. The team will be managed by AFL Brisbane Juniors General Manager Cherie Brockwell.

Full squad follows.

Zillmere Eagles Youth Girls Under 15’s players Eh Ka Dot Ray, Selee Po and Lar Htoo May lined up alongside their team mates against Calamvale last weekend. Despite their age, the three girls have great handballing and kicking skills, and aren’t afraid to go in hard after the ball- easily on par with their team mates, brought up with Auskick and the AFL.

But although the girls play like Australians, they are actually refugees, survivors of the ongoing conflict in Myanmar between government groups and Karen rebels.

The AFL media rights bonanza will have all parts of Australian football putting their hands out for money.  International footy volunteers will argue that surely their time has come.  The answer is likely to be yes, to some extent but in a sustainable way.  Trawling through all the media reports we have spotted further reason for hope.

As has been widely reported the AFL has completed its TV rights deal for the next 5 years, scoring a remarkable AUD$1.25 billion (US$1.37 billion, €920 million). The deal requires 9 games a week and is seen as guaranteeing the short term future of the 18 AFL clubs, although some are pointing out not necessarily where those 18 clubs are located (both North Melbourne and Port Adelaide have been suggested as candidates to shift to Tasmania by some reporters, but that seems highly unlikely in the next 5 years).

Even before the clubs had a chance to ask for more money the AFL Players' Association has been running a campaign to secure a host of improvements ranging from player welfare, superannuation, removal of rookie listing of players (expanding full time lists) and a fixed percentage of the AFL TV rights (27% has been mentioned). Of course it would be interesting to see what happens if a future TV deal is for a reduced total; would the players be happy to take a pay cut? Once the the clubs and players are taken care of the cake is suddenly much smaller. The AFL will also probably want to add to their war chest for "winning" the battle for hearts and minds in Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast.

It has to be remembered that all these bids will be for the money in the deal above what is spent in the current 5 year AUD$780 million rights, i.e. there is "only" about $94 million per year above the last rights.

But even when the above allocations are made there is no doubt it should leave the AFL with a comfortable margin to expand some of their lower profile projects - and clearly that must include international football.

The AFL today announced the new TV rights deal that will begin in 2012. Ironically the announcment was delayed by an hour from the AFL's appointed time, when avoiding delayed matches has been part of putting together the terms of this deal. With the introduction of the expansion clubs Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants the season will now see nine home and away games played each week. The major increase in the amount payed for the rights is due to the extra game content that will now be available to broadcasters.

Foxtel will broadcast all nine games live each week, with Channel 7 showing a minimum of four games each week and Telstra able to broadcast all games live online and through mobile devices each week. Many will not be happy with the pay TV channel having such a big hold on the televising of football though and it remains to be seen how well this will be received overall. But overall it seems the free to air, Telstra and Pay TV viewers will get a better deal.

There will be plenty of hands out for their share of the pie. At the top of the tree will be the AFL clubs and the AFLPA who will look for increases in players' pay salary. Below this will be various leagues and football bodies across the country as well as football development departments. With Australian football growing in participation numbers around the world most of our readers will be hoping for an increase in budget for international development. Given the way this has been done historically it could mean some increases in funding for junior development, elite junior pathway funding, administrative assistance and funding of the International Cup. But it is unlikely that the affects of this will be seen directly at club or league level except where it is a flow on from junior development efforts.

The full announcement of the rights deal can be seen below.

The Foxtel Cup is proving to be one-sided so far. The series was created to provide pay TV station Foxtel more Australian football games whilst giving the respective top Australian state league clubs a chance to compete against each other. The knockout tournament's reputation suffered a dent before getting started with state league powerhouse the SANFL agreeing to join but its top sides declining the offer, with only the lower teams agreeing, and even then confirming that they would mostly field development sides - one could imagine some of the other clubs will do likewise (North Ballarat's 2 point loss not helped by a similar policy). However it still is interesting to see the different cross-league clubs competing.

The tournament is now well underway, with matches played as curtain-raisers to AFL games. Eight clubs from 7 states and territories are competing, with the first round featuring 8 games spread across March, April and May. Five matches have been decided so far, with:

Northern Territory Thunder (NT) defeated Morningside (QLD) by 15 points
East Perth (WA) defeated North Ballarat (VIC) by 2 points
Williamstown (VIC) defeated Swan Districts (WA) by 37 points
West Adelaide (SA) defeated Ainslie (ACT) by 77 points
Claremont (WA) defeated Clarence (TAS) by 71 points

Remaining round 1 games:

Fixtures for the 2011 AFL Women’s National Championships have been announced by the South Australia Women’s Football League. The event will take place in June with games held at four different locations around Adelaide.

Eight teams, representing each state and territory in Australia, will take part in the 5 day competition. The teams will be divided into two divisions. Division 1 includes Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. Division 2 includes Tasmania, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.

The event will run from June 7th to 11th, and will include a rest day on the 9th. An opening ceremony will be held on the 7th at the City Mazda Stadium, Richmond. The Grand Finals will take place at Gliderol Stadium, Glenelg, on the 11th.

LEFT: South Australia's Danielle Crisp pulls away from a Northern Territory opponent.

The following is a media release from the AFLPA.

AFL Players are supporting the families of deceased and wounded Australian soldiers by donating 17 jumpers – signed by stars such as Gary Ablett Jr, Adam Goodes, Matthew Pavlich and Nick Riewoldt – to be raffled on Anzac Day in Afghanistan. Each team jumper has been signed by the club captain (except Brisbane Skipper Jonathan Brown, who was in hospital at the time) and contains a message of support for the Australian Mentoring Task Force 2 (MTF-2), based in Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan.

Each jumper is being raffled, with half the proceeds going to Legacy and half going to the MTF-2 Benevolent Fund, which directly supports the families of soldiers from the Task Force who have been killed or injured in the line of duty. Organisers hope the raffle will raise more than $20,000, with $10,000 already raised over the space of a few days. Team captains from all National Rugby League teams have also donated jumpers for the raffle.

A series of newspaper articles in the last few weeks have speculated that the AFL will stage several matches outside of Australia in the next 2 years.

A match in Wellington or Auckland, New Zealand is on the cards, perhaps between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn, and possibly not until 2012 - see Western Bulldogs plan to play home match in New Zealand within two years

The GWS Giants have put their hand up to play a match in London, possibly late 2011 - see Sheedy taunts Folau critics as Giants size up London match.

Essendon versus Richmond in Mubai, India has again been raised - see Bombers, Tigers in Mumbai, with Austrade's Senior Trade Commissioner in New Delhi, Peter Linford, said to be finalising a detailed bid to stage a match early next year which will not only promote the AFL but also trade links between the countries.

The above article also mentions the much delayed Collingwood versus West Coast in Cape Town, South Africa, as still a chance, and a return to Shanghai for Melbourne and Brisbane.

Of course there has been a lull in such matches attributed to the global financial crisis, and none of the above are locked in, but hopefully some or all will eventuate.