Former Richmond and Essendon great Kevin Sheedy is keeping up his fervent calls for the AFL and Australians to embrace international footy. When the AFL appointed him as an ambassador for the 150-year celebrations, they said Sheedy would challenge them, and he's certainly doing that. Amongst his latest challenges are for an AFL match in India, an academy in California, more overseas development officers, and a $1 levy on AFL tickets to fund development. Most of these are ideas that have been floated many times before, by people in overseas leagues, those involved in developing the game, sites such as worldfootynews.com and fans on chat forums. But never before has someone so prominent made such a sustained call to arms for international footy.

The full article, on the Herald Sun website, is: Time is right for AFL to go global.

The comedic duo of Jeff and Paul that brought you the Footy Wrap on Youtube in 2007 are in training for the new season. In what seems to have become an annual event, AFL club the Western Bulldogs invited the media to a training day in which they got to experience a typical day in the life of an AFL footballer. Jeff had no pretensions but Paul was ready to make his bid to become the AFL's most unlikely rookie....

Jeff and Paul meet the Western Bulldogs

Jeff's full report can be read below.

Former Richmond and Essendon great Kevin Sheedy has called for future AFL seasons to commence with Round 1 played outside of Australia. He made the comment at the AFL Coaching Conference on the Gold Coast, Queensland. As strong an advocate for international footy as worldfootynews.com is, even we might hesitate to seriously suggest such a dramatic change due to the risk of alienating supporters in Australia.

There's little doubt that such a move would be highly unpopular if it were to occur in the next few years. However staging a lot more NAB Cup games in other countries would provide a good balance, plus consideration given to occasional home-and-away matches outside of Australia, such as during the mid-season split round. Sheedy has always been controversial and this new call fits the same mold. But the international development of Aussie Rules is a journey that will be so much faster if the AFL clubs and fans are willing partners, and it seems like the AFL's official ambassador for the 150 years of Australian Football will not get his way on this one any time soon.

With AFL clubs in South Africa and Dubai, Australian reporters have followed the teams overseas, so we're seeing a steady stream of stories about what the clubs are doing in South Africa and AFL development there, as well as occasional articles related to the Dubai match. A lot of the stories focus on the under-privileged situation many of the Africans find themselves in, and the hopefully humbling experience for the Australians. But it's pleasing to see there are purely football messages coming through too, such as Fremantle coach Mark Harvey's call for the AFL to provide a system for South African players to make it to the big time. Possibly he's unaware of the current International Scholarship scheme - maybe when Harvey finds out he might want to sign up one or two prospects. Here's just some of the stories, including a link to a TV report.

At the moment, at least in Melbourne and Perth, a daily stream of news stories around the AFL's international projects is beginning to fill the pre-season void. There is no doubt that the current level of exposure is much more than ever before.

The stories mostly centre around the major pre-season matches in Dubai and South Africa which are starting to capture the imagination of the Australian public. Also in the news are the Irish recruits and Fremantle and Collingwood's pre-season camps in South Africa.

Here is a round up of some of the recent relevant articles over the last few days:

Jail Break

Footy bridges the business gulf

Magpies' new Irishman is shaping nicely

Fremantle on guarded tour

Day the Fremantle Dockers brought joy to South Africa town

The slow recognition in Australia of Australian Football overseas sometimes occurs through media stories in unexpected places.

The Age Saturday Careers supplement has run two recent pieces on expats in Finland (previously mentioned on WFN here) and in Denmark.

The Finland story featured a photo in football guernseys while the Denmark profile of Ian Hill on 26 January 2008 only briefly mentioned the DAFL but did say that Ian Hill is president of the league and gave its website.

Ian Hill remarks that ‘Weekends are much the same as home – footy, working around the house, visiting family and friends.’

Perhaps the only problem with such stories is that it is harder to get across the message that most players are locals; after all the primary focus is on work and life rather than football.

Expat stories can be sent to the Age at the email address of the journalist who writes up the stories paul.edwards at westnet.com.au

Here's a quick pointer to some of the recent media stories that relate to the AFL and international footy. Not surprisingly South Africa is the current focus.

Pretoria run possible for rejuvenated Docker

So much to gain out of Africa: Hasleby

NAB Cup heats up

Magpies out in Africa

The race is on into Africa

Africa Pies a new high

Destination: South Africa

Boomerangs take flight to South Africa

This Saturday, 26th January is Australia Day, a day that becomes especially important to the many expatriates living away from their home country. Every year there are many parties held around the world to celebrate the day, which inevitably links in with Australian Rules football clubs who celebrate the day with a game or use the occasion as a fund raiser. Other celebrations hold games purely as part of the fun of the day and may provide non Australians at the festivities with their first live taste of the game.

We highlight some of these festivities and ask anyone out there having a party or game to feel free to post details by using the comment feature below.

The two approaching international AFL matches are receiving some publicity in the countries they're being staged. According to a post on the fan forum Bigfooty, the Dubai match has had a full page advert in a local newspaper. There's also been two similar promo videos produced for the matches, viewable on the Bigpond site (you don't have to be a subscriber). Just visit http://bigpondvideo.com/AFL/43150 and scroll down the video looking for the Dubai and South Africa Television Commercials (Dubai's also accessible from here, look for "Click here for a preview of the AFL Action").

The AFL Challenge Carlton versus Fremantle match is listed as February 2nd, 7:30pm start (so presumably under lights) at SuperSport Park, Pretoria, with the Australian Indigenous Youth versus South African Under 19s (actually a mixed age youth side) at 4:00pm. The Collingwood versus Adelaide NAB Cup match is down for 1:45pm February 9th at Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club, Dubai. The venue and surrounds can be seen on the map at the ticket vendor's site.

That's the question that Melbourne Demons AFL star Brad Green asked himself as a 16 year old from Tasmania.

As a talented young soccer player, he was flown to England and offered a lucrative contract as part of a trial with Manchester United in 1996, but decided to return home and instead finish school and play Aussie Rules, a sport he'd never played competitively.

Despite retaining a love for soccer and the Melbourne Victory, Green has never looked back and is widely regarded as one of the most accurate kicks for goal in the AFL.

The story is covered on the Melbourne Demons website.