The Great Britain Bulldogs will name their squad for the 2011 International Cup after the European Legion vs AIS-AFL Academy match at Dulwich College, London, this Saturday April 24th.

As a curtain-raiser to the Legion vs AIS-AFL match, Ireland will be taking on the GB Bulldogs, with both leagues using the match to test out their squads before making their final selections for the IC11. The game is sure to be a tightly-fought contest, with the Bulldogs going down to the Irish by just 5 points in Dublin last month.

The GB Bulldogs also achieved a 1-point victory over the Australian-expat dominated Wimbledon Hawks last Sunday, with Chris James from the South Cardiff Panthers leading the way, kicking 3 goals.

GB squad for this weekend's game listed below.

In WFN's unofficial World Rankings, Ireland are currently ranked 4th and Great Britain 10th. A win to Ireland will see no change to the rankings, but if the Bulldogs can pull off a victory, they will rise to 9th above Samoa, and the Irish will drop to 6th below Nauru and the USA.

New head coach Tristan Waldock has proudly announced the 27 players that will make up the 2011 AFL Canada Northern Lights Women's squad. "We are very proud of our selections and confident in our team going to Australia to compete in the first Women's Division of the International Cup in August, 2011," Waldock says.

The inaugural Women's division will feature international teams including Canada, PNG, the USA, Ireland and Italy.

Full squad can be seen below.

The following announcement was made this week on the USAFL website.

USA Freedom Coach, Leigh Barnes, announced the USA Freedom squad for the 2011 AFL International Cup today.  The team will travel to Australia in August to compete in the first ever women’s International Cup competition in Sydney and Melbourne from August 15-27.

The team was selected from a talented group of players spread out all across the USA.  Many of these players secured their position on the squad through attendance at the 2011 Training Camp in Austin, Texas, displaying their dedication to the cause.

“We went in to the training camp as a bunch of unknowns, the coaching staff did not know the players and vice versa, but at the end of the weekend, the enthusiasm of the players absolutely blew me away, and we put in place our plan for the IC tournament, as a team, not as individuals. Since then, I have been grateful that the word has been spread that we are in this to win, have a good time, and represent the USAFL Woman’s program to the best of our ability” coach Barnes opined. “I welcome all to the International Cup, set your sights high, enjoy your teammates, your coaches, and above all, enjoy representing your Country, no higher honor indeed in this great game of ours.”

Myk Aussie attends training in Ottawa surrounded by snow and in this second part of coverage he gets a great indepth interview with Northwind coach (and AFL Canada nomad) Jaye Macumber about the Northwind team heading for the International Cup and other footy around Canada.

Look out for Myk's plea to Charlie Sheen to get behind the Northwind financially. More great Aussie rules content as well as NFL, CFL and other great moments can be seen on Myk's site mykaussie.com

The US Womens team the Freedom, in prepartion for the International Cup were recently put through their paces, training in Austin TX. The Youtube video below is a photo montage of the sessions. Women's footy in the US might not have the same depth as the men's but they are nevertheless experienced in tournament footy and international travel and be looking to make an impact on their second tour to Australia.

Myk Aussie attends training in Ottawa surrounded by snow. But dont worry the potential Northwind boys are warm and dry under the covered sports field as they prepare for the 2011 International Cup. Given Melbourne's weather in the past year they might be better preparing outside in the snow

In this first part of a two part special Myk as always, enthusiastically covers the training under the dome.

Strange for me to be now writing on this subject with a less involved role, after 7 years in China and the last 4 years as an AFL China Development Officer, I am now based in Victoria. While I will always stay interested and assist where possible with the Chinese footy scene, I have handed the baton on and look forward to seeing a bright future for Australian Football in China continue.

In my time in the role, my personal highlight was the China Red Demons’ debut in the 2008 AFL International Cup. Witnessing the journey, from a group of boys drawn from various regions and ethnic groups across China, 70% of who had months prior never heard of the game, to seeing them on a suburban field in Melbourne, wearing their national colours and celebrating with tears and gusto when they finally got a win, was a very special moment.

LEFT: Some of the local recruits at Beijing ARFC training.

The third instalment of the AFL’s International Cup featured a bit of a ‘left field’ inclusion - the Peres Peace Team, a combined Israeli-Palestinian side comprising 13 players from each background. Anyone who watched the ‘Tackling Peace’* documentary on Channel 10 back in 2009, was perhaps left pondering the chances of a revisit of the team. Without much fanfare then – it was a pleasant surprise when the AFL released its list of country’s considering and likely to attend IC2011, and there in the list was the Peace Team.

The original idea for the team owed much to Tanya Oziel**, who is the Executive Director of the Peres Centre for Peace in Australia, and also a Sydney mum whose son Chaim took up footy with the Maroubra Saints. The Peres Centre for Peace had and has been involved in Sports as a tool for ‘peace-building’. In Jan 2008, around 100 potential players were introduced to the game via DVD’s and the white board, by Feb a squad of 40 embarked on about 7 months of intensive training prior to heading to Australia for the late August start to the IC. The Peace Team would be the result of the combined efforts of the Peres Center of Peace and the Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue. Training in itself was a major challenge, including that a team of players unfamiliar with the game had to be training in 2 languages, and without goal posts.

The Australian Football League have unveiled the logo for the 2011 International Cup. After the three previous Cups had all used variations of the same design it's nice to see a fresh look. It's hoped IC11 will feature 6 women's sides and 20 to 24 men's sides.

The AFL today announced the women’s section of the IC11 will be played between the 15th - 27th of August, 2011. The focus of the IC11 will be turned to the women when they play their first ever AFL International Cup matches on Monday 15th of August, 2011.

There are no men’s games scheduled for this day. Other women’s matches will coincide with the men’s section of the event.

The USAFL today announced their 27 man squad for their tilt at the 2011 International Cup title.  After an exhaustive process started in 2009 the final makeup was determined recently at the squad's camp in Austin Texas.

The captain of the team will be Dan “Sars” Sarbacker who is experienced in playing with the Revolution as well as having a stint playing in Australia in 2010.  Luke Nemeth, Chris Candelaria, RJ Wheelock with previous IC experience and Andrew Werner with Revolution and Australian experience form the leadership group.

PNG are leaving no stone unturned as they seek to gather their strongest squad as defending champions at this year’s International Cup.

As detailed in this article AFL Asia-Pacific Manager busy in PNG, many of the Port Moresby District’s best players will be taking on the Australian Bolters including Spider Everitt, Aussie Jones, Mal Michael and Mat Rogers who will enhance the Queensland AFL selection.

In the Northern Selection camp on the weekend 5/6th March in Lae where the Highlands and Island regions will be in attendance there will be testing and 2 games. A combination of AFL International Development Mananger Tony Woods, AFL Asia-Pacifc Manager Andrew Cadzow, PNG Coach David Lake and his Assistant Walter Yagomina will view these events. Final squad selection will be made the following week of 35 players which will be cut to 30 by end of April.

The nation also has 18 Australian-based scholarship players who have arrived in Australia. They would be expected to make up the bulk of the final squad though according to Andrew Cadzow he doesn’t “expect the AFL listed blokes to play”. As per past Cups Cadzow expects the selectors will go very young and they may even play a couple of the AFL PNG Academy boys who are aged around 16 years.

When asked for his thoughts on this year’s International Cup sides other than PNG, Cadzow said he "expected New Zealand and Nauru to be on the money, Tonga big improvers and Samoa and Fiji to be competitive from the Pacific". Given that the Irish are currently looking to supplement their home grown squad with nationals resident elsewhere he thought “Ireland will be extremely hard to beat” . Cadzow is expecting a divisional draw which will “make for more games of good football” though as with such tournaments they can be decided as a result of “a war of attrition through injuries etc”.