The 2016 Southern California Australian Football league will kick-off this weekend in Los Angeles.  This year's league will feature two teams split from the LA Dragons team the Dragons Black (South Bay Outlaws) and Dragons Blue (Beachside Sharks), two teams split from the OC Bombers (OC White and OC Black) as well as Riverside and San Diego.

Footy in southern California will be heating up but has been simmering away for weeks.  San Diego has had three rounds of co-ed footy in February. And the men's National team the USA Revolution held their first camp of the year in L.A a few weeks ago with a number of local prospects attending hoping to win a spot and others providing an opposition squad of Aussie All-comers at the camp.  Beyond this the obligatory pre-season sessions have all teams primed for a big start.

SCAFL SCHEDULE:
Sunday – 24th April
Metro Season (Week 1) Location - Harbor Sports Center 1221 N Figueroa Pl, Wilmington, CA 90744
09:30am – Riverside Saints v LA Black (Outlaws)
11:00am – LA Blue (Sharks) v Orange County Jets
12:30pm – Orange County B52’s v San Diego Lions
 

BC Footy is thrilled to announce Burnaby lakes will host the Canadian nationals this year on May 21-22.

The innaugural installment of the tournament will feature men's and women's teams from across Canada competing for national bragging rights.  The Canadian Nationals will be a competition between provinces rather than clubs.  

Selection trials have already been carried out across Canada to determine selection of the men's and women's teams.  British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Atlantic will be the competing teams - with the Atlantic team being made up of players from Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Portland is one of those teams that we haven't heard too much about. This year in the USAFL the Steelheads move from third to second division and are looking to maintain momemtum.

Portland's womens team, the Sockeyes currently have 9 members and are looking for some external competition. Both the men and the women play in a four team metro league. They manage about a 9 game season with three 18-a-side games against the Seattle Grizzlies.

The first hitout for the Portland Steelheads and Sockeyes on a Wednesday evening at Duniway Park saw a small but enthusiastic turnout. The location was conveniently across the freeway from downtown Portland but the weather threatened downpour as it did, if only moderately.

In 2015 it was the debut of Jason Holmes and now the second full graduate of the AFL's US Combines looks set to debut in the AFL for Collingwood. After Mason Cox attended the 2014 AFL Combine in Los Angeles the AFL couldn't rush him out here quick enough where he auditioned for a number of clubs and settled on Collingwood as his choice of club.

Today Collingwood upgraded him to the senior list for the injured Matt Scharenberg.  And tonight they have named him on an extended interchange bench for the match against Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.  There is no guarantee he will play in the final 22 and could have another week in the VFL.

The match will not be shown in the US on TV but it can be streamed via www.Watchafl.afl.com.au

Our thanks to Girls Play Footy  and Kristy Williams for the match write up of the NSW Academy match played today at the SCG. The match featured Americans Kim Hemenway (who played for the Sydney Swans squad) and Katie Klatt (who played for the GWS Giants squad).  The original article appeared here.

by Kristy Williams

Tuesday night at 6pm saw the first hit out in 2016 for the fledgling football team in Banff. Looking for motor vehicles I thought something was amiss but soon realised that players were arriving by bicycle. The field was in good condition if a little spongy and there was no question this recreation ground has one of best back-drops you'll ever see.

Nick Mamerow led the session with five others with an icy wind encouraging much activity. What's the synopsis for the future of this team?

It was a small turn-out on a cold windy Tuesday night. A fine week-end day should bring out a lot more of those numerous Banff Facebook members. The team is youthful, athletic and skilled because it is mostly Australian. This means they will be competitive in the Calgary league but it does present a problem for the long-term. Since most players are Australians a lot are associated with the service industry on two year visas. The Banff team are aware of this and are trying hard to attract locals but even locals tend to be newcomers here.

Recently there has been a turnover of staff at national level in Canada and I talked to AFL Canada's new president and continuing Calgary Kangaroos president Lachlan Griffiths.  
 

It may seem an obvious statement but football needs people. Not just players, coaches, staff and helpers but people who bring their particular expertise into the football environment. The person who can ring around and find an available sporting facility at a reasonable price is a valuable asset.

Lachlan is an accountant and has endeavoured to set the league and the clubs on a sound financial footing. He has studied various institutions, not just football entities to extract inspiration for the right financial model.

Canada is getting serious about investing in it's representive teams. Both men and women players across Canada have been invited to participate in provincial teams to compete for national places.

Today I talked to Tristan Waldock's successor in Jason Arnold and his wife Danah in Calgary at the spacous grounds of the Sir Winston Churchill Centre.

Jason and his colleagues were running the first outing of an Alberta women's provincial team consisting of players coming from the Edmonton Emus and Calgary Kookaburras. Later a team will be selected to play against other provincial teams to provide players for two national sides.

Edmonton has "city of champions" as their tag line because of the number of athletes emanating from their city, the most notable being ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky. In some ways it's a lot like another sports mad city in Melbourne, with it's inhabitants supporting it's high profile sporting teams with fervor and just like Melbourne it has a fierce rivalry with a neighbouring city in Calgary.

It's just not men who are responsible for this reputation as there are many female athletes historically and presently in the mix. The founder of the first Australian Football club in Edmonton, Tristan Waldock for the Edmonton Emus is proud to point out that it's the women who first established the presence of Australian Football in Edmonton and it's the men who then followed. That may be an unique occurrence in Australian football history. That strong female sporting presence in Alberta probably goes a long way to explain the high representation from Western Canada in the the Canadian women's team.