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.

The USAFL Regional Tournament Series is back for the 2016 season with the venues finalised today.  The three tournaments allow clubs to compete against a number of clubs from their region at one location.  The results are used as part of the ranking of teams for the National Championships in October to be held in Sarasota, Florida.

Each (East, West and South) region will host both men's and women's matches with a Sunday morning training camp at each weekend for the women's national team to help determine the USA Freedom and Liberty squads for the 2017 International Cup.

An article in the Herald Sun this morning has linked AFL club North Melbourne with NFL club the Denver Broncos. The Colorado city of Denver, the home of the most successful USAFL club the Denver Bulldogs could be set to rapidly expand their footy interests. 

In the article Denver’s vice-president of public relations, April Thewell, confirmed the team’s interest in the AFL.

“There is a lot of intrigue about Aussie Rules over here and we see the North Melbourne Kangaroos as a perfect fit,” she said.

“Our VP of football operations John Elway and other members of our management team are heading out to Australia in the coming days to accelerate the negotiations.

“Could the next Peyton Manning come from Arden St? We’d like to think so.”

The AFL’s US Combine is back in 2016 and back in LA. After the 2015 Combine was held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida, the venue for previous Combines in Los Angeles will again host athletes from around the US. The Combine will be held in just under a month from April 24-27.

This year's video promoting the Combine to US athletes can be seen below and has been updated with clips of Combine graduates Jason Holmes (2015 AFL debut) at St Kilda and Mason Cox (2016 NAB Cup footage) at Collingwood.

The AFL will be hoping to unearth some more crossover talent and a number of clubs will be present to identify suitable recruits. We know the Gold Coast Suns are on the lookout for a big American so would expect them to be keen participants.

Canada are the reigning women's footy International Champions, and they show it proudly in this new promo video released this week as they look to take the game further in their homeland. Make sure you watch it.

[youtube:_ncNen2g4S8]

All around the world Australian Football clubs are looking with anticipation towards playing the upcoming season and what could be more appropriate than the Seattle Grizzles coming out of hibernation.

Officially, the maiden event of the year was an Ausball tournamount to attract both newcomers and provide a hit-out for the regular members. The setting was a picturesque Magnuson Park sports field adjacent to Puget Sound, the waterway that dominates the Seattle topography. Hitting the track for the first time on synthethetic grass was a welcome experience compared to most under-developed pitches that seem to prevail for Australian football clubs overseas.