The 2nd official AFL US Combine been completed in Los Angeles. Three athletes, David Grzesiak (pictured below)  from the University of Wisconsin, Matt Sauey from the University of North Florida, and Cliff Ederine from the University of Eastern Washington, broke the standing vertical jump record of 85cm with 86cm leaps to become the best ever performers in 18 years of testing.

As we mentioned last year these athletes are much older than the athletes usually tested at AFL Combines. The overall performances of the group really impressed the six AFL club representatives in attendance.

The full list of athletes to be tested at the AFL Combine starting in LA today can be seen below.

Illinois basketballer Sam McLaurin has some impressive highlights (seen in the video reel below) both at his former college team Coastal Carolina and his current Illinois Fighting Illini team.  Standing at 203cms the 23 year old is a potential AFL ruckman and will be put through his paces in LA from April 14-16 in the second official US Combine.

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The Gold Coast SUNS will provide Queensland sports fans with an access all areas pass to the Club this weekend, when a special covering the teams recent high performance altitude training camp in Arizona airs on 7mate. Viewers in the rest of Australia and overseas will also be able to watch the doco on the Club's YouTube channel.

From trekking through the Grand Canyon, to navigating the red rock formations of Sedona on Mountain-Bikes and scaling the icy slopes of Mount Humphrey's, the SUNS TV cameras captured every second of the fourteen day camp, documenting the intensive and challenging program set by newly recruited high performance manager Stephen Schwerdt and the GC SUNS coaching staff.

From personal achievements and setbacks to team activities, nothing is off limits during the thirty minute special which highlights the dedication and sacrifice required to play AFL at an elite level, whilst also highlighting the advances the GC SUNS have made as the playing group prepares for their third season in the AFL.

The USAFL have launched a new advertising campaign to promote the game and recruit players to their competition. The 30-second clip will run twice during the broadcast of AFL matches on the Fox Soccer PLUS each week as well as other times during the match day.

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The second official AFL USA combine will be moved up to April this year. Last year's combine in LA took place at the end of August and left a short space of time between the combine and the time for the graduates of the combine to come to the Australian national combine held in Melbourne in the first week of October. This year's earlier time will allow those given the opportunity to come to Australia in October to brush up on the game and their skills.

As usual the international athletes are available for clubs to sign up on an international scholarship immediately rather than wait until the athlete goes throught the Australian combine if they like what they see in April. As with last year there is expected to be college athletes (and recently graduated) from baskeball, gridiron and soccer put through their paces in LA once again.

Former Seattle University basketballer Eric Wallace was the ultimate success story of last year's combine being given an International rookie spot with North Melbourne. Wallace features in this year's updated recruitment video on Youtube that can be seen below. While most of the promo is the same content as last year Wallace has replace the delisted Shae McNamara as the US face of the combine video.

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We have had a number of articles on the progress of football in Canada - covering Mike Pyke, the OAFL, the EAFL, the NWPAFL, the NDJAFL and junior football.

Now it is time take a snapshot of women’s footy in Western Canada and specifically Calgary. The west is arguably the centre for women’s football in Canada with the Calgary Kookaburras, Edmonton Emus and the Vancouver Wildcats supplying just over half the players for the Northern Lights, the Canadian national women’s team.

Fledgling USAFL club, the Cleveland Cannons have released a promo video as they head into the 2013 season.  You can watch the Youtube video below and you can hookup with the club on Facebook here. 

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North Melbourne International rookie Eric Wallace is currently in Tasmania where the club is in training for the upcoming 2013 AFL season. He spoke to SEN Radio in Melbourne yesterday morning about his journey so far. He will today front the media at a press call in Tasmania. The interview can be heard in the Youtube clip below.

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You can follow Eric's Blog HERE.

Supporters of international footy have closely followed the journey of Shae McNamara, the big American basketballer who pitched his wares to AFL clubs and won a trial with the Collingwood Football Club back in late 2009.  Next he made the rookie list and impressed with his athleticism and seemed to be picking up the skills quite quickly, leading the ruck at VFL level by 2010.  "American Pie", as he was often called, even played a NAB Cup game in 2011 and looked on track for an AFL debut by 2012.

Somewhere along the road Shae's journey lost momentum and at the end of 2012 he was cut from the Pies' list.  A trial with Hawthorn didn't lead to rookie listing and the trailblazer from the United States has headed home to re-start his pro basketball career.  Shae previously played four seasons of NCAA Division I collegiate basketball in the US for Marist College in New York before playing one season of professional basketball in Germany.  worldfootynews.com caught up with the American Pie to discuss why things didn't quite work out and how he hopes the future will unfold.

We started off asking if he felt he'd been given a full shot at the game and if not where things went astray.