Following on from news that United States backetballer Eric Wallace was trialling with North Melbourne, the Roos have now announced that they have signed the 196cm, 102 kg African American as an international rookie.

North had made it clear he ticked most of the boxes already, they just wanted to check out his character and work ethic in the 10 day trial, and they were very pleased.  Improving his skills and game awareness will be the obvious issues, but so too will endurance.  The decision was reportedly very popular with his new team mates but first Wallace will return home to North Carolina for two weeks no doubt with a lot of organising to do as his life takes a sudden detour to Australia.

Wallace says he fell in love with the game watching Sydney win the premiership and "It really stuck with me when I went home and [I] wanted to be a part of it".  Team mates have reportedly dubbed the powerful athlete "The Beast" and "Big E".

Ironically his signing comes as Collingwood's American Shae McNamara returns home after ending his stint in Australia.

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afl.com.au is reporting that the United States' Eric Wallace is trialling with North Melbourne with the aim of being listed as an International Rookie. 

Wallace, who turns 24 on Thursday, started training on Monday with the Kangaroos after being one of 10 international athletes to attend and test at October's NAB AFL Draft Combine.

There he caught the eye of the Kangaroos with his athletic ability. The 196cm and 102kg product recorded an 80cm standing vertical jump (in the top 3 per cent of results) and ran 2.90 seconds in the 20m sprint.

It seems North will almost certainly list Wallace, with the club stating that they are already sold on his athleticism and just want to evaluate his character and whether he will fit in with the club's culture.

See North Melbourne hops on US bandwagon for more.

Two Americans Derrell Acrey and Quinn Porter remain on the GC Suns permission to train list this week.  The two athletes who previously took part in the AFL's draft combine in LA trained last week with the Suns in Arizona.

Gold Coast football operations manager Marcus Ashcroft told the AFL website "It was a really good opportunity for them to come up here and join in and see where they stack up against our lads in skill work and conditioning work and it also broke the camp up with a bit of fun from our boys' point of view,"

The AFL wishes to advise the following unlisted players currently have permission to train with AFL clubs. Recent additions since the last notification on November 5 are underlined:

 

 

The Gold Coast Suns are sweating it out at their preseason camp in Arizona. The two videos below reveal just what the club gets up to on their high altitude camp.

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In a huge development the Dallas Magpies 2012 USAFL Nationals title has been stripped and the title vacated. That means New York will not be awarded the title despite the league ruling Dallas played an ineligible player. Dallas will also be unable to compete in their home state National Championships in 2013 which will be held in Austin, TX.

The USAFL has concluded an investigation in relation to Dallas Magpie Jason Sutherland’s participation at the 2012 USAFL National Tournament and it was found that Jason was ineligible to participate with the Dallas Magpies at this year’s Nationals. The investigation revealed that Sutherland was an active member of Central District Football Club in Adelaide for their entire season which ended October 7.

Players and teams must abide by the “The 3 Point Qualification System” for eligibility to play at the USAFL National Tournament. “This rule is in place to allow for fair competition. The objective is to create participation throughout an entire season as opposed to one weekend,” commented USAFL President Andy Vanica.

The 2012 USAFL Nationals were held in Mason, Ohio, and continuing their consecutive run of Nationals titles, the Denver Lady Bulldogs whitewashed the joint Boston Lady Demons/ Baltimore Eagles team 3.4(22) to 0.0.(0)

The Lady Bulldogs turned up with an impressive squad line up, including players returning from Australian leagues and five Freedom players, three of whom travelled to Australia for the 2011 International Cup.

Dallas Magpies are the US Division 1 Champs with final scores being  Dallas Magpies 3.4.22, New York Magpies 3.2.20.

Earlier in the day Nashville defeated Orange County leaving the door open for the winner of New York vs Denver to sneak through on percentage.  Dallas made it through to the final defeating Calgary by just four points.  New York did win by just two points to make it to the final but lost in a nail biter to the Dallas team in the final as New York stormed home with the aid of a stiff breeze with 3.2  in the second half to just one point for Dallas.

In Division II Minnesota Freeze 1.6.12 defeated the Los Angeles Dragons 0.3.3.

The Orange County Bombers emerged as National Championship contenders today in Mason Ohio as they defeated former champions New York and Denver.  Should they defeat the winless Nashville tomorrow morning they will play off for their first  Division I title at the end of the day.  In the other pool in Division I Dallas and cross border raiders Calgary will meet at midday to battle for their place in the final.  Calgary had the biggest Division I win for the day keeping the Golden Gate Roos scoreless and winning by 74 points.

Minnesota, LA Dragons and Boston all fared well in Divison II, with Boston escaping with a one point win over the San Diego Lions.  In Division III Chicago, Columbus and Atlanta were all undefeated with the winner looking to come from those three.  In Division IV Houston, Des Moines and Milwaukee are all undefeated going into Day 2.

In the Women's Division Denver were the stand out team and are favourites to take out the title again this year.

Scores from Day 1 matches below.

The rise and success of Canadian Mike Pyke for the Sydney Swans has now been well documented.  An article that got solid coverage in Canada had a headline that he lead the Swans to victory in the AFL grand final and that attracted some criticism in one particular online news site.  However that's a fairly narrow semantic arguement.  Although he didn't dominate the match, there's no doubt that ruck is a key position and to play well when left with no backup in the final quarter of a suffocatingly tight grand final means by my personal definition he certainly was one of the players who lead the Bloods home.

So his brief career has reached a high point.  But there may now be a nasty epilogue to season 2012.  When all players in Sydney's squad are fit and firing, the 28 year old Pyke is clearly the Swans' number two ruckman.  Many clubs now only play one ruckman, but coach John Longmire chose to play his 200cm Rugby convert as a big target in the forward line and then relieving in the ruck.  He kicked 8 goals in 18 games this year and indeed provided a solid target to bring the ball to ground, occasionally also pulling in a strong mark, as well as leading the ruck on occasions.

However, the Swans have made a big play for enigmatic Adelaide forward/ruckman Kurt Tippett and are now in pole position to obtain the 25 year old.  That could put Pyke in a very tough spot.