Former Geelong Football Club captain Ben Graham continues his NFL punting odyssey tour of the US this week, having signed on with the Detroit Lions.

Having punted in USAFL states of New York (Magpies), Arizona (Hawks) and Louisiana (Baton Rouge Tigers), Graham now finds himself in the footy-barren state of Michigan after the Lions sacked Robert Malone the fill in punter for the injured Ryan Donahue.

If Donahue does not come up from injury this week Graham will punt with his fourth NFL club.

Bill Robert has his latest Stateside Footy Episode 14 now online. The Boston Demons host the New York Magpies in Lexington, MA. In the Keegan Heavey Memorial Game, dedicated to the memory of a recently deceased club member.

Bill Robert has his latest Stateside Footy Episodes 11-13 now online, and these episodes feature two Aussie Football matches: the first being Womens Footy and the inaugural home game of the Boston Lady Demons as they take on the New York Lady Magpies. The second match is a match between the New York and Boston men's reserves.

 

Youtube footage of the program can be seen below.

The Etobicoke Kangaroos Australian Football Club based in Toronto have established themselves as a local powerhouse after becoming AFL Ontario Premiers in 2 of their 3 Grand Finals they participated in recently.

Their Division 1 and 2 teams are 2011 AFL Ontario Premiers while their Women’s team are Runners Up in their inaugural season. The Kangaroos are the 1st club to have all 3 teams in Grand Finals in the same year.

This is Etobicoke's 2nd Division 1 Premiership after winning in 2008, while the Division 2 team clinched their 1st Premiership.

Below are the game write ups for each Grand Final, admittedly from an Etobicoke perspective.

The Denver Lady Bulldogs have defeated a joint New York Lady Magpies-Montreal Angels team by 3.7(25) to 0.1(1) to become the 2011 USAFL National Tournament Women’s Division Champions. The Lady Bulldogs are now back to back USAFL Women’s Champions, having also won the Women’s National Tournament the previous year in Louisville, Kentucky.

Earlier on Day 2, the Denver Lady Bulldogs overcame the Minnesota Freeze by 7.3(45) to 1.2(8) in Semi Final 1, and the New York-Montreal team overcame the Arizona Lady Hawks by 2.7(19) to 1.0(6) in Semi Final 2.

Congratulations are also due to the Denver Bulldogs men’s team who are the USAFL Men’s Champions, defeating Calgary Kangaroos by 3.2(20) to 0.5(5) in the Men’s Division 1 Grand Final.

Division 1 Champions Denver Bulldogs - Calgary Kangaroos 0.5 (5) def by Denver Bulldogs 3.2 (20)

Division 2 Champions Dallas Magpies - Austin Crows 1.3 (9) def by Dallas Magpies 8.6 (54)

Division 3 Champions - Arizona Hawks - Arizona Hawks 5.2 (32) def Atlanta Kookaburras 3.1 (19)

The Women’s Division results for Day 1 and the draw for the semi finals has now been announced by the USAFL.

Women's Div I:
Pool A:	Team	W	D	L	PF	PA	Percentage	Points
Denver Bulldogs	34	2	0	0	90	12	750.00%	8
New York Lady magpies/Montreal	35	1	0	1	59	36	163.89%	4
Sacramento Screamers	36	0	0	2	0	101	0.00%	0
Pool B:	Team	W	D	L	PF	PA	Percentage	Points
Arizona Lady Hawks/Calgary Kookaburras	37	1	0	1	54	53	101.89%	4
Minnesota Freeze	38	1	0	1	46	46	100.00%	4
Boston/Columbus/BWE/Toronto	39	1	0	1	48	49	97.96%	4

Calgary are the standout Division 1 team in the USAFL after Day 1 in Pool A. They seem likely to defeat Orange County on form tomorrow morning and would then play the top team from Pool B, Orange County of course will be looking to try to put paid to those plans.  Pool B is a battle between Seattle and Denver who were both undefeated on Day 1 and will play each other tomorrow morning with the winner to go to the final.  Denver will go in favourites but Seattle will always be a chance if they can defend well in the short format.

Division 2 is dominated by the Texan teams in Austin and Dallas undefeated in their pools and in Division 3 Atlanta leads it's pool undefeated while Arizona and Florida are undefeated in the other pool.  You can follow tomorrow's matches as USFootyNews

All mens division results follow:

Division 1

POOL A
Saturday
Golden Gate 4.0 v Orange County 7.5
New York 2.5 v Calgary 4.4
New York 5.7 v Orange County 2.2
Golden Gate 2.2 v Calgary 5.4

POOL B
Saturday
Denver 5.4 v San Diego 3.1
Seattle 4.2 v Baltimore DC 0.5
Denver 9.3 v Baltimore DC 0.1
Seattle 3.9 v San Diego 2.1

The Arizona Cardinals have re-signed Ben Graham after cutting him at the NFL season's start. The former Geelong captain has been recalled due to injury to his replacement, Dave Zastudil. Zastudil remains on the roster though so Graham's return could be short lived.

Other former Aussie rules players in the NFL are Matt McBriar who continues his long career with the Dallas Cowboys (and hit a 68 yard punt this week) and Sav Rocca who has moved to the Washington Redskins for this season and may be having his best season so far.

Former Brisbane and Port Adelaide player Scott Harding has also recently debuted in college gridiron football for University of Hawaii as a wide receiver.