AFL Canada is pleased to announce that four players have been selected by the Australian Football League (AFL) to represent the World XVIII under 18 team in the up coming NAB Australian Under 16's championships to be played in Sydney, Australia in July. This is the 2nd year in a row that four Canadian Juniors have been selected for this honour.

All four players Alex Tivy, Jason Silen, Darren Ledoux, Brennan Lew-Cooke hail from the very successful North Delta Junior Australian Football League (NDJAFL) based in Vancouver, British Columbia that also produced two of the four players selected in the 2010 version of the World XVIII. Vancouver, British Columbia is home of the first Canadian to play professional AFL, Mike Pyke who plays for the Sydney Swans.
 
 

Collingwood football club continues its love for the Arizona altitude this week as Dane Swan, Darren Jolly, Nathan Brown and Brent McCaffer headed back to the US on Monday and were shortly after joined by Dale Thomas.  The theory is that the two weeks at altitude will aid the recovery of these players struggling with injury and fatigue problems.

The Youtube video below interviews the players about the trip and has some footage of the clubs preseason trip to Arizona.

The largest youth Australian football program in the United States, Saturday Morning Footy, begins its 6^th year on June 18.  The program started in 2006 with 22 boys and girls participating in two sessions.  In 2010, over 100 boys and girls participated in six sessions throughout the year, including one with AFL Coaching Director Peter Schwab.  In 2011, we are hoping to run five sessions in the summer with over 150 participants.  The program is free to participants and operates through the generous donation of time and money by parents and volunteers, as well as support from the Baltimore Washington Eagles ARFC and the Australian Embassy Social Club.

Stateside Footy presents an Australian Rules Football match between the Boston Demons and New York Magpies, played on April 30, 2011 in Yonkers, N.Y. Stateside Footy is a cable access TV show produced at WCTV - Wilmington Community Television in Wilmington, MA. It features Aussie Rules Football as it is played in the U.S.A. The man behind Stateside Footy is Bill Robert and we thank Bill for submitting his video.

Stateside Footy presents another two-part episode to kick off its second season. The first part is a preview of the Boston Demons 2011 Australian Rules Football season including interviews and highlight footage. The second part presents a Women's Footy match played in Yonkers, N.Y., featuring female footballers from the Boston, New York, and Baltimore-Washington teams.

Stateside Footy is a cable access TV show produced at WCTV - Wilmington Community Television in Wilmington, MA. It features Aussie Rules Football as it is played in the U.S.A.  We thank Bill Robert the man behind Stateside Footy for the video.

Next Saturday, May 7th, at 1:30pm, the Sacramento Screamers men’s team will play their first ever game, taking on the Las Vegas Gamblers. As a curtain raiser to this game, there will also be a women’s development game held at 12:00 with players from the Arizona Ladyhawks and the Sacramento Screamers joining with female players from Las Vegas to form two teams to play a 12-a-side game.

Later in May, on the 21st, Baltimore/ Washington DC will host an Eastern Australian Football League women’s game.

On June 25th, the Denver Lady Bulldogs will host the Minnesota Freeze.

A women’s game is being arranged for July 30th in California between Orange County Bombshells and Sacramento Screamers.

On September 10th, Boston will host an Eastern Australian Football League women’s game. On the other side of the country, another women’s match is being arranged for the same date in San Diego, California, with female players from Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles or Orange County taking part.

Austin Crows wingman Jesse Leos (pictured left with Mark "Bomber" Thompson) has made the trip to Australia this year to play with the Barwon Heads football club in the Bellarine Football Leauge. After some preseason games and his first two regular season games in the reserves, Leos has this week been picked to play in the senior team against Torquay at Torquay.

Country footy crowds are bigger than usual at this time of year particularly Easter/Anzac day holidays coming together and Bells Beach surfing tournament on just down the road, so it should be a good crowd to greet him.

You can read all about Jesse's journey so far in his blog Diary of a Redneck Texan Downunder.

The following is an extract from the article The Amateur: Australian Rules Football, Yet Another Metaphor For Life by Spencer Hall in series where he tries various sports for the first time.  For his first taste of Aussie rules he joined Westside Bombers in the Atlanta metro footy league.  The article appeared on the SB Nation website.  The full article can be found here.  

 Everyone adjourns for beer. I turn in my jersey. I touch my knees, both still functioning. Ears: intact, and still sitting firmly attached to my head. The violence promised by reels of AFL Youtube maim-montage never materialized. Oh, one player was firmly decleated on a boundary kick, sure, with our best defender running through him like an enraged PCP-smoking hobo through a wet cardboard box. It looked magnificent and sounded even better,  the rush of air flying out of the poor victim's lungs followed by the audible thud of him hitting the grass.

In 2010 the Ontario Australian Football League in Canada (OAFL), with the help of the Hamilton Wildcats, put together a rag tag team of mixed Australian and Canadian players to send down to Boston, USA, to compete in a tournament with the Boston Demons and the Washington/Baltimore Eagles.

In 2011, the side founded and organised by Wildcats Club President Timmy "Bulldog" Wilson, will be taking this trip to the next level, taking a full-blown OAFL representative side to Chicago on the May 24 holiday weekend to compete against the "Best of the Midwest".

Outside of the international scene, this will likely be some of the best footy seen not only seen in North America, but possibly the world. The OAFL boasts one of the most organised leagues outside of the home country of Footy, Australia, and also has some of the best non Australian players kicking around as seen in a recent Northwind article on www.oafl.ca.

The Midwest also features some of the best players from around the US so the tone will be set for some cracker footy!

Part 2 of the interview from SEN radio in Melbourne below.