One of the major events of the OAFL footy calender is just about upon us. And can you believe the hype this year? Early on in the piece there was talk that perhaps the game would not go ahead, but alas it has, and will, this Thursday at Humber South College at 2pm.

Not only is this game the main draw card of the day, but there is a lot going on with exhibition netball matches, a Rookies Challenge game, junior game and for the first time ever on Canada Day, a womens match!! Going to be a real top notch day!

The main game is scheduled a mere month before the Team Canada "Northwind" are set to take on the US in the 49th Parallel Cup on Saturday July 31st, as well as getting some much needed experience before they head to Australia in 2011 to take on the best in the world in the International Cup. What better way for Northwind to prepare than to play against some of the best the OAFL has to offer.

US Freedom coach Wayne Kraska is proud to announce the 2010 US Freedom team. A pool of 60 players went through the tryout process including tournaments in New York and Denver. The US Freedom is the United States national Women's Australian Rules Football team.

The following players will be representing the USAFL in the 49th Parallel Cup against Canada on July 31 and Aug 1.

The Sydney Swans' Canadian Rugby Union recruit, Mike Pyke, is continuing to impress in only his second season of Aussie Rules. After being elevated off the rookie list to debut in 2009, Pyke has added 6 games to his 8 AFL matches last year.

With injuries and suspension to other ruckmen the former Rugby International was thrown into the deep end earlier this year, manfully leading the Swans' ruck but struggling to exert sufficient influence. He is now back in a more appropriate role, supporting Sydney's Shane Mumford, but often taking on 50% of the rucking duties. Averaging 17 hitouts along with 2 marks, 2 tackles and 7 disposals is a pretty impressive return in just his second year at AFL level which is also only his second year ever in Australian football.

The 200cm, 104kg athlete is coming to the end of his contract and although the 26 year old is not ruling out a return to Rugby, he's hoping for a contract extension - it seems highly likely it will be offered.

ESPN have done a deal with Microsoft to provide its streaming ESPN3 service (which carries live AFL matches into the USA) to many Xbox 360 owners with Gold accounts in the USA. With the launch in November it will not give this viewing option until the 2011 season, and will only be available to customers whose ISPs also have a deal with ESPN to stream the service.

So it's not really a new service (but there will be some social and interactive features optimized for Xbox Live) because if you're a customer of one of those ISPs, you can already stream ESPN3 to your PC.

Although the arrangement might be attractive to Xbox owners who have their console hooked up to the giant plasma set, while the PC languishes in a home office, it won't bring ESPN3 content to the customers of Time Warner, Cablevision or many other major cable carriers. This weekend those who can view http://ESPN3.com in the US will see Round 13 AFL Matches Hawthorn v Essendon, Carlton v Fremantle and Brisbane v Richmond.

After many years of the same look, visitors to http://www.usafl.com/ will see an all new USFooty website from today. The new website features a number of new sections as well as up to date information and even a hint of a new USFooty team - the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.

There are still plenty of footy xenophobes out there who believe that Australian football should be played by Australians only. But anyone who has been involved with foreigners coming to the game seems to be quickly converted to the idea that the game shouldn't be restricted to those who live in Australia (which of course it is not). There is something special about sharing the game that has largely been a secret to the rest of the world, who for the most part take it up with great enthusiasm.

Luke Ball today wrote in The Age of his encounters with Collingwood team-mate Shae McNamara and surmises that the game can only be better off for the diversity that international expansion can bring. The following is an extract from that article Globalisation of our code can only make us better.

The Cincinnati Dockers Australian Rules Football Club will begin regular season play on the road against the reigning three-time Mid American Australian Football League (MAAFL) champions, Chicago United. This game will take place on Saturday June 5th at 3 PM central time at Waveland Park in Chicago.

The Seattle Grizzlies this week showed their stuff on TV show New Day Northwest.

The Sydney Swans' players will train today in the guernseys of their junior clubs, an initiative of Swans forward, Jarred Moore. So what will Mike Pyke train in is the big question?

While it will be a Canadian one, it will unfortunately be the guernsey he wore when he played in the Rugby World Cup for Canada - and not that of the Canada Northwind team (see below).

On any given weekend during an American footy season there can be any number of games happening across the US. With teams playing a number of one off tournaments and some smaller league structures, and metro leagues slotted in here and there the number can vary from one or two and on other weekends in the double figures.

This weekend is one of the latter. In Boston the OAFL Awfuls will be playing games against both Boston Demons and Baltimore/Washington Eagles. The Eagles and Demons will also play each other in their scheduled EAFL clash.