In 2008 Columbus, Ohio became home to the Jackaroos and now the sports mad city has given US women's footy a new team, the Jillaroos. On a beautiful sunny spring day, seven lucky women came out to be a part of the first ever women's Aussie Rules practice/social/meeting ever in Ohio.

Jamie, Tonya, Kristi, Sara, Megan(not pictured), Julie and Stefanie wrote themelves into future footy lore as the inaugural core that can say they will have literally been there from the beginning. Coaches Chet Ridenour and Alan Gardner and Jackaroos supporters Scoota & Santosh helped guide these women over the basics of handballing, and kicking.

After some drills they were involed in some action in an "ultimate footy-esque" game. They posed for team shots, and headed to BW3s afterwards for food & drink, while bonding over "2 Truths & A lie," sharing and creating nicknames, and dividing up homework to jump-start this team before they meet again.

Next Training: Tues, May 18th, 6pm, Tuttle Park - (Open invite required - meaning you have to invite at least 1 friend out with you!)

For those interested you can listen to Shae McNamara the "Yapping Yank" and Steele Sidebottom on the Collingwoood Football Club's Pie Cast podcast at the link here if you are in Australia or here for our international readers using iTunes.

The big American missed a game through injury but hopes to return to Collingwood's VFL side this weekend.

Follow the link here to listen to Melbourne radio station SEN's Daniel Harford interview Amercian Footy Star creator Miro Gladovic about the project which he suggests could spawn an American mini draft in years to come.

The first camp is loosely scheduled for August in Dallas with others to be determined by demand in other areas. The show will rely on a significant number of applicants to get it off the ground. If you are in the US and know of anyone interested please get them to register at www.americanfootystar.com.

On a cool and windy day in Louisville, KY, the Cincinnati Dockers Australian Rules Football Club began their 14th season at the preseason John Harrell Memorial Cup Tournament this past Saturday. Between the A and B squads, the Dockers finished the tournament with a 1-3 record, playing against squads from Nashville and Columbus.

Cincinnati’s A squad started their tournament against the Nashville A squad. Cincinnati had plenty of shots on goal, but only managed 2 goals out of 7 scoring shots, while Nashville earned more scoring shots and were more accurate. The final score had the Nashville Kangaroos winning with 6 goals and 6 behinds for 42 points beating Cincinnati with 2 goals and 5 behinds for 17 points.

Sydney's Canadian recruit, Mike Pyke, returned to the Swans' side for their Round 7 clash with reigning premiers Geelong at Skilled Stadium. It was his first AFL match of 2010, following his 8 games in his first season in 2009.

Pyke's team were competitive early in their biggest test for the year, but slowly the classy Cats got on top and ran away with the game. Perhaps it will remind those who are saying Collingwood are now clear flag favourites that the club that has played in the last three grand finals might not be done yet.

In positive signs for Pyke, the 200cm budding ruckman had 13 possessions and 18 hit outs, in support of the Swans' Shane Mumford who had 14 possessions and 25 hit outs. The Canadian may become vital to Sydney in the coming weeks, as team-mate Mumford has been reported and is looking at a 2 to 3 match penalty for rough conduct against former Geelong teammate Gary Ablett, although it's the kind of charge that could just as easily be defeated if challenged.

The launch party for American Footy Star took place on Saturday at the residence of the Australian Consul General in Brentwood, California. Interviews with various attendees can be viewed online. We have included interviews with the creator and producer Miro Gladovic, host Cameron Daddo and producer Amit Handa below.

The pilot and footy guide that has been produced so far comes from Gladovic's original idea for a movie with the working title of "Hometown Blues" about a young American who heads to Australia to become an American footy star. In the process of getting this movie made the idea to put together a reality TV show to detail the talent camps and find a young American came together. The TV series will be used to try to obtain the interest and financing to get his film made.

The 2010 Ontario Australian Football League (OAFL) season begins this weekend in Ontario, Canada and with what is to be expected to be its best season yet, the OAFL is working hard both on and off the field.

The Cincinnati Dockers Australian Rules Football Club will begin their 14th season at the annual John Harrell Memorial Cup tournament in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, May 8th. The matches will start at 1:00 PM, and will take place at Champions Park on River Road in Louisville.

Cincinnati is coming off a stellar 2009 season which saw them win their second consecutive United States Australian Football League (USAFL) Division 4 title in Mason, OH, and their fourth league championship overall. In that tournament, the Dockers won all 4 of their matches to win the crown. Following that finish, the Dockers have high hopes of achieving a three-peat.

The tournament itself will be divided into two groups, A and B, and have some special rules. Matches in group A will feature 12 players on the field per team, while matches in group B will have 9 players on the field per team. Games in this tournament will consist of 2 20-minute halves. Cincinnati will be represented in both groups, and will compete against squads from the Nashville Kangaroos and the Columbus Jackaroos in each group.

Tyler Kamerman no doubt has the American frontier spirit, but at the same time he upholds that great Aussie desire just to have a kick of the footy. His return to his home state left him without a footy outlet, so he started his own. While he is not the first member of the mobile American nation to take the Aussie Rules seed and transplant it to new fertile, virgin ground, he is the first to do so in his home state of Iowa.

The Des Moines Roosters first materialized last year when the US Nationals divisions were announced, and those of us not so familiar with US geography had to check out where exactly Des Moines was. It turns out it is a geographical hub of a semicircle that is ringed by other USFooty cities Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis and Kansas City.

To find out more about the USFooty new kids on the block, we spoke with Tyler this week.

The AFL has selected the World XVIII squad (Under 18s) to compete in the Under 16 championships against Australian states. worldfootynews.com will have details of other country selections soon, but for now, Canada's representatives...

AFL Canada is pleased to advise that 4 players have been selected by the Australian Football League to be part of the 30 player squad to represent the inaugural Under 18 World XVIII that will compete in the NAB State under 16 championships to be held in Melbourne & Sydney, Australia from June 27th - July 11th.

The initial 4 players selected were Riyad Karacic (Etobicoke Kangaroos, pictured left), James Duggan (Toronto Dingos) in Toronto Ontario, Clayton Lund and Andrew Roosdahl both from Vancouver, British Columbia. Unfortunately James Duggan will not be able to attend and he has been replaced by John Elliott (pictured right) also of the Etobicoke Kangaroos.

The players will travel to Australia prior to June 27th and attend a week long training camp and practise games in Melbourne before heading to Sydney where they will compete in Division 2 against New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Tasmania and a Pacific XVIII team.