Denver Bulldogs have won the US Nationals for the seventh time since the year 2000. They won a close, hard fought Grand Final match in Mason, Ohio against Seattle Grizzlies 2.5 (17) to 2.2 (14).

In other results Calgary won Division 2, Dallas won Division 3, Ohio Valley/St Louis won Division 4 and Calgary Blue won the Women's final.

DIVISON 1 FINAL
Denver 2.5 (17) defeated Seattle 2.2 (14)

Paul Roos Medal for Best & Fairest - Brendan Feddema of Denver
Coopers Medal for Most Consistent - Jeff Purcell of Seattle & Clayton Holmes of Vancouver
Hayden Kennedy Medal for Grand Final Umpiring - Greg Everett & Stephen Arnott
Geoff Cann Medal for MVP in Final - Dominic Kennedy of Denver

Other final results below.

The 2009 USFooty National Championships kicked off Friday in Mason, Ohio with the club administrators conference. Some great sessions were presented to club representatives to take back to their team mates to help grow the sport in the US. The Australian Exchange program for American players to country footy clubs and universities in Western Australia has shown great growth since we heard about it last year. WFN scribe Chris Adams also presented on his success with running structured local kids clinics in the summer in DC - a great blueprint for clubs wanting to start out with AusKick/USFootyKids. Former WFN correspondent Jake Anson from Calgary also had a great presentation on the success of recruiting and player development for the Calgary Kookaburras womens side - from their growth and success, it seems they have a great blueprint on how to develop womens footy.

38 teams are taking part in the tournament over the weekend. The Day 1 results are posted below. Denver and Seattle looking strongest in their Division 1 pools.

It is billed as the biggest Australian football tournament in the world. Certainly, it is hard to think of an example comparable to a tournament where about 800 players turn up to play in some 30 mens teams and 8 womens teams across 4 mens divisions and 1 womens division over two days in Mason OH.

Teams arrived into Mason from all over the US and Canada on Friday October 9. Ten years ago, I arrived into Cincinnati (not far from Mason) and was taken aback by seeing a couple hundred footy players playing on two fields for the 1999 USAFL National Tournament. To see five fields across the vast expanse of Heritage Oak Park really is quite something.

The two top seeds for Division I are the Baltimore Washington Eagles, who were ranked #1 in the last USFooty Top 10 poll and the Denver Bulldogs, who have the most National Championships of any team in USFooty. The BW Eagles played 11 games this year, including beating a team made up of Australian sailors from two battleships that came into Baltimore Harbor during the summer. They lost one game by 2 points to the second seed New York Magpies. The Denver Bulldogs have had a pretty quiet year. All their games were on the road with wins over Kansas City and Dallas and losses to San Diego and Orange County.

For more on the tournament and previews of all the divisions go to USFootyNews.com.

The second of the "Hey Hey it's Saturday" reunion shows, curiously seen on a Wednesday night, included a cross to a lady in Atlanta in the US.

Back in September, Hey Hey had called upon Aussie expats via Facebook to have 'Hey Hey' parties. And so, with a whole bunch of ex pat Aussies around her, we saw the camera pan the room and in doing so glimpsed a large "USfooty" sign (around a TV monitor).

This seemed a curious happy coincidence until host Daryl Somers questioned the lady 'hosting' the link about what she did in the US.

It turns out - and apologies I can't recall her name - that she is the IT administrator/manager of USFooty and she provided a pretty good plug for USFooty and the up coming nationals in Mason.

The irony as well is that she'd set up the link such that there was less (no) delay compared to the audio delay with the Hey Hey live-cross to the Black Eyed Peas just over the railway tracks at Rod Laver Arena!!!

She did a great job - if anyone can provide her name and perhaps a link to a youtube of her on Hey Hey would be fabulous.

The USAFL has announced the seedings for the 2009 National Championships to be held in Mason, Ohio with a record number of teams playing this year. The seeding Committee has finalized the seeding pools for almost all divisions, with Division IV and the women's division still requiring some final revisions (added when available).

As always, this has been a difficult task, especially given the complexity inherent in a national competition (e.g., trying to compare teams that never played each other during the season, or did not play many or any games during the season). The goal of the seedings is to promote a lively and balanced competition based on the information available. The nature of this task is inherently imperfect, and although we know this subject could be fodder for endless debate, we assure you that we have done our best.

The seedings and some rationale behid them can be viewed below.

In perhaps a good omen for the St Kilda Football Club ahead of this year's AFL Grand Final, the West Coast Saints have taken out the 2009 British Columbia premiership in Canada's west. The following report is courtesy of Myk Aussie.

What a great summer weather drive it was for me from Calgary to Vancouver especially to watch the NWPAFL Grand Final. The North West Pacific AFL competition also known as BC Footy is now a 5 team league and rapidly growing competition in British Columbia, Canada. The Grand Final was between the undefeated Burnaby Eagles coached by Matthew Bell and the West Coast Saints coached by Ward Frost. Neither of these sides had won a premiership. The UBC Fields were in great condition and I was gladly surprised at the excellent crowd in attendance eagerly waiting for the start of the Grand Final (one report put it at around 300 people).

Written by Paul Drake

Chicago, IL- Chicago United claimed their third MAAFL title in a row after another devastating display of Australian Rules Football on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. This weeks victim was their old foes from Wisconsin who made the 90 mile trek down the I-90 with a handy team.

Though starting the game with several top name players out including Rohan Ward, the Chicago United was able to draw first blood early when Big Al MacGlashan presented at full forward and took a strong mark on the lead and then cooly went back, cocked that magnificent left hoof and went BANG from 50. He followed this up with two more strong marks and from closer in, missed by a country mile both times. Gordon Ambrosino was proving a handful with his pace and he was rewarded with a smart goal from a snap to bring up Chicagos second.

ESPN were planning to show this year's AFL Grand Final on a two hour delay on ESPN2 but it now appears that viewers across the USA can now watch the game live. It will now be screened on ESPN Classic channel live which is great news for Aussie Rules clubs in the US as well as the fans, both expat Australians and converted locals.

Written by Christina Licata

The New York Magpies sewed up the 2009 EAFL Premiership this Saturday August 29 by taking down the Boston Demons at home at Tibbetts Brook Park. In extremely muddy conditions reminiscent of June’s slosh-fest against Baltimore-Washington, the home team kept the visitors goalless. This is the Pies’ first top-of-the-ladder finish in the EAFL since 2005, ousting reigning champions for the past 2 years, the Baltimore-Washington Eagles.

The Pies dedicated the victory to club stalwart and former president Doug Lewis, who celebrated his 100th game on Saturday - no small achievement in a league that plays only about 10 games a year!

Following somewhat in the footsteps of Mike Pyke, American basketballer Shae McNamara who played basketball with Marist College is trialling at the Collingwood Football Club. McNamara at the age of 24 is a 202cm potential ruckman and has this week been flown out by Collingwood to trial ahead of list nominations in November. McNamara sent video of himself kicking and handballing a gridiron ball to most clubs in the league (see videos below).

Of his progress Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh said yesterday on SEN radio “We’re conducting a few physical tests, getting him to handle our footy, seeing how all that goes. He’s not setting the world on fire, but he’s going OK,”

McNamara is seen in the video working out with Orange County Bombers stalwart Chis Olson. According to Olson. "Shae's a phenomenal athlete, with a good head on his shoulders. In 12 years involvement in the game here I've never seen someone pick up the skills as quickly as he has. I wish him the best of luck."