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."

Last weekend for the first time in league history, the Ontario Australian Football League held a Womens AFL match.

Round 12 consisted of a triple header in Ottawa, with the first game of the day pitting the Montréal Angels against the Central Blues women’s football team.

The US Women Freedom team today ended the playing part of their tour down under with a narrow loss to the VWFL team. On a cold blowy Saturday afternoon the Freedom failed to capitalise on some good movement into the forward line on many occaisions.

The Freedom came out on fire continually driving the ball forward with a handy breeze. Poor kicking though saw them fail to capitalise fully with 2.5 on the scoreboard while the shellshocked VWFL was scoreless. Sarbarker and Harrington being the Freedoms goalkickers.

The second quarter proved the value of the breeze and how well the two sides were matched when this was almost reversed and the VWFL kicked 2.5 to the Freedom's two points.

The following is an extract from The Bendigo Advertiser

Coached by Kangaroo Flat’s senior coach, Darryl Wilson, Bendigo won 8.4 (52) to 3.2 (20) before a crowd of more than 1500 as the Freedom marked the third match of its first tour to Australia. Although it had just a couple of training runs before the historic clash, Bendigo’s squad dominated the first half.

The Women’s USAFL team have been on tour in Australia since August 7th and so far have played two tough matches, going down in both but losing no respect along the way. The first match was against a team of first year players in the current Sydney Women’s AFL (SWAFL).

An accumulation of effort between SWAFL and US Footy saw the first ever match between a rookie representative side from the Australians and the US Freedom Team. The Americans had arrived missing two players due to a lost passport at LAX, but with some handy-work and cooperation of the taxi industry - the Freedom recovered their two players in time for the main event.

Australian actor Eric Bana appeared on US comedian and tonight show host Jimmy Fallon's show and promoted the game of Aussie Rules - attempting to teach Fallon some of the finer points. He then gave VB, St Kilda and AFL Grand Final a good plug. A good year to be a Saints fan.

You can watch the video here.

Freedom Coach Wayne Kraska gives us the genesis of the current tour and US Women's footy.

In 2005 after a group of players had been gathered together to play an exhibition game at the Atlanta USAFL National Championships it was suggested that a women’s team in Atlanta would be a good addition for the Atlanta Kookaburras as a club. Being the President of the club at the time there appeared no one really interested in taking on the role to coach this team, so after separating myself from the coaching ranks of the men's team, it was left to yours truly. After our first training session at Scott Nathaniel Park in Decatur, Georgia, I was contacted by Kathryn Hogg who along with a few others had been the driving force behind the trial games in Atlanta in 2004 and the year before in Kansas City.

On Saturday August 1, the small town of Mason Ohio played host to the 2009 49th Parallel Cup, an annual event that matches the USA National Australian Rules Football Team, “Revolution” up against “Northwind”, the Canadian National Australian Rules Football team. The 49th Parallel is the average latitude that marks the border between the US and Canada. It was a football match that eventual saw the US Revolution victorious by 8 goals and leaving the Northwnd think tank scratching their heads on what had possibly gone wrong for football in Canada on that one beautiful August day in the small town Mason.

Press release from the AFL.

ESPN and the Australian Football League (AFL) have reached a multiyear rights deal for live multi-platform coverage in the United States and Canada. The agreement brings fans in the U.S. and Canada access to up to three live matches in each round of the home and away season for the remainder of this season and through the end of 2011. It also includes a number of Finals Series matches, including the 2009 Toyota AFL Grand Final from the Melbourne Cricket Ground in September.

In the United States, matches will be streamed live on ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature live sports broadband network, as well as select AFL matches – including the Grand Final - being televised on ESPN2. In Canada, TSN or TSN2 will televise at least one live or delayed match per week.