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."

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.