The OAFL is gearing up for their 1000th game this coming weekend. Scheduled for Saturday, July 18th at 1:00 p.m. at the Humber North field, the Toronto Eagles will face the High Park Demons.

The US National Women's team, the US Freedom, will be touring Australia this coming August. The team will play matches in Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne and Bendigo in Australia as the first ever tour by an US women's team to Australia. The team will be coached by Australian expatriate Wayne Kraska and US Revolution (and International Cup) representative Dan Sarbacker. The Captains are Jenny Sarbacker, Helen Spink and Tina Arend. The team is drawn from across the US, with Arizona, Atlanta, Denver, Milwaukee, Minnesota and New York clubs represented.

The development of Aussie Rules for women in the US has seen great expansion in the handful of years it has been underway - and it is hoped this tour will provide even more incentive for women to play the game. The tour is a major milestone in the development of women's footy not just in the US but outside Australia, and should pave the way for future international tournaments. While on the Australian tour they will be assisting in developing the game in Australia also, as the Bendigo visit is aimed to help Bendigo establish an adult women's team to complement the three junior teams already playing there.

The full team and schedule is listed below.

The Ontario Australian Football League would like to announce the recent re-launch of their league website.

With a fresh new look and added multimedia experiences, the league is hoping the new enhancements attract local and international interest and assist with promoting Australian football on Canadian soil.

The league would like to thank previous web master, Salvatore Capoferri for all his hard work on the previous site, his volunteer work was greatly appreciated.

The league would also like to thank their newest Silver Sponsor: RM Communications for the development of the new site.

The new website can be visited at OAFL.ca.

We are pleased that our good friends at AFANA announced this week that new leadership has stepped forward for day-to-day operations in the organization. This follows the retirement of Rob de Santos and Ann Solomon several months ago. Kimber Smith, AFANA's marketing and PR director, will be expanding her role and will join forces with Joe Fidler to provide interim leadership for AFANA. Kimber will head up management and marketing initiatives and Joe will coordinate operations.

"I am pleased that Kimber and Joe have stepped forward to provide interim leadership for AFANA,” said Rob. “I am sure they will provide exactly what AFANA needs to begin to move into a new era. I've promised that I will make myself available to provide counsel and technical support to them throughout the transition. After 14 years, it is time for me to seek new horizons and for AFANA to get newly invigorated leadership."

"We are committed to the organization's long-standing mission to promote viewership of Australian football in North America," said Kimber. "At the same time, we will be exploring different-yet-appropriate avenues to further support the mission and raise awareness and interest in the sport in the US and Canada."

Heading into the half way point of the Ontario Australian Football League season the contenders are starting to separate themselves from the pretenders, and many clubs start to set themselves for a serious run into September action. Many of the clubs have a lot of work to do while others will be looking to keep the momentum going as they build towards September.

WFN caught up with one of the Columbus Jackaroos founders, Chet Ridenour. While his club is in the midst of their second season he is travelling South and Central America. Ridenour presided over the rapid foundation of an Aussie Rules football club that managed to win their first ever match, and bring a breath of fresh air to the US footy scene. In the interview we discuss Chet's football journey, what went into forming the club, recruiting, football stories and much more.

The podcast of the interview can be found here.

Today NFL players Terence Newman and Courtney Brown from the Dallas Cowboys will visit the Lexus Centre to meet Collingwood players Nick Maxwell, Anthony Rocca and Josh Fraser. The team-mates of Aussie punter Matt McBriar will no doubt feature in the Melbourne media in the next 24 hours. In other Aussie rules-NFL crossover news, Jy Bond has been dropped by the Miami Dolphins but hopes he will get a chance with another franchise to join McBriar, Sav Rocca and Ben Graham as an Aussie NFL punter in the upcoming season.

Toronto, Wednesday July 1st 2009: On a perfect Toronto day for football, AFL Canada in conjunction with one of the largest leagues outside of Australia, the Ontario Australian Football League (“OAFL”), held their 3rd Canada Day Football Carnival. Canada Day is national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country. It's also a great chance for the OAFL to showcase Aussie Rules and give their national side a match against quality opposition.

Last weekend, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, hosted the first annual Canadian National Championships for Women and Youth.

Forty-seven women from Calgary and Edmonton travelled from Alberta to contest the Nationals, which were played in a round-robin format against the Vancouver-based West Coast Wildcats. It is believed to be the first matches of 18-a-side women's club football played in North America.

With Australian Rules football starting to flourish on the west coast of Canada with its junior leagues, it's little surprise that women’s football is starting to take shape. This weekend sees the inaugural Canadian National Championships for Women and Youth taking place in Vancouver, at the University of British Columbia.

The round robin tournament is seen as a major step for women’s football in Canada as 68 women aged between 18 and 26 will be participating in the competition, representing three clubs across the provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta.