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.

In a return to the status quo, the United States Revolution have defeated Canada's Northwind in the international in Mason, Ohio, USA.

An early report from usfooty.com reports that:

On a hot muggy day at Mason Sports Complex the new faced USA Revolution defeated the Canadian Northwind team. The returning Revolution players spearheaded by Luke Nemeth lead the way; however the deciding factor was the outstanding performance by a number of rookies. The Revolution got off to a great start kicking 4.4, to 1.1 in the first quarter. They continued to lead comfortably for the rest of the day. The Revolution backline were outstanding in the second quarter, keeping the Canadian National team to just one more goal. The Revolution’s fitness, teamwork and physicality showed in the second half, as they ran out comfortable winners.

United States 12.11 (83)
Canada 5.3 (33)

This weekend sees several international matches, with Germany and the Czech Republic playing in Mitteleschenbach and the Jakarta and Singapore clubs fighting it out at Cibubur Oval in Jakarta, Indonesia. Even bigger still is the return to action of Canada and the United States for their first international since IC08.

Traditionally the US Revolution has been too strong for Canada's Northwind, but in 2007 that changed with the northerners winning for the first time, tasting success on home soil. The US gets a chance for revenge in this Ohio match, and with Canada finishing 6th at IC08, just one spot above the US, a close match could be expected. However that was Canada's best finish and they seem to be on the rise, where asfor the US 7th spot represented a disappointing slide. Was 2007/08 a permanent crossing point in the trajectory of their football abilities, or an aberration that the Revos will turn around?

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.