While footy lovers across the US drooled at the new stadium being built in Florida primarily for cricket but also with Aussie Rules in mind, the cost of playing there did not come to mind. When it was mooted earlier in the year that the Faststream Spring Invitational Tournament would be played at the Lauderhill stadium there were plenty of clubs put their hands up in anticipation of going down to Florida to play at this great new facility. There was much talk in US footy circles about Nationals being a certainty to be played there in coming years as well. The reality is a little different to the dream. Broward County, who fronted the vast amounts of money to build that stadium, want to see a decent return on their investment with hefty user pays fees. This prevented the tournament earlier in the year using the stadium (also due to late withdrawal of teams needed to pay the ground costs), continues to prevent the local teams playing or training here and could deter the USAFL from playing the Nationals here in future as well.

The San Diego Lions, one of USFooty's power clubs, have recently embraced (a version of) Recreational Football, a non-contact version of Aussie Rules that can be used to introduce new players to the game, get people involved that don't want the full contact and also allows mixed sex matches ("co-ed"). Often used for intra-club, San Diego recently took their rec footy team on the road to play the Las Vegas Gamblers' side.

You can check out their rec footy and full contact matches on Youtube here.

Portland Power have their first home tournament this weekend and will play as a stand-alone 18 a side team for the first time. It is a great step forward for a club that has taken it’s time to develop since it first took shape in 1998. As previously covered the club has played little brother to the Seattle club for a number of years but now is getting ready to show what they have to offer standing on their own. Attending the tournament will be Seattle Grizzlies, Denver Bulldogs and Vancouver Cougars.

Canada's premier league, the Ontario AFL, is leading the way in promoting the local clubs via a web-based footy show, featuring regular host Lockie McDonald and "panel" members Salvatore Capoferri and Emile Studham. Each episode features footage from the previous week's games, general footy gossip and plugs for the league's sponsors.

Recently, in episode four, the guys interviewed Canada's national coach, the Northwind's Mark Block. Currently also the Toronto Eagles coach and formerly the Northwind's captain at the 2002 International Cup, Block was very clear that he leads his side Down Under with the intention of winning the third Cup. Not surprisingly Papua New Guinea were seen as the biggest obstacle, and another bout with the United States was keenly anticipated.

It was also great to see the respect that Block had for a few "heritage" items from past Cups - something that will only be truly appreciated in the future. And speaking of the future, the clip also features first word of a new club forming, either the Quebec or Montreal Saints.

The episode can be viewed here, with the chat to Block starting around 18:35.

USFootyNews.com and WorldFootyNews.com have joined forces to put together the 3rd unofficial USFooty Top 10 Poll of 2008. Despite a few games across the country, according to our voters there hasn't been a lot of movement at the top of the ladder. Curiously one team has sneaked in without taking the field yet. Look for more movement when the season gets into full swing.

The first US women's footy games of the year were held on Saturday (2nd June) with the inaugural 'Duel in the Desert' tournament hosted by the Arizona Lady Hawks. With temperatures expected to rise into the triple digits it was an early start with games starting not long after 8.00am. At the event were the newly formed Denver Lady Bulldogs and the Atlanta Lady Kookaburras as well as the hosts of course the Lady Hawks, runners-up at last years Nationals in Louisville.

Long time readers of worldfootynews.com may remember one of our original writers, Jake Anson. Born and bred in Warrnambool in country Victoria, Jake has been busy since 2005, joining the growing army of Aussies out teaching the world about Australian Football. We recently caught up with Jake to learn about some great results with juniors and women's footy in Alberta, Canada.

Back in late 2005 Jake landed in South Africa where he embarked on AFL South Africa's progam of taking Australian tourists to local communities. You can read more about his experience in Aussies on the Road.

Next stop was Europe, an inevitable pilgrimage for many young Australians. But he didn't stay long.

Michelle Anne Sinclair aka "Belladonna", a big name in the adult entertainment industry, confessed her love for the rough sport of AFL where "guys run into each other without padding or anything". She also threw her support behind the Port Adelaide Power after visiting a match at AAMI stadium for the first time during a recent trip to Australia. The article appears on the Adelaide Now website of South Australian newspaper The Advertiser as "Porn Star makes her AFL debut".

While in some parts of the US teams are just awakening from their winter slumber, the Southern California AFL has six solid rounds of football behind it. Add to this, having hosted the Revolution training camp with trial games, an indoor exhibition match before an Arena Football League match and a road trip to Dallas and you can see that these guys are returning to a position of strength not seen for some years. President Corey Irwin tells us “The SCAFL currently stands at the best it’s been in the league’s short three year history. We’ve built a strong core of players and continue to grow talent on each side.”

Following on from the great write up their game received last year in the CBS Sportsline’s Spin on Sport article, the Nashville Kangaroos’ match last weekend was covered by local TV station WKRN. The video news story features pre and post match with the team as well as match footage and features interviews with coach Marty Thompson and Shane Clohesy on Nashville’s famous ground announcing microphone. The resulting news story titled AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL IN THE MUSIC CITY can be viewed here and is a great promotion for Nashville locally as well as for the game in general in the US. The Kangaroos’ opponents were the combined Cincinnati/Louisville team. The final scores were Nashville 12.8 80 to Cincinnati/Louisville 8.4 52.

A full write up of the match can be found by following this link.