WorldFootyNews.com and USFootyNews.com have once again combined to produce the second USFooty Top 10 Poll of 2008. The San Diego Lions have regained first place after losing to Denver in the 2007 National Championship game, perhaps proving that no news is good news.

1. San Diego Lions (0 wins - 0 losses) (5 #1 Votes) (UP from 2nd)
2. Balt/Wash Eagles (4-0) (1 #1 Vote) (UP from 3rd)
3. Denver Bulldogs (0-3) (4 #1 Votes) (DOWN from 1st)
4. New York Magpies (2-1)
5. Golden Gate Roos (0-0)
6. Minnesota Freeze (0-0)
7. OC Bombers (0-1)
8. Seattle Grizzlies (0-1) (UP from 9th)
9. Atlanta Kookaburras (3-0) (IN)
10. Dallas Magpies (2-0) (IN)

Last year in Kanga fan takes team to the ice we reported on a North American fan naming his ice hockey club after the North Melbourne Kangaroos. It seems Tim Brown's enthusiasm for Australia continues, telling worldfootynews.com that on April 26th "we played in honor of ANZAC Day at a local DC area rink (Reston Skatequest). We lost 6-5 to a local college team (GMU). We raised $405 for two charities (each one having to do with Australia and New Zealand military)". It's good to see awareness of Aussie Rules is slowly developing in the US.

DCFooty Kids, the junior footy program in the Washington DC area, kicked off its 2008 season with a free clinic as part of the FitArlington Sports Festival on Saturday April 26 at Bluemont Park in Arlington VA. The FitArlington Sports Festival showcased numerous clubs and sports who operate in Arlington including Kickball, American football, soccer and Ultimate Frisbie.

DCFooty Kids, with the help of the Baltimore Washington Eagles, ran a clinic that included some introduction to basic skills of kicking, handpassing and marking. The kids were then split into groups to play some "monkey-in-the-middle" and practice their ball movement and communication skills, followed by a game. Players and coaches from the Eagles, including Revo squad members, Jay Levesque and RJ Wheelock helped run the boys and girls aged 5 to 12 and their parents through their paces.

New York Magpie Garth Nevin was captured taking a great mark against the Denver Bulldogs during the recent Faststream Invitational in Florida.

They're called the Yankaroos. They are the St John's University Footy Club and they have two teams, one based in Minnesota on the St John's University campus and the other based at the South Fremantle Football Club in Western Australia. The club began a couple of years ago when USFooty’s Tony Fairhead and former Chancellor of University of Notre Dame Australia, Terence O’Connor, worked out a program for St John's students on study abroad at Notre Dame in Western Australia. Already this new club is supplying young talent to the US national side.

The Canadian Wolfpack, the U18 Canadian National Team, are touring Australia in August to take on some of Australia’s best youth teams. The Wolfpack dominated the U18 US Revolution team when they played in August 2007, and they are using this tour to measure themselves against the best young talent in Australia. A touring party of between 80 and 100 people including players and families will be heading to Melbourne in August where they will play at least four games including games against the Port Melbourne Colts and Kew High School. While the tour will coincide with the International Cup and organizers are hoping to be involved in some way, the tour is not officially part of the Cup.

It has been a steady as she goes journey for the Portland Power Australian Football Club. They have slowly and patiently been building their club for a number of years now. Mostly with a small group getting together for training runs and kick to kick. Building to “Metro” intraclub games and supplying players to top up the Seattle club’s numbers for tournaments and the US Nationals as well as competing in games against Seattle and the Canadian teams to their north. As their closest neighbour club, Seattle has been like a big brother to the Portland club and has provided both competition and assistance in the development of the Power. Last Saturday the club took a big step with a home win against their “big brother” team Seattle. With both teams in the dark shorts it may have been a little confusing at times with some similarities in strips but the game was played in bright sunshine on lush ovals at Portland’s John Deere Field. Hopefully signs of a big 2008 for the Oregon club.

The last three games of the day saw the Baltimore Washington Eagles up against the New York Magpies and the Denver Bulldogs, while hosts Florida were taking on the New York Magpies. Given the Eagles and Magpies were unbeaten, their game and the last game of the day would decide the tournament.

The Baltimore Washington Eagles took out the Inaugural Faststream Florida Invitational at the brand new Broward Country Cricket complex in Lauderhill Florida. The Eagles took the tourney after a solid win against Florida, squeaking by the New York Magpies by 1 point and with what coach Denis Ryan described as a "purple patch" kicking 4 goals to beat the top ranked Denver Bulldogs. New York ruckman, Joel Keating, won the MVP of the Tournament, while New York's Joey Discepola won the fastest man competition and the BW Eagles Jay Leveseque won the longest kick (61 yards).

The Baton Rouge Tigers featured recently on the local Fox 44 news. Rob Montaro, Jesse Tuminski and Jeffrey Phillips describe the game and their local setup between footage of the Tigers in training. The video can be viewed here. The text version of the story, titled "Aussie Footy Action in Red Stick", can be viewed here on the station’s website.

For the record, the Tigers went down to the Atlanta Kookaburras last weekend, the Kookas 15.13 (103) to Baton Rouge’s 3.7 (25).