If there was an official International Footy Mark of the Year, former Canada AFL President and Northwind stalwart, Bruce Parker, would vie for the 2007 title (we'd love to see other contenders that are better). The mark was taken during the Northwind's inaugural win over the Revolution. The game was played in front of a few thousand fans at Vancouver's Thunderbird Stadium in August last year. A shame the video wasn't zoomed in, but the audio is great to hear - the classic roar of a footy crowd.

Bruce Parker's mark

Related earlier stories: Northwind blows over Revos and Central Blues boost OAFL.

In what could be a major boost for US Footy, Michael Johns (also known as Mike Lee), a past player at the Atlanta Kookaburras, has made it to the top 24 contestants in season seven of American Idol.

It seems that the 29 year old's talents extend beyond the footy field.

Singing the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody at his San Diego audition, Johns has been one of the more popular contestants so far in this year's series. A YouTube video of his American Idol audition has over 130,000 views.

Johns, who moved from Perth in Western Australia to the USA at the age of 18, last played Aussie Rules for Atlanta between 2001-2002, kicking 24 goals from Centre Half Forward. He stopped playing to concentrate on his burgeoning music career. His American Idol performances and popularity may not only put his footy further on hold, but could bring the USAFL and Australian rules football much needed media exposure in the USA (where Aussie Rules is still frequenty confused with rugby) and indeed around the world.

The show is watched by over 37 million Americans. In Australia, American Idol is being screened exclusively on Foxtel, and Michael Johns continuing in the competition could also prove a big hit for the pay-tv network here.

The story has featured prominently in Perth media. Perth Now published the stories WA singer on American Idol and Michael Johns in top 24 on American Idol and news.com.au also featured the story Can Michael Johns be the first true blue American Idol ?.

Last year the United States Australian Football League celebrated 10 years of Australian Football, and one gesture to mark the occasion was the naming of the USAFL’s Team of the Decade. The team was named under USFooty’s 50/50 (American/Australian) rule with former AFL star John Ironmonger named in the forward pocket and former Collingwood/Brisbane player Cameron Trickey O’Brien named at Center Half Back. Other notable players included former Revolution stand out and Denver’s National Championship coach, Tom Ellis, who was named on the back flank, and West Perth’s American imports Jared and James Brunmeier who were named on the wing and the forward flank respectively. Aussie James “Pato” Patterson was named in the Center, and we recently caught up for a chat.

USFooty got at great write up for the 2008 National Championships last Friday in the paper local to where the event will be held. The Colorado Springs Independent ran the article following the USAFL’s launch and media briefing in Colorado Springs last week at The Penrose House. It explains why the date has not yet been locked in and throws in some nice self deprecating humor about their own town, which shows how in tune the locals already may be with the Aussie wavelength.

The tournament will be held at the Cadet Athletic Fields at the United States Air Force Academy, with the final date to be announced following the release of the Air Force Football schedule in March. The event will fall on either the second or third weekend in October, opposite a home USAFA home game.

The full article text can be found here.

The 2008 footy season is starting to get underway across the US (particularly in the warmer parts). The Arizona AFL kicks off their league this Saturday 16th Feb at McQueen Park in Gilbert. The metro league is made up of three teams selected at last week’s preseason draft. The teams this year will be the Marshals captained by Darren Toohey, the Devils captained by Adam Smark and appearing for the first time and playing in the Arizona Hawks strips are the Kingsnakes, captained by Joe Swierupski. The season opener will be between the Marshals and the Devils.

The Atlanta Australian Rules Football League kicks off this weekend with Roswell Rebels taking on the Midtown Bombers. The match will take place from 10.30am at Dekalb Memorial Park opening the Spring season. The league was founded in 2003, and is entering into it's sixth year of action. The Midtown Bombers have won the last two titles and will once again be hard to beat. For many of the teams this will be their second match for the year after the Kookaburras played the US Revolution team last weekend.

AFANA has advised that US footy coverage of the AFL 2008 season will commence this Saturday morning 16th February on Setanta with the Brisbane v Essendon match at 4:30 AM EST. For those new to watching footy in North America we recommend that you regularly check back with AFANA and/or subscribe to their newsletter for regular comprehensive updates on the coverage and program schedules.

The following is from the AFANA site: This is the first time ever that fans in North America have had any coverage of the preseason competition. Setanta has indicated to AFANA that they plan similar coverage for the rest of 2008 as we had in 2007. Setanta may cover up to 4 matches per week if schedule space permits. Initially, only 3 are scheduled for Round 1 of the AFL season.

AFANA has been monitoring the situation with ITVN closely. They remain "on the net" (or "on the air" if you will) and the Setanta feed continues however ITVN is no longer taking any new subscribers. Until recently, we had been able to maintain an e-mail dialogue with them and felt assured that the "reorganization" meant they might survive. However, it's now been some weeks since we have heard anything and they have not indicated whether the funds owed AFANA will be paid soon, if at all. Accordingly, if we don't hear from them shortly we will be disabling the links to them until such time as the situation changes.