Its official! The Ottawa Swans Australian Football Club will compete in the Ontario Australian Football League in 2008 becoming the 10th team in the largest Australian Football League outside of Australia. Finally football is coming back to Ottawa!

Regular readers of World Footy News this year will have appreciated the great coverage given to footy in the USA by our US correspondent Chris Adams. Chris was recently interviewed in The Connection and the article can be seen here. The interview reveals his deep knowledge and love of both the US and Australian versions of football and gives a nice plug to the Baltimore Washington Eagles footy club and Chris’s junior clinics.

On Veterans Day (Rememberance Day) Weekend, Broward County Florida conducted the opening ceremony for Central Broward Regional Park. A pretty boring name for a very exciting park. The CBRP includes an International cricket stadium that has covered seating for 5,000 and the ability to accommodate over 20,000 for day and night matches. The stadium could also handle AFL games on a field slightly shorter than the G, but more rounded. The CBRP also has the ability to run three full-size footy games simultaneously during the day and night. It includes netball courts, super boxes, professional changing rooms, picnic areas, water access and a kid’s water park. That’s over a 100 acres of footy heaven.

The following press release is from AFL Canada's Mike McFarlane. The Ontario Australian Football League (“OAFL”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Dan Walker (pictured) as the League’s Marketing and Development Officer on a full time basis effective immediately. Based in Toronto, Dan will be working out of OAFL/AFL Canada’s Toronto office in downtown Toronto. As Marketing and Development officer, Dan will be responsible for the league’s day to day football operation along with developing the league’s sponsorship, recruitment, membership and junior development programs. A key part of his responsibilities will be to increase the league’s image and awareness as well as promote the game of Australian Rules Football in the Greater Toronto Area.

In a disappointing development for US and international fans, the match between Geelong and Richmond planned for Los Angeles next January has been cancelled due to lack of funding. Reportedly the exercise fell $100,000 short of the $1 million required to stage the match, compounded by logistical problems with preparing the venue at UCLA.

AFL game development manager David Matthews reported yesterday that the AFL were trying to find clubs to remount the London exhibition match for 2008, in addition to the planned matches for Dubai and South Africa.

On October 16th, Ontario AFL Grand Final day, the touring Convicts side took on a slightly depleted Canada squad as a curtain-raiser and valuable match practice for the Northwind. After the Convicts concept had its first international loss earlier this year (when an injury riddled team went down to South Africa in Soweto), the Aussies bounced back with AFL legend Kevin Sheedy looking on. The following report is courtesy of the Convicts' Anthony Nanfra. Apologies for the delay as we were (unsuccessfully) attempting to gather Canada best player and goalkicker information.

The General Manager of the Western Australian Country Football League, Cameron Knapton, and Vice President, Terry House, traveled to the US for the USFooty Nationals in mid-October. After being approached by USFooty’s Tony Fairhead, Knapton became convinced that the US provided a great opportunity for WA Country and decided to take the trip to find out more, talk to USFooty about partnering and promote programs already in place.

Knapton was amazed at the size of footy in the US. He organizes the WA Country Carnival, which he believes is the largest footy carnival of its type in Australia - but Knapton was very surprised to learn that the USFooty Nationals is 30% larger than the WA Country carnival.

Eccentric expat Australian Myk Aussie is a regular at Aussie Rules events across Canada and the United States. He recently caught up with football legend Kevin Sheedy at the 2007 US Nationals in Louisville. Myk's excellent interview ranged from the way the game has changed, Aussie Rules in North America, learning from other sports, Aboriginal players, the great Essendon premiership sides of the past and even horse racing. Myk's site is MYKwebTV and also contains other footy footage from Canada and the US. The Sheedy interview is here.

1 Denver Bulldogs (9-1) (10 #1 Votes)
2 San Diego Lions (9-1)
3 BW Eagles (7-1)
4 NY Magpies (6-2)
5 Golden Gate Roos (2-3)
6 OC Bombers (2-6)
7 Minnesota Freeze (7-1)
8 Boston Demons (2-5)
9 Seattle Grizzlies (6-1)
10 Chicago United (5-4)

Also receiving votes Atlanta Kookaburras (6-3).

The Denver Bulldogs finished the 2007 season taking out the John Harrell Perpetual Cup (the USFooty National Championship) and the Number 1 position in the World Footy News USFooty Top 10 Poll. It was the Bulldogs 6th championship in 8 years, making them the dominant team of USFooty’s first decade. The win by just 6 points over the 2006 Champions, the San Diego Lions, shows the closeness of these two dominant teams over the last couple of years. Earlier in the season, San Diego beat Denver in Colorado by 9 points. Let’s hope that these two great clubs schedule a full-length game in 2008.

The Baltimore-Washington Eagles finished an impressive season with third in the Poll. The Eagles finished second in pool play at Nationals after losing to the eventual champions, the Denver Bulldogs. On the other side, the No. 4 New York Magpies finished second in pool play after losing to the San Diego Lions. The two teams finishing third in pool play, the Golden Gate Roos and the Orange County Bombers, finished No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. The other team that had a very impressive 2007 was the No. 7 Minnesota Freeze. Minnesota finished 2006 losing to the Baltimore Washington Eagles in the Division II Grand Final. In 2007 they improved to their No. 7 position with an impressive performance at Nationals including a hard fought win over the No. 9 Seattle Grizzlies, taking out the Division II National Championship. The Boston Demons and Chicago United both had a disappointing tournament finishing fourth in pool play but staying in the top 10 with position No. 8 and No. 10 respectively.

It was a great 2007 season. Congratulations to all teams and thanks to the Pollsters!

Highlights and interviews from the USFooty Nationals are up on the net - the YouTube link is here.

The clip opens with a short chat with Rod Grjlusich, regular Nationals guest commentator from Fremantle who mentions that back in 2003 he knew straight away who the Americans on the field were - but now with the improving standard it isn't so obvious.

The link will also put you into close proximity with the huge (and growing) amount of footage from USAFL games on YouTube, as well as footage from Europe and elsewhere available with a few clicks in the search bar.