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.

Kevin Sheedy's tour of North America received a little more media attention in Melbourne today with an article in the Herald Sun on his presence at the USFooty National Championships. The article mentions Sheedy being given the key to the city of Louisville and some general comments on the standard of footy in the US and how it's risen in the two years since he was last in attendance.

In a sound bite that might spark debate in the USA, he also mentioned as an aside that the Minnesota Freeze - a fairly new club and Division 2 Champions - has the best young talent at the Champs, particularly helped by the Western Australian Football League partnership program.

(Louisville, KY) Legendary Coach, Kevin Sheedy, spent his first two weeks of retirement from coaching footy doing what he loves most – coaching footy. Sheedy’s trip to North America included opening the Toronto Stock Exchange, meeting with sponsors of 'The Northwind', Canada’s national football team, watching the Northwind vs. Convict match-up and the Ontario Australian Football League Grand Final, helping USFooty Kids National Coordinator Denis Ryan with a High School clinic, giving a pep-talk to the Seattle Grizzlies prior to their Division II Grand Final match up, and consoling the San Diego Lions after their tough loss in the Division 1 Grand Final. If the first two weeks of Sheedy’s retirement are anything to go by, he's not going to have much time for fishing and golf.

A fuller tournament report for the USAFL National Championships is on its way, but in the meantime we've got some pics of the event.

For the results, check further down the page in the story Denver Wins!

The Denver Bulldogs won the 2007 Coopers USFooty National Championship, defeating San Diego Lions by just 6 points. It was a beautiful day for footy in Louisville's Champions Park - bright and sunny with little breeze and very warm for mid-October in the mid-West. The pitch was flat but dusty as Kentucky's blue grass hasn't seen water in a very long time.

TORONTO, Ontario: The Toronto Eagles have created AFL Canada history winning their 11th title beating the Etobicoke Kangaroos 12.10 (82) to 3.6 (24) in the Ontario Football League Grand Final on Saturday 6th October.

The Toronto Eagles finished equal top in the regular season standings finishing with a 13-win, one-loss record, and confirmed their rating as the best team in the OAFL with the historic win over the Etobicoke Kangaroos.

"Both teams were exception all year, though I feel that our finals experience came through today” Eagles Captain Troy Marsh said.

The Eagles 58-point win was totally unexpected as a tight contest between the league’s premier teams was to be on the cards. The Eagles dominated the match, outscoring the Kangaroos 5.5 (35) to 1.5 (11) in the first half, before kicking four goals in the third quarter to head into the final break with a 42-point lead.

The Eagles were on top in every aspect of the contest, with their defense — which has been the best in the competition all season — keeping Etobicoke to their lowest score of the year.

"It has been such an exciting year to be able to coach such a talented team," Coach Mark Block said. "It's not easy to win back to back, but we did it and we did it well."

Eagle Tasos Dimacakos was named Man of the Match. Dimacakos, who has been the Eagles' best defender all year, began the season in super hot form and was selected in this year’s OAFL All-star team.

(Louisville, KY) Day 1 of the USFooty National Championships was a fabulous sunny day with a light breeze. Hot pies and cold beers were selling like hotcakes at the City of Louisville Champions Park. The day saw 4 fields hosting 4 men's divisions and 1 women's division.

The 2 and 0 winners on the first day of round robin play in Division 1 were the top 2 seeds from each group. In Group 1, the San Diego Lions won their two games in fairly convincing fashion. Golden Gate came pretty close, but Chicago couldn't stay with the 2006 Champions. The New York Magpies were able to hold off Chicago in a very closely fought game. The New York Mapgies had a easier time against the Golden Gate Roos. The Denver Bulldogs easily accounted for the OC Bombers and although they started slower against Boston they were able to win in the end. The Baltimore Washington Eagles had harder time against both the Demons and the Bombers and were behind the Bombers at the half, but they finished both games in convincing fashion.

Day 1 games set up two great "semi-finals" on Sunday with San Diego taking on New York and Baltimore Washington taking on Denver. San Diego looked like the class outfit that they have been all year. New York was a little lucky to beat Chicago. In Group 2, BWE and Denver set things up for a classic USFooty encounter. Denver looked very impressive led by new USFooty President Rich Mann. Their backline of Jim Baldwin and Tom Ellis came to play as did Matt Daniuski who was like a freight train leading out from full forward. The Eagles were up and down all day. Dwayne Marshall was a huge asset in the forward pocket with some beautiful goals. Dennis Ryan and Chris Carroll went in for the hard ball all day.

In Division 2, the Minnesota Freeze have been a revelation taking two wins in their group. The Freeze's B-side also took 2 wins in Division 4. Atlanta and Seattle also finished the day with 2 wins setting up some great games in Division 2.

OC Bomber stalwart, Chris Olson, whilst disappointed with his club's two losses, summed up the day perfectly saying "I just love this game". The tournament continues today.