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.

At the USFooty Admin Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, Joshua Goodstein of the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids presented an update on the International Cricket and Footy stadium being built in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The stadium will be ready later this year and the Fighting Squids are planning a major tournament at the site in April or May next year.

Here are some stats:

* Seating for 25,000 (8,000 covered).
* Private suites and announcement facilities.
* Fully-lit oval in the main stadium.
* 2 additional (non-Stadium) full-size ovals with lighting.
* Main stadium oval measures over 170m diameter.
* ICC sanctioned facility.
* Wired for TV broadcast.
* Digital scoreboards and the newest in announcement and broadcast technologies.
* Full service concessions.
* Will play host to international and local Australian Rules Football events as early as 2008-2009.

The idea of a purpose-built footy stadium with two more fields in the facility had football administrators from across the US dreaming of the possibilities and looking forward to having a kick. The lit fields allow the possibility of night games which will help reduce congestion during the USFooty National Tournament Championship.

On Saturday, September 22nd the AFL Canada held its 2007 Ontario Australian Football League annual Best & Fairest Awards presentation at the 130 Event Center in Toronto, Ontario. The League also announced its All-star team, and it's always interesting to see the mix between expatriate Australians and Canadian players. The full line-up is shown below.

Over 150 players and coaches attended the gala event and witnessed one of the closet vote counts in OAFL history. At the conclusion of the count, it was Broadview Hawk’s rover John McGrath who finished on top with 26 votes closely followed by Lachlan McDonald of the Toronto Eagles with 25 votes. Both players have had fantastic seasons and both polled well in each of the 15 rounds.

The USFooty National Championship Tournament takes place in Louisville, KY this weekend (October 13 and 14). The tournament will see over 30 mens teams and three womens teams competing in 5 divisions, plus junior clinics, a junior game, and a match between the US Revolution and the Convicts. It will be one big weekend of footy!

USFooty is hosting two AFL legends during the weekend. Former Essendon Coach, Kevin Sheedy will be there as well as former Carlton star, Steven Silvagni. Son of George, Rod Grljusich will make the calls on Field 1 which will host all Division 1 games, the finals from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 and the Revo/Convict game.

The San Diego Lions go into Nationals as the undisputed favorites with 6 wins and no losses this season. Looking to take them on are the Denver Bulldogs and the Baltimore Washington Eagles, both of whom will be fighting to represent Group 2 in the Grand Final on Sunday afternoon.

Check out the radio advert playing on Louisville station "1570 The Zone" here.

WFN and USFooty News will provide updates over the weekend.

As reported earlier, AFL great Kevin Sheedy along with players from Northwind, the National Canadian Australian Football team, its Head Coach Mark Block and the team's General Manager Martin Walter opened the Toronto market on Friday. Also pictured are members of the Convicts side to play Canada this weekend. Sheedy is on a North American tour checking out footy development and will be a guest at the US Nationals next week - although it isn't his first visit to the annual event.