The US Western Regionals will be held this weekend in Denver, Colorado. The hosts the Denver Bulldogs will take on the San Diego Lions and the Orange County Bombers. The matches will all take place in one day due to the appearance of only the hosts and two visiting teams. Arizona and Golden Gate are the most notable non attendees and it's also disappointing to not see teams from Las Vegas (the Gamblers are scheduled to visit Denver later in the year) and northern clubs Seattle or Portland. This aside the matches are sure to be top quality and true testers for each team. As always the travel issue will come into play and gives the hosts a huge advantage (on top of playing at altitude), and an excellent chance to exact revenge on the Lions for taking away their National Champions status in Las Vegas last year. The matches will be held at Cherry Knolls Park, Denver. Games will be at 10AM (SD v OC) 1PM (Den v OC) and 3PM (Den v SD). There will also be a co-ed demo of 'Aussie Ball' touch football competition and other attractions followed by a social function at the British Bulldog Saturday evening. No doubt players will take advantage of not having to front up again on Sunday as they have at past Western Regionals. The event flyer can be viewed here.

After prolonged negotiations and over half the 2007 AFL season slipping by, it seems fans in Canada are finally getting the much improved footy coverage they'd been hoping for. AFANA have reported that Rogers Sportsnet have reached agreement with the AFL and Setanta (sports network) and has slotted AFL into its schedule. See Canadian Coverage Begins on Rogers Sportsnet.

Reporting on the footy news in western Canada, MyK Aussie brings us the following.

In the 2nd game of the year between the two Calgary-based teams the Bears won convincingly by approximately 30 points. After Marlborough Park, a full size Aussie Rules Footy playing field, was flooded a week ago and could not be mowed the Calgary footy crews had to again revert to the Rugby fields on Sheppard Rd in the South East of Calgary.

In game 3 of the 07 season the Vancouver Cougars 18.26.134 hammered the Burnaby Eagles 4.2.26 despite some inaccurate kicking. The scoreline is even more remarkable considering the Eagles had won the first two games played this year.

On an absolutely beautiful day for footy, the Baltimore Washington Eagles (8) racked up their third win of the year defeating Eastern Australian Football League powerhouse the Boston Demons (6). It was a big day out for footy in Washington DC. The game was played at Carter Barron Park in bright sunshine and low humidity and a light breeze. Things kicked off with a free USFooty Kids clinic which was followed by a little league game and an Ausball game allowing both parents and kids to get a kick at the same time. After the preliminaries, the Eagles and the Bombers headed out for the ball up, while kids, parents, and supporters headed back to their fold up chairs and hamburgers from the grill.

Saturday is a make or break day for six of USFooty's Top 10 teams.  Probably the biggest game of the weekend occurs in Washington DC's Carter Barron Park, where the 8th ranked Baltimore Washington Eagles take on the 6th ranked Boston Demons.  The BW Eagles are coming off a triumphant home and home series against the 10th ranked North Carolina Tigers, taking them to the top of the USFooty's unofficial league ladder.  A win on Saturday against one of the power house sides of USFooty would probably cement the Eagles position in the top 5 and put them on the road to a Division 1 birth at the USFooty National Championship Tourney.  This will be Boston's first game of the year and it will be on the road, but the Demons will need to get the win if they are going to hold on the Eastern Australian Football League Championship.  The NC Tigers have had a rough start with three losses including the most recent to the Philly Hawks for EAFL points.  Big Jason Heathcote's young chargers have to be at their best when they host the third ranked New York Magpies.  Like the Demons, the Maggies are on the road for the first game of the year.

Over in the Mid-American Australian Football League, the 5th ranked Milwaukee Bombers are hosting the Cincinnati Dockers.  The Bombers will be looking to get their season back on track after going down to the Etobicoke Kangaroos of the Ontario Australian Football League and falling to the Atlanta Kookaburras in a small-sided game in Atlanta.  9th Ranked Chicago United are heading to St Louis to take on the Blues.  After taking care of Louisville at home, Chicago can put themselves in the running for a Division 1 birth with a good win over the Blues.

This summer, my seven year old son and myself are introducing a new concept in junior sport to Arlington, VA and the Washington DC area. We call it Saturday Morning Footy. In many ways there is nothing new at all about Saturday Morning Footy. I myself started playing Footy (aka Australian football) on Saturday mornings in 1977, thirty years ago! Of course, in 1977 I lived in Ringwood East, an outer suburb of Melbourne Australia and the program was run by my best friend's dad. The name itself comes from Arlington's very successful junior basketball program called Saturday Morning Basketball. Like Saturday Morning Basketball, Saturday Morning Footy will begin with three weeks of "clinics" to teach the skills and rules (although there will be a lot of fun games along the way), and the last two weeks will consist of "matches" between the designated teams.

The 2006 USAFL National Champions, the San Diego Lions play their first official US Footy match for 2007 this Saturday, June 16th at Doyle Park, La Jolla, California. They will be taking on a combined Arizona Hawks/Las Vegas Gamblers side. We also wonder if it's time for USFooty to introduce a new tradition.

Canada's national Australian Football team, the Northwind, are in full swing with training sessions and trial games against Canadian club and combined sides. First up this Saturday 16th June is strong Ontario AFL team the Toronto Dingos. A highlight will be when they blow across to the west for an international invitational series in Vancouver against the US Revolution and the Japan Tsunami. They'll also play the touring Australian Convicts in October in what will be a very busy year for the Canadian squad, which started early with a match against the US in Texas in January.

Northwind's 2007 schedule can be viewed on the AFL Canada website here.

The Baltimore Washington Eagles (8th in our US poll) 109 points handily defeated the North Carolina Tigers (10th) 25 points. The game was played at the Capitol Polo fields in Poolesville, MD. Poolesville lies in the hart of Maryland's horse country past the grand mansions of Potomac and DC's northeastern suburbs. While it was definitely hot, there was none of the humidity that DC is famous for.

The Kelowna Cup was a very successful day for footy in Canada held last weekend Sat June 2. The Alberta Canadians won for the second year in a row defeating the BC Canadians. The BC Footy Aussie guys defeated the Calgary Aussies convincingly. Mark Block Canada's national team head coach was there and he was impressed, we may see some fresh talent heading to the Northwind squad for their upcoming clash with the US Revolution team later this year.