Aussie Rules footy got its first start in Canada in the Ontario province. The number of clubs there has regularly grown and it is home to one of the most stable Australian Football leagues outside of Australia. However changes are underway for the 2006 season, with new club the Central Blues a positive sign but concerns whether a new metro-style league will be a success.

In 1998, I had been living in the US for four years and I started to hear rumblings of footy being played around my new home of Madison, WI. I thought: “Great, I can go down and watch some footy.” I love watching footy and I don’t much care if it is an AFL Grand Final or a game between two of the Melbourne Uni residential colleges. The reality of course was that in 1998 there was barely enough people to play a game let alone have some left over to watch. With only East Ringwood U9 Thirds on my footy resume, I became a player for the Milwaukee Bombers and the Baltimore-Washington Eagles, an assistant coach, and a club and league administrator. However, yesterday, some eight years later, my dream came true.

The Hamilton Wildcats, one the clubs in Canada's biggest footy league, the Ontario AFL, recently had a good write up about them in their local press, The Hamilton Spectator. Wildcats President Charles Thompson is hopeful the coverage will help them recruit a few new players and maybe even supporters. The reporter does a good job of describing the level of awareness of the sport in North America, with its rise in profile through marketng and the notorious Jacko adverts of the 1980s.

As we reported in US Nationals and AFL TV broadcast updates, there have been major changes to AFL TV coverage in North America in 2006. It is good to see that Setanta Sports are making at least early efforts to promote the game, with a dedicated page on their website (you may have to select North America or look for the Aussie Rules logo). Note that the page shows the AFL fixtures, not the telecast schedule.

When 2005 AFL Premiers the Sydney Swans travelled to Los Angeles to play an exhibition match against the North Melbourne Kangaroos, their promotion of the great Aussie game went further than just the United States. An offer was made to bring two Canadian players down to LA to train with Sydney and a young player from each of Toronto and Vancouver were more than happy to accept the opportunity. This continues a growing tradition of the New South Wales side assisting international football, following on from their willingness to recruit and develop Irishman Tadhg Kennelly and the genuine support given to Canada for the 2005 International Cup. WFN spoke to AFL Canada President Mike McFarlane about what realistic pathways the two young guns could follow.

Returning after a period of mourning in 2005 with a couple of low key games and combining with Kansas city at the 2005 Nationals, Louisville Football Club make their second big step back into footy in 2006. Their season kicking off this weekend hosting the Founder’s Thunder Cup 2006 Tournament in memory of club founder John Harrell.

WFN updates a couple of recent US stories on the 2006 USAFL Nationals and the 2006 US television coverage of the AFL season - including confirmation of Las Vegas as location for this year's national club championships and two broadcasters (Setanta broadcasting live, MHz carrying match of the week) bringing footy to US television.

The Caribbean nation that is the Cayman Islands has it all, sun, surf, sand and….footy. Though not quite a staple of sporting life on the island it is a regular feature on the calendar each year for the past few years. The Gaelic Football Club started there in 1990 and as it progressed with a number of expatriate Australians playing the game there, they brought two regular Aussie Rules games each year into their schedule on St Patrick’s Day and Anzac Day.

2005 saw clubs such as Bakersfield and Las Vegas make their debut on the US footy scene. A number of others around the country are in the embryonic stage, with the major determinant to their likely success being raw numbers of players. Once they have enough numbers it is hoped that the existing clubs can do their best to foster their new comrades and welcome them into the fold. World Footy News profiles some of these efforts here.

In a major announcement for footy viewers in the US today, independent public broadcaster MHz NETWORKS has announced it will broadcast the Australian Football League (AFL) "Match of the Week," and an hour-long highlights show, on its new national program service MHz WORLDVIEW for the full AFL season. Matches will air on Saturday nights at 8PM EST with replay Sundays at noon EST.