In celebration of 4 years of Stateside Footy TV, the USAFL have released an article on their website commemorating the work put in by the show’s legendary commentator and producer, Bill Robert.

SSFTV started filming USAFL games in July 2010 and aired their first episode a month later in August. The 4th season of the show is due to be aired from next month. To date, 40 episodes have been filmed and the show has been aired on 81 public access channels across 21 states, and has been viewed online by over 20,000 fans.

For a quick fix of “Australian made, American played”, take a look at the show’s flashy new USAFL promotion video which will feature during breaks in the 2013 show.

For more information on Bill Robert’s contributions to the game in the USA, please read the original article written by Boston Demon and USAFL VP Mike Sheppard.

Alberta is a province in Western Canada that is in the encouraging position of having two cities hosting Australian Football clubs. The following article is from Jason Arnold and Chantal Spindler of the men’s and women’s teams who report on the interesting formation, proud achievements and exciting developments of the Edmonton Australian Football Club.

It’s been an active off season for the Edmonton Australian Football Club.  The club’s teams, the Edmonton Emus (women’s) and the Edmonton Wombats (men’s) haven’t let the long winter slow them down.  They’ve been conducting weekly training sessions, since mid-October.  Significant recruitment efforts have seen the EAFC double their numbers and record a constant 40+ at training.

The club was established as the ‘Edmonton Emus’ in 2008 by Tristan Waldock, who coached the women’s team for two years.  The Wombats (men’s) officially joined the following year in 2009, initially led by Hamish Martin, then led by Brad Havin upon Hamish’s return to Australia.  The Edmonton Australian Football Club was then formed.

After much hard work in the off season 2012 was a breakthrough year with the Wombats enjoying successes at the Kelowna Cup (Western Canada’s first tournament of the season, hosting teams from Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton) and being super competitive in the Stampede Cup against Calgary later in the season.  Off the back of great performances by their National reps, the Emus had their first win over the Calgary Kookaburras at the inaugural Capital Cup.
 

If you build it, they will come.

That was the motto used five years ago when the fledgling Montreal footy club was desperate to get visiting teams into town and build a unique 9-a-side event that put the spotlight on rookie Aussie Rules players.

Armed with the lure of a European-style city like no other in North America, for the very first time some applications for the 2013 tournament had to be refused as the tournament’s 4 women’s and 8 men’s slots filled in record time. Teams from New York, Ottawa, Boston, Baltimore and Halifax all committing to take on Montreal’s spread of home teams in the AFL Quebec Preseason Cup. An estimated 150+ players will be on hand for what will be Quebec footy’s finest hour.

Coach Leigh Barnes has announced that the USA Freedom will be holding a training camp from May 31 to June 2 in the San Francisco Bay area, in preparation for this year’s Parallel Cup, which will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, on August 3.

As well as existing squad members, the camp is also open to new players, and women from across the USA have been encouraged to attend. The coaches have indicated that the camp will consist of a mixture of football training, team building exercises and special events.

At the end of the weekend, the coaching staff will select a senior squad and a development squad to take to Canada. In addition, Barnes also hinted that they would be using the opportunity to look for potential representatives in advance of next year’s International Cup.

The 2nd official AFL US Combine been completed in Los Angeles. Three athletes, David Grzesiak (pictured below)  from the University of Wisconsin, Matt Sauey from the University of North Florida, and Cliff Ederine from the University of Eastern Washington, broke the standing vertical jump record of 85cm with 86cm leaps to become the best ever performers in 18 years of testing.

As we mentioned last year these athletes are much older than the athletes usually tested at AFL Combines. The overall performances of the group really impressed the six AFL club representatives in attendance.

The full list of athletes to be tested at the AFL Combine starting in LA today can be seen below.

Illinois basketballer Sam McLaurin has some impressive highlights (seen in the video reel below) both at his former college team Coastal Carolina and his current Illinois Fighting Illini team.  Standing at 203cms the 23 year old is a potential AFL ruckman and will be put through his paces in LA from April 14-16 in the second official US Combine.

 

The Gold Coast SUNS will provide Queensland sports fans with an access all areas pass to the Club this weekend, when a special covering the teams recent high performance altitude training camp in Arizona airs on 7mate. Viewers in the rest of Australia and overseas will also be able to watch the doco on the Club's YouTube channel.

From trekking through the Grand Canyon, to navigating the red rock formations of Sedona on Mountain-Bikes and scaling the icy slopes of Mount Humphrey's, the SUNS TV cameras captured every second of the fourteen day camp, documenting the intensive and challenging program set by newly recruited high performance manager Stephen Schwerdt and the GC SUNS coaching staff.

From personal achievements and setbacks to team activities, nothing is off limits during the thirty minute special which highlights the dedication and sacrifice required to play AFL at an elite level, whilst also highlighting the advances the GC SUNS have made as the playing group prepares for their third season in the AFL.

The USAFL have launched a new advertising campaign to promote the game and recruit players to their competition. The 30-second clip will run twice during the broadcast of AFL matches on the Fox Soccer PLUS each week as well as other times during the match day.

The second official AFL USA combine will be moved up to April this year. Last year's combine in LA took place at the end of August and left a short space of time between the combine and the time for the graduates of the combine to come to the Australian national combine held in Melbourne in the first week of October. This year's earlier time will allow those given the opportunity to come to Australia in October to brush up on the game and their skills.

As usual the international athletes are available for clubs to sign up on an international scholarship immediately rather than wait until the athlete goes throught the Australian combine if they like what they see in April. As with last year there is expected to be college athletes (and recently graduated) from baskeball, gridiron and soccer put through their paces in LA once again.

Former Seattle University basketballer Eric Wallace was the ultimate success story of last year's combine being given an International rookie spot with North Melbourne. Wallace features in this year's updated recruitment video on Youtube that can be seen below. While most of the promo is the same content as last year Wallace has replace the delisted Shae McNamara as the US face of the combine video.