The MAAFL crown was decided this weekend when Nashville Kangaroos met Chicago United in Nashville. The following report comes to us courtesy of Nashville's Alex Benjamin.

The crowd of 315 came together in the 92 degree (farenheit) heat to witness the first ever MAAFL Grand Final on the Kangaroos turf at Heartland Park in Donelson. Chicago came in at 3-2 record and 2-0 in the MAAFL, but their last match was 2 months ago against Milwaukee, in which they won 86-22. The Kangaroos came in at 6-2 and also 2-0 in the MAAFL after the 153-7 massacre against the Ohio Valley River Rats.

This weekend see the MAAFL Grand Final being played in Nashville, Tennessee. Alex Benjamin provides the following preview.

This week is the biggest week in close to 9 years for the Nashville Kangaroos as they are just one win away from winning the MAAFL (Mid-American Australian Football League) Premiership. What is separating them is the 3-time defending champion Chicago United. Whoever wins this game...wins the Premiership.

St Louis Blues' Dan Sarbacker (seen here around the 2 minute 50 second mark in possibly his most famous US Footy moment) is having a stint in Victoria's GVFL with Mansfield. Mansfield have received good coverage recently centred around their coach Craig Kelly, who is also a player agent and former Collingwood premiership player.

But Sarbacker is generating his own press with coverage today in Melbourne's The Age newspaper. Paul Daffey who writes for The Age and is one of the founders of The Footy Almanac penned this latest piece following Dan's senior debut for Mansfield last week.

Sarbacker also featured in The Age last month in Adam McNicol's article Rural footy lures US player.

Sav Rocca did not leave the bench in his battle with Ken Parrish for the Philadelphia Eagles punting position on the weekend. Parrish took the kickoff and punting duties (Rocca did hold for field goal attempts) for the Eagles practice match, but has been released from their squad, leaving Rocca to hit his booming torpedo's and measured drop punts for the Eagles again this season.

The other former AFL footballer Chris Bryan's battle with Tim Masthay continued to run neck and neck with both punters perfoming well but with similar returns in their practice match. Three more matches are scheduled before the regular season and it may take all those matches before Green Bay make their decision.

As the 2010 NFL season is about to enter into preseason games we take a look at the former Aussie rules footballers who have been trying to secure a place in the position of punter at various clubs across the US.

Ben Graham - Arizona Cardinals - after a great season in 2009 Graham is guaranteed to be the starting punter for 2010 and will be holding punts for his former Jets team mate Jay Feely.

Sav Rocca - Philadelphia Eagles - the club has brought in Ken Parrish to compete with Rocca for the punting job and it looks like the competitior might beat the incumbent for the place on the team as he can kick off, saving wear and tear on the leg of the team's kick David Akers, who turns 36 in December. If Rocca does lose the job he may get a shot elsewhere in the NFL during the season.

The Austin Crows players and fans participated in there second annual Habitat for Humanity Build Day on a hot July summer Saturday. Habitat for Humanity is a Christian based non-profit organization that organizes the donation of materials, man power and expertise to build homes for families in need.

The house in south east Austin was in its 2nd day of construction. The Crows duties for the day included, pre-build complaining about how hot it was, commenting on the amount of sunscreen on Blake's face and plenty of trips to the water station. The main duties included squaring up the house by bracing it (as the walls had been raised on the 1st day of construction), wrapping the house with tar paper and insulation, lifting the trusses on to the roof and securing them in place, and then more complaining about how hot it was.

Canadian Mike Pyke’s extraordinary journey from international rugby to the AFL will continue for at least the next two years. The Sydney Swans today announced that he has signed a two year contract with the Club. Pyke, who has 20 rugby Test caps for Canada, first came to Australia in June 2008 to trial with the Swans. A few months later he was signed as an international rookie and in 2009 he went on to play his first senior game.

He started season 2010 on the rookie list but has made enormous progress since being called into the senior side in round seven as a replacement for injured ruckman Mark Seaby. Pyke, 26, has now played a total of 20 games and is developing into a valuable big man for the Club - and a trailblazer for athletes converting to AFL from the rugby codes.

The USA have defeated Canada in a come from behind victory at the 49th Parallel cup in Toronto on Saturday. After trailing at half time, the USA Revolution restricted the Northwind to a single goal in the second half, storming home to win by 5 goals.

The USA U23's also comfortably defeated Canada by over 10 goals, whilst in the Women's game Canada managed to reverse the trend defeating the US by 3 goals.

49th Parallel Cup - Men's

	1/4	1/2	3/4	Full Time
USA	1.4 (10)	2.5 (17)	6.9 (51)	9.12 (66)
Canada	2.1 (13)	4.1 (25)	4.2 (26)	5.2 (32)

Umpires' MVP: Dustin Jones (USA)

Goals - USA: Dustin Jones 3, Danny Hansen 1, Ryan Kastl 1, Stephen Moore 1, Andy Vancia 1, Andrew Werner 1.
Goals - Canada: Aaron Falcioni 3, Ash Steir 1, Oliver Hayward 1

Best - USA: Donnie Lucero, Brandon Bludan, Chris Candelaria, Andrew Werner, Jason Newquist, Luke Memeth.
Best - Canada: George Dimacakos, Jimmy Oertel, Kevin Minaker, Tasos Dimacakos, Frank Luisser, Manny Matata.

The US Revolution yesterday took out the 2010 49th Parallel Cup with a solid 34 point win after the Northwind led at half time.

In other results the OAFL Awfuls' poor kicking let them down in a 17 point loss to the Boston Demons that saw them kick 2.15, the Canadian Northern lights upset the favoured US Freedom by 23 points and the US Under 23 side easily defeated the Canadian Under 23 team by 68 points.

Next weekend Canada's national Women's team hosts their American counterparts. Our thanks to Jake Anson for sending us the following report reviewing the national team's evolution over the past few years.

Canada national women's team first played in 2007, in two matches against the USA Freedom at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, BC. At that time, adult women's footy in Canada was in its infancy and each of the Canadians were participating in their first football matches. This initial Team Canada - dubbed 'the Eagles' - contained players only from Calgary and Vancouver, of whom a third were under 16 years of age. Canada lost both matches by substantial margins, but gained valuable experience in playing the Americans.

The three years since have seen substantial growth in the number of women playing footy across Canada, and their skill base. In 2009, AFL Canada decided to re-brand the national women's team as 'the Northern Lights', to bring a recognizably Canadian identity to the team. Women's footy is now played across the four most-populous Canadian provinces, with clubs established in Canada's five largest cities - Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. A yearly Canadian National Championship has been established for women, and youth girls footy development programs have commenced in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.