The US Freedom traveled to Toronto, Canada to play the Canada Northern Lights for the first time since their initial meetings in 2007.  The teams were not entirely unknown to each other since the Canadian clubs have been competing at the USAFL National Championship tournament since 2007.  The Canadian team was strongly represented by the Calgary Kookaburras who won the 2008 USAFL championship by narrowly defeating the Atlanta Kookaburras and lost the 2009 Championship to the Milwaukee Bombers.

Tryouts began in June and Northern Lights coach Jake Anson has been scouting players from across Canada to represent their country when they play the USA in August 2010.   Final selections were made at the 2009 USAFL championships in Mason, OH.  Coach Anson and AFL Canada are proud to announce the 2010 Northern Lights Team:

University of Wisconsin/Madison business and sports management student Jacqueline Theiler has become the first US student to join the West Australian Football Commission on an internship.

Jacqueline, who has moved to Perth (WA) as part of an international student abroad program at Murdoch University, will work with the West Australian Country Football League in the areas of sponsorship delivery, marketing, event management and general administration duties.

Last Sunday a women’s football carnival was held in Goomalling, with 3 women’s football teams competing. One of the teams was the “Yankeroos,” made up of 24 international students from the USA, studying at Notre Dame University in Fremantle.

The first time the Yankeroos girls saw Australian football was in August when they arrived in Australia to begin their 6 month study abroad program.

by Jason Burton, South Fremantle Football Club
originally published in the Fremantle Gazette

Women's football is certainly getting more and more popular, and not just with Aussie girls that have grown up watching it. The “Yankeroos” are a group of students from the USA studying at Notre Dame University that have also taken a keen interest in Australia’s national game.