News from around the AFL on Wednesday, October 27...

afl.com.au

Swallow stays at North
Steve Lavell
NORTH Melbourne has received a significant boost on the eve of its pre-season training camp in Utah with key midfielder Andrew Swallow extending his contract with the club.

Swallow had been strongly linked to Greater Western Sydney, with speculation he had already committed to the new franchise for its 2012 entry into the AFL.

Although Swallow and his manager Colin Young had dismissed those reports, the 23-year-old's future beyond next year still seemed unclear.

However, Swallow, who is holidaying with his wife in Europe, said he had received word from Young that a deal had been reached with North.

The Age

Irish players to get extra support
Emma Quayle

GAELIC football's player association has begun working with its Australian counterpart to ensure that Irish players who take up Australian Rules leave with the best possible chance of forging a successful career.

The joint ''transition'' program, set up by the AFL Players' Association and the Gaelic Players' Association, will also help ensure those who are shunted out of the AFL system have something to fall back on should they have to move back to Ireland.

The GPA will educate its young players about what they will encounter should they move to Australia, with the AFLPA assisting with medical care, career advice, university funding and other advice, even if the players move home.

While the sport's controlling body, the Gaelic Athletic Association, is still edgy about losing players to other professional sports, GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell said there was a greater acceptance in Ireland that players were going to try their luck in Australia.

WAFL hit with another positive drug test

THE West Australian Football League is braced for another drug shock, with a player from Swan Districts reportedly returning a positive A-sample.

The test, conducted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, is believed to have discovered levels of Sudafed, which can raise a player's heart rate and lead to enhanced bodily function.

The player, who can't be named until results of the B-sample are known, was tested by ASADA after Swan Districts' grand final win over Claremont last month. He has been notified of the positive A-sample, but is not obliged to notify others until the B-sample result comes through.

East Perth's Dean Cadwallader is appealing against a two-year ban for steroids.

The Australian

AFL takes a punt on Kevin Sheedy's Greater Western Sydney 'kids' in pre-season Cup
AAP

GREATER Western Sydney looms as the AFL's big risk in the radical new format for round one of the pre-season competition.

The league's 18th team will effectively field a team of kids in the NAB Cup early next year, plus it is among six teams who must cope with the long break between their two opening-round matches.

GWS and fellow expansion club Gold Coast will make their debuts in the AFL during the February-March NAB Cup so there are an even number of teams. But GWS does not join the regular season until 2012 and early next year it will only be halfway through developing its list.

High-profile rugby league convert Israel Folau is likely to play in a side otherwise made up of juniors and rookie-listed players.

The Herald Sun

Top two to play twice next season
Mark Robinson, Scott Gullan

THE AFL has scrapped its lacklustre one-game policy and scheduled the two grand finalists to play each other twice in 2011.

Unlike Geelong and St Kilda this year, who met each other just once in the home and away season (Round 13), Collingwood and St Kilda are scheduled to play twice in what is a shift from what the AFL termed as "focus and anticipation" on a single Grand Final rematch.

The games are scheduled before the mid-year break and late in the season.

The fact the two teams played a Grand Final replay also meant the AFL was reluctant to play them early in the season.