Well, the gods must be fans of Australian Rules football as the opening round of matches in the London region were played in near perfect conditions.  Under those clear skies fans flocked to grounds across the capital where a series of hard-hitting and hard-fought matches were played out - by tea time half the fans were commiserating whilst the other half celebrated.

Every club appeared eager to put a message out to their rivals, and fewer did a better job than North London who ran out convincing winners at Bounds Green against the Swans by 110 points, scoring 23.9 against 5.7 and putting in a performance which absolutely dominated at times.  This was a show of serious intent, with the Lions surely seeing themselves as strong Finals contenders and the Swans wondering how they let the game get away from them after the first quarter.

Meanwhile the Wildcats also began the season strongly with vistory over Wimbledon. 

More details of Premiership games will come soon, see below for some of the Conference results. 

The Conference saw the Swans achieve a far more respectable result than their Premiership colleagues, achieving a very respectable draw against North London with 86 points a piece, a result made all the more impressive after North put in a superb first half performance.  In fact it could have been an even more remarkable result had the Swans turned up in goalscoring mood, kicking no fewer than 14 behinds and perhaps planning to spend some time on the training pitch aiming the ball between the big sticks.

Shepherds Bush Raiders however made full use of the opportunity to begin their own season in style with a 152 point victory over the Reading Kangaroos, scoring 27.12 against 3.4 in reply.  Even at this early stage of the season it appears that they are looking at kicking off in style and have to be regarded as the favourites to take the flag again.