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Footy Dreams - American Hoopsters Give Aussie Rules A Go

  • Thursday, January 08 2015 @ 07:31 pm ACDT
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The following article is written by Gil Griffin, a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. He has had a long relationship with the game of Australian Rules football through his writing for the Frematle Dockers website and The AFL Record as well as his podcasts for Big Footy Dockers.


This article explores the journey of American players in Australia and the decisions they made, and journeys taken, to turn their backs on an Anerican basketball dream and give Australian Rules football a go.


Following is an extract from his article, and whilst it is lengthy, it is also highly rewarding with the deeper insights into how and why American athletes are prepared to make the quantum leap in sport and lifestyle to play Australian Rules football.

 Granted, it's not one of those moments.

 Not Jesse Owens in Berlin, not the U.S. Men's Olympic Ice Hockey team in Lake Placid.

 History's about to happen, but it won't even register a blip on the American radar. Still, one man from the Southern Bible Belt and another from a Midwestern suburb will achieve an American athletic first. 

It's best known here as "footy" and it's this country's national pastime. Until two years ago, Wallace never heard of it. Holmes only caught fleeting glimpses while late-night TV channel surfing. Until now, at Eureka Stadium, in Ballarat, in the Australian state of Victoria, where the North Ballarat Roosters are taking on the Sandringham Zebras, in more than 150 years of professional footy, no two Americans have ever played in the same match, let alone directly against each other. The Australian Football League (AFL), the country's national, elite pro league, currently includes one Canadian player, two with American fathers and in the past has had a handful born stateside, but raised in Australia. The 2015 AFL season will begin in April and when it does, both Wallace and Holmes may soon become the league's first-ever, born-and-bred American players.

 To read the article in full, click on the following link:  Footy Dreams - American hoopsters give Aussie Rules football a go

 

 

Photos are from the original Gil Girffin article - Eric Wallace v Jason Holmes (Top), Eric in Action (Left)