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Canadian Mike Pyke on what to watch for at an Aussie Rules Football game

Jul 30, 2018 | 7:15 AM

SYDNEY, Australia — There’s a lot to see at an Aussie Rules Football game, with 36 players and nine umpires scattered on a giant grass oval.

Canadian Mike Pyke, a former ruckman for the Sydney Swans, has some words of advice for the novice spectator at an AFL (Australian Football League) match.

“The most important thing when you’re at a game for the first time is probably to try and step back and look at what’s happening beyond the ball,” he said. “When you’re watching hockey or basketball, you tend to focus on the (puck or) ball and not necessarily what’s happening around it.

“It’s particularly important in AFL because the field is so large. If you actually step back and look at where the guys are running, 50 or 100 metres off the ball, it’ll give you an idea of where the ball’s probably going to end up.”

The average AFL player runs 15 kilometres in a match.

“You’ll see it by the amount of running off the ball,” said Pyke.

The Swans are led by star forward Lance (Buddy) Franklin, a six-foot-six 235-pounder who has size and speed.

“He’s just one of these generational talents … someone who has attributes that people his size generally don’t,” said Pyke.

Franklin was one of nine AFL players to make more than $1 million Australian (C$970,345) last year, according to www.afl.com.au. The average player salary was $352,470 (C$342,025).

Pyke, a Victoria native, was a North American trailblazer in Aussie Rules Football. His unlikely journey Down Under started when Matt Woodland, a Canadian friend who was living in Australia, thought Aussie Rules Football might suit the Canadian rugby international. He convinced the six-foot-six Pyke to send a highlight video to a local player agent who recommended the Canadian to the Swans.

The Swans were interested enough to fly Pyke and his fiancee down in June 2008, signing him a few days later. He made his debut the next year at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

In 2012 he was a regular in the side that won the Grand Final. Pyke retired after the 2015 season having played 110 AFL games for the Swans.

The tall ruckmen go after the ball at stoppages, like NBA centres at tip-off only with far more body contact, hoping to get the ball to a teammate to trigger an attack. Their secondary role is to offer an escape valve if the team is under pressure and needs to clear the ball from its own end.

The role took its toll on Pyke, who says he left the game with “some pretty dodgy knees.”

“It’s a pretty ballistic contest in the middle. You’re pretty much just smashing shins in contest after contest,” he said.

Pyke compares the game to the NFL “in terms of the toll it can take on your body, but we play an extra eight or nine rounds (a season) compared to the NFL.”

“There aren’t many guys you hear about after 30 in the league and if they are, they’re probably well past their peak,” he said.

Pyke played fullback and wing in rugby, scoring a highlight-reel try against the All-Blacks in 2007 when he raced the length of the field after intercepting a pass.

Andrew McGrath, taken first overall in the 2016 AFL Draft, carries the Canadian colours in the AFL these days. The 19-year-old Essendon defender-midfielder was born in Mississauga, Ont., moving to Australia when he was five.

He won the AFL’s Rising Star award as a rookie.

Attending a Swans home game is worth it just to see the historic Sydney Cricket Ground. The heritage-listed Members and Ladies Pavilions date back to 1886 and 1896, respectively. Newer stands were built in 2008 (Victor Trumper Stand) and 2012 (MA Noble, Don Bradman and Dally Messenger Stands).

The old and new stands provide patrons with a choice of perches to watch a game. Pyke suggests a seat in the middle of the ground with some height so as to get the whole experience.

North American viewers will notice the lack of in-game hoopla. At a Swans game, there are no T-shirts hurled into the crowd and there is no pounding rock soundtrack during play.

Because the action is pretty much non-stop, the game provides its own soundtrack with many of the spectators plugged into radios to hear broadcast play-by-play.

It’s a refreshing change.

Newcomers to the sport will also notice the runners entering the field of play — team officials who carry both a bottle of water and instructions from the coaching staff.

There is history aplenty in the game which dates back to 1858 when Thomas Wentworth Wills, known as the father of AFL, decided that Australian cricketers needed a way to stay in shape in the winter.

In 1897, a group of eight teams broke away from state competitions to form the Victorian Football League. In 1990, the sport’s top level was renamed the Australian Football League (AFL).

The South Melbourne Football Club, formed in 1874, moved and became the Sydney Swans in 1982.

Today there are 18 clubs, which play a 22-game season leading up to at the Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The AFL says its games are watched in more than 350 million homes across 249 territories worldwide.

The regular season starts in late March and runs through late August with this year’s Grand Final set for Sept. 29.

Pyke has a life membership with the Swans and still does some corporate work for the club. His day job these days is as an investment banker with Moelis Australia, having completed a master’s of finance from Sydney University during his playing career.

Married to a fellow Canadian with two kids, the 34-year-old Pyke has dual Canadian and Australian citizenship. And he savours life in Sydney.

“It’s pretty hard to beat. We probably get, I’d say, at least 300 days of sunshine a year,” he said.

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press



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