Pyke shows other converts how it’s done
Roar Rookie By Widget, 4 Oct 2012 Widget is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- AFL, Israel Folau, Karmichael Hunt, Mike Pyke, Rugby Union, Sydney Swans
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The feel good story of Canadian rugby convert Mike Pyke playing a pivotal role in his side winning a premiership warms the hearts of many, including higher profile code swappers Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau.
I say this because Pyke’s story shows that it is possible to switch codes and be successful, not just as a part of a team but as an individual.
After turning up to Sydney with just a video of his 100m intercept try against the almighty All Blacks, the veteran of 17 caps for the Canadian rugby union side came in search of a new challenge.
With a hard working attitude and a willingness to learn, Pyke spent three seasons mixing and matching between the Swans and their reserve side. The big man turned over a new leaf in 2012 by cementing his spot in the Swans’ side as seriously competitive ruckman.
Whether he was covering for the injured Shane Mumford or just being the support act to Mumford, Pyke proved his worth to the Sydney hierarchy.
On the biggest stage he came through with the goods. With his ruck partner Mumford under a serious injury cloud, Pyke shouldered his fair share of the ruck work. When Mumford was subbed out early in the last term, it came down to the big Canadian to ruck unchanged for the remainder of the game.
He finished with 29 hit outs, 16 disposals and six marks, which went a long way to helping his beloved Swans winning the flag.
With the Pyke story going down in football folklore, will Hunt or Folau be able to live up to the record of the former Canadian union star.
What do you think Roarers?
- Explore:
- AFL, Israel Folau, Karmichael Hunt, Mike Pyke, Rugby Union, Sydney Swans
October 4th 2012 @ 4:50am
peeeko said | October 4th 2012 @ 4:50am | Report comment
well it certainly helps to be 200cm or 6ft 7 inches. if you are tall you certainly dont have to be as talented if you are short. i think the average ruckman in afl is not as talented as your average on baller, your average centre in basketball is not as good as a guard and a second rower in rugby finds it easier to make it into the side than a back rower.
October 4th 2012 @ 5:40am
AndyMack said | October 4th 2012 @ 5:40am | Report comment
I’m happy to see Pyke do well, however I think there is a fair amount of luck involved. Had he signed on to the GCS instead of Sydney, i think 2 things would have happened:
1) Sydney would still have won the premiership
2) You wouldnt think Pyke was better than Hunt and Israel.
I remember Leigh Matthews saying something along the lines of “plenty of average players become premiership players”.
In saying that, very happy to see him succeed and seems to be enjoying the career change, good luck to him.
October 4th 2012 @ 6:45am
Pollock said | October 4th 2012 @ 6:45am | Report comment
It’s a team sport and Sydney are certainly a good example of being a champion team rather than a team of champions.
Interesting what Leigh Matthews said and very logical as there are a lot of champion players who are not premiership players.
With free agency you might see a few more players moving to clubs that they believe are more chance of premiership success than there current club eg Brendan Goddard, a wad of cash also helps. As a by note to that When Nathan Buckley left Brisbane to go to Collingwood he said one of the reasons he left was his desire to be a premiership player, we all know how that turned out.
October 4th 2012 @ 7:57am
brendan said | October 4th 2012 @ 7:57am | Report comment
Pyke IMO was close to bog particularly effective in the 3/4 when Hawthorn made a charge against Sydney he took marks and got to as many contests as possible.Is he the first code changer to play in a premiership?
October 5th 2012 @ 12:57pm
CallmeeAl said | October 5th 2012 @ 12:57pm | Report comment
T.Kennelly for the Swans being a Gaelic to AFL convert.
Certainly to half time Pyke was arguably the best big man on the ground. Mumford was ineffective. Roughead was continuing a nightmare September, and while Hale was able to get ontop of Mumford, his 2 behinds denied him the impact to be best big in the 1st half. Pyke had 5 marks to half time.
In the 3rd qtr – Pyke and many other Swans struggled for impact. Pyke at least was still competing. Hale snared 2 goals in the 2nd half but, indicative of the lack of pressure the unfit (hammy) Mumford was able to impart on the contest – it was telling that Mumford was subbed out and Pyke given the responsibility to bring the Swans home.
And he did.
The goal that Goodes got was a direct result of the Pyke contested mark (dished off handball, ball goes forward and Goodes crumbs and goals).
The last goal too was a direct result of Pyke winning a boundary throw in and then hacking the ball out of the air very effectively 35m’s forward and marked by Jetta who kicked forward to the teeth of goals from where Malceski snapped the match sealer.
So, Pyke – very, very good. And, importantly played his role very well. Granted – the role of ruckman can me more easily defined. Pyke though didn’t let ambition and ability get confused. And even Luke Darcy I think observed that he approved of Pyke’s running patterns that showed that he more understands the game than ever before. And that’s the key – running patterns at different times show the ability to conserve energy, to defend, to not be exposed on the rebound, to get to the important contests and defend the important spaces.
It was also interesting to see the difference between a Fairfax article back in June or July that talked about Pyke being symbolic of the reason why the Swans were so good – because they could make something of nothing. Last week there was a new article about the Swans themselves labelling Pyke as a true ‘Blood’ because of the efforts he puts in himself. Pyke isn’t a production line code conversion – -he’s a tremendous story of personal sacrifice, of effort , of proving all doubters wrong including those at the Swans who thought he’d be on a plane back home within months.
October 6th 2012 @ 8:55am
brendan said | October 6th 2012 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Thanks for reminding me of Kenneally who can forget his jig on the podium.
October 4th 2012 @ 8:06am
josh said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:06am | Report comment
“With the Pyke story going down in football folklore, will Hunt or Folau be able to live up to the record of the former Canadian union star.”
I’d say Hunt has improved more than Pyke in his two seasons. Pyke was lucky to be included in a solid team for starters. Hunt by all accounts trains the house down, is part of their leadership group. Will he win a premiership, probably not, but that doesn’t mean Hunt’s experiment has failed.
Folau well next year will be telling.
October 4th 2012 @ 10:31am
Stewie said | October 4th 2012 @ 10:31am | Report comment
@josh So Hunt is better than Pyke because he supposedly “trains hard” and is in the leadership group of the Gary Ablett Suns? My grandmother could get in there (metaphorically speaking)! Puh-lease. I’d rather Pyke than Hunt in a contested marking situation 100 times out of 100. Some of the ones he took in the Grand Final were top class.
October 4th 2012 @ 2:27pm
Christo the Daddyo said | October 4th 2012 @ 2:27pm | Report comment
I think what josh was saying was that Hunt is better in his second season that Pyke was in his second season. There’s no doubt that’s true.
The Swans showed patience with Pyke – it took four years for it to click for him. As another poster has said, he also had the advantage of some highly experienced players around him to guide his development.
And that’s exactly why people need to be patient with Hunt and Folau. It took Pyke four years with lots of experience around him to make it – it seems unfair to expect the NRL players to develop any faster than that, particularly with the lack of experience in their team-mates.
October 5th 2012 @ 2:20pm
Stewie said | October 5th 2012 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Fair enough. It’s to be expected that these lads will take longer to develop
October 4th 2012 @ 8:10am
mwm said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:10am | Report comment
I would agree with you Brendan. But ruckmen rarely win any type of plaudits as the Norm Smith and Brownlow usually go to midfielders. I think Paul Roos put it better than Matthews when he said (me paraphrasing) ‘if people were looking at Pyke now and didn’t know his story you would say he was an AFL player…rather than a rugby convert from less than 5 years ago’.
Technically Tadgh Kennelly (who won with the Swans in 2005) played Gaelic football and started playing ARF in his late teens/early 20′s, although the two games are similar, so he would take the mantle before Pyke. I’m sure you would have to go back to the days of the old VFL and SANFL, WAFL leagues to find players who maybe played rep cricket and won a Premiership.
October 4th 2012 @ 8:22am
TC said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:22am | Report comment
Not only is Pyke 6ft 7, he’s a great athlete. Has good speed and a very good leap for his size. He was tested for his endurance before he was signed and that was good. Above all, and this is the most important bit – he relishes the contested ball, runs straight at the ball and competes for the ball aggressively. His rugby background means he comes to the game with plenty of physicality and with no concerns about putting his body into a physical contest.
His tapwork could probably improve (in terms of effectiveness a la NicNat), but he is good enough to nullify his opponent, which is half the battle.
There a little things he doesn’t do quite right when the ball is zipping around, but in the air, he has reached a level where he is quite assured and can compete against more experienced opponents.
His kicking is so so, unsurprisingly, but most AFL ruckmen are below average kicks, so that’s no biggie.
TC
October 4th 2012 @ 8:57am
Matt F said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:57am | Report comment
The thing to remember with Pyke is that he’s been on our list for 4 years. It’s taken him time to learn the game, and he’s still learning. He’s a much better player than he was in his first or second season and is improving every year (last year was ruined a bit by injury.)
You can’t compare Mike Pyke after 4 years to Hunt after 2 or Folau after 1. As I’ve said all along, give the NRL converts time (3+ seasons) and then make a judgement on them.
October 4th 2012 @ 12:21pm
Lroy said | October 4th 2012 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Martin Pyke… they could make a movie about this guy.. incredible. Seriousy, he was close to BOG in the grand final… and has scored a try against the All Blacks.. amazing…
The Irish guys (Stynes, Kenelly etc) would have had a better aerobic base to work with as Gaelic footy is a running game.
Karmichael HUnt played Australian rules footy in high school, so he should technically be the best of them all. Hes going ok. Israel Folau.. will take time.. but who knows… hes big enough to be an old school type full fowrd ala Tony Locket.
But Martin Pyke for my mind has been the best of the imports
Im not a Swans fan either
October 4th 2012 @ 1:06pm
Dan said | October 4th 2012 @ 1:06pm | Report comment
Obviously. Otherwise you would know his name is Mike, not Martin.
October 5th 2012 @ 3:17pm
Lroy said | October 5th 2012 @ 3:17pm | Report comment
Ok.. so I made a typo… is the world a better place becasue you pointed that out?
Seriously, are you one of these trolls who just go around slagging of other peoples posts?
October 4th 2012 @ 1:26pm
TW said | October 4th 2012 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
The feel good story of Canadian Mike Pyke adapting to our game will be eventually replicated by much younger recruits from the South Pacific.
Now this is where it gets interesting – 4 football codes claim to have influence in the region.
Rugby Union has been there for years and will have the advantage.
Rugby League started a serious push in the 1990`s apparently except for PNG where they already had the advantage.
Soccer football has always been there with backing from FIFA.
Now we have our game getting semi-serious and attracting players to a possible career in the AFL as per article below.
Link–
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-04/an-pacific-boys-at-afl-draft-combine/4295294?section=sport
How it will turn out is for the gods to decide and if the AFL throws some really serious funding in that direction aka GWS who knows what may happen.
During the Grand Final the cameras zeroed in on these boys who were on the fence dressed in dark blue uniforms.
October 4th 2012 @ 4:55pm
Emric said | October 4th 2012 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
Rugby Union is entrenched … France, the UK and Japan spend a lot of money recruiting from the region. The IRB spends millions of dollars in the pacific region alone and this does not include what the NZRU and ARU put in as well.
The AFL would have to spend very large sums of money over a sustained period of time to keep up. no doubt they have the funds but they are having to start from scratch. League on the other hand has done a exceptional job but they have the advantage of the game being so similar to rugby that cross over from one to the other is very simple indeed.
You also have gotten the true giant in the play ground the NFL recruits heavily from the islands as well.
October 4th 2012 @ 6:46pm
TW said | October 4th 2012 @ 6:46pm | Report comment
I knew about the NFL successfully recruiting in American Samoa for their Draft.
Well all we can say is that Aussie Rules was running on a shoestring budget in that region .As an example – In Fiji the comps were initially sponsored and guided in part by two AFL players with Fijian heritage and most of the development officers are on volunteer 12 month appointments from a branch of Ausaid and yet comps are up and running in several countries.
So despite all of the Rugby and Soccer football funding over there we have attracted players to our game – Yes no doubt some of the kids play all codes and finally make a choice and we have come from nowhere to a presence.
This article illustrates the AFL is now getting semi-serious with this appointment recently for the South Pacific- Sure it is only one person but it is a start.
Note official AFL Academies now or projected in PNG – NZ – Fiji
http://www.aflq.com.au/index.php?id=5&tx_ttnewstt_news=1258&tx_ttnewsbackPid=4&cHash=033be66ca5
Just to show all of the AFL effort is no fluke in a competitive enviroment the Fourth Annual AFL Oceania Cup will be held
Dec 18 – 22 in Fiji. Eight South Pacific countries and the National Indigenous “Boomerangs” team are scheduled to compete.
October 4th 2012 @ 8:02pm
Emric said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:02pm | Report comment
Yeah NFL recruit from American Samoa, but also other islands as required.
Yes its a start and you have to start somewhere