Earlier this month, Sean Lee asked the Roar community whether the US combine was worth the effort.
For the most part, footy fans are quite ambivalent about such ventures.
The success rate of uncovering elite athletes from other sports since the Irish experiment commenced exactly 30 years ago is mixed, at best.
The AFL website ran an interesting story on Wednesday about a “Lanky Yank”, Mason Cox, and I have to admit that his vital statistics are impressive.
Cox is from Oklahoma State University and he stands at a Aaron Sandilands-esque 211 centimetres tall.
Even more impressive is what he is able to achieve with that massive frame of his.
He has an absolute vertical jump of 348 centimetres. Assuming his arms are anywhere near being in proportion with the rest of his body, this means he can pluck the cherry at well, well over four metres off the ground.
Interestingly, Justin Wesley of the University of Kansas had the highest vertical jump, coming in at an impressive 359 centimetres. Wesley also had the best 20-metre sprint at 2.81 seconds, meaning we are talking about quite the athletic specimen.
In the 20-metre sprint, our lanky Yank was able to get his frame over the line bang on three seconds, which is not too bad for a seven foot giant.
Cox is listed as the tallest athlete, here or abroad, to have ever taken part in the AFL’s testing, which now has a 20-year history.
The AFL’s national talent manager, Kevin Sheehan, describes Cox as an “absolute stand out”, being good overhead with his hands and quite agile for his size.
Cox is a relative newcomer to college basketball. He primarily comes from a football, the round-ball type, background.
The AFL reports that four AFL clubs are taking a good look at him.
At 23, similar to Mike Pyke’s and Karmichael Hunt’s ages when they made the switch to Australian Football from rugby, the odds are against him succeeding in the AFL.
But, as has been mentioned on more than the odd occasion: seven foot athletes don’t grow on trees, so you can’t blame AFL clubs for taking a close look.
The real question becomes: how good would it be finding Mason Cox and similarly dimensioned athletes around the age of 15?
I suspect Hawthorn will soon be able to provide us with an answer to that question with the two beauties they uncovered in New Zealand – but that’s a story for another day.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Good to hear from you MarshMallow. I agree with your comment that as a general proposition - getting these guys aged 22 to 24 is a bit too late - far better if we could find them in their teens - but on the other hand - to expect to find elite athletes running around in the USAFL is probably a big ask, because: * the best athletes have gravitated to the major pro American sports, for obvious reasons; * there might be 30+ Australian Football clubs across the US, but their biggest problem is having a critical mass of teams nearby to play against each other, such that they can play regular games (at least 12 games per annum); and * all of the above conspires to ensure the standard of play is going to be of a low standard, much too low for AFL clubs to consider seriously. It might sound counter-intuitive, but for the moment, the guys they really want are elite athletes in the college system receiving top shelf training. The best we can hope for is that American teens on the way to the college system might also give Australian Football a bit of a go along the way, have exposure to it in their teens, maybe even continue to play it in their off-seasons while at College - not sure if that is possible or not - but for the moment it's extremely unlikely that a player can come from the USAFL into the AFL system without some other form of intervention (say an academy, talent identification program or US junior teams involved in international competition along the lines of what is currently happening in the Pacific region).
MarshMallow
Guest
As a Yank in love with Aussie rules can I just say - TAKE THEM ALL! Anything to get Footy more exposed here in the states is exciting to me. I was musing to my friends however about the problem of getting these guys between the ages of 22 and 25 - that seems a bit long in the tooth to be picking up footy. According to the US AFL site (http://www.usafl.com/) there's 30+ teams in different major cities and some sort of Junior program leading to more youth exposure so there very well could be younger prospects on the way sooner rather than later.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
That's precisely what I was going to say. Those going from college sport to American pro sport are earning plenty, but they are not the targets. If you don't make it to pro sport, there's very little in between college sport and pro sport - so in a population of 350+ million, there are literally hundreds of elite athletes, with ideal physiques for Australian Football, basically earning nothing from sport. The real problem is not that these elite athletes don't exist, or even finding them, the trick is trying to get them while in their teens - and I accept that is quite tricky with the lure of American pro sport - in fact, almost impossible (except perhaps for the very rare exception who stumbles on the Australian game via local Australian football leagues).
Cat
Roar Guru
If that said athlete got drafted by a professional American sport, probably not, but tens of thousands of college athletes go undrafted every year. Just because you played high school or college ball doesn't mean you get a million dollar contract somewhere.
strayan
Guest
would any decent american athlete trade a million plus a year career in the states for a sport on the other side of the world getting paid peanuts?
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Very true Sean - 30 years ago if you came in at 6ft 4 you'd be considered a giant of the game - not anymore. At that size, you'd be expected to be quite mobile, agile and to cover the ground like a midfielder. In fact, these days, we have midfielders coming in at 189 to 191 cm, raising the bar in that department (so to speak). Regarding "finding the footy", I think the rucking position is a good one for converts (of the right athletic leaning), because at the stoppages, the ball is popped up there in front of you and you are going to have a 50/50 chance of getting hands to it, especially if you have the right size about you (from there, intense training and match experience will hone the rucking craft). That's an entirely different proposition to pretty much every other position on the ground where you have to go and find your own footy, and an athletic advantage will only get you so far (not to mention, you have to do something with it once you get it).
Sean Lee
Expert
Wow, impressive stats! I'm constantly amazed by the agility and speed of some of these big athletes. I stand 6'4'' and in my younger days had a pretty good vertical leap, but I was as slow as an ox-cart and about as flexible as a telegraph pole! I compare what these blokes can do to what I used to be able to do and am blown away! If Mason Cox can be taught how to find a footy on match day then he is a scary proposition.