American Mark Cisco’s friends don’t have a clue what he’s talking about when he tells them he’s trying to earn a contract with an AFL club.
The 207cm basketballer is attending the AFL’s invitation-only annual talent-spotting camp, the draft combine, at Etihad Stadium this week.
“Everyone thinks it’s rugby,” Cisco told reporters in Melbourne of his friends back in the US.
“Every time I talk to any of my friends and tell them I’m coming over here, they go `So you’re going to that rugby thing.’
Not that Cisco blames them.
When his Columbia University college basketball coach told him he’d been invited to an AFL try-out for US basketballers in Los Angeles in April, he didn’t have a clue what it was either.
“He came up to me and said `I’ve got an email about some football thing. I don’t know what it is, take a look at it.’
“I looked at it, I looked it up on YouTube, it looked like a lot of fun. It looked like a game I could potentially be good at so I figured I’d give it a shot.”
His efforts in LA were enough to earn an invitation to Sydney for a stint training with the Swans.
While they didn’t offer him a contract, club recruiters have seen enough to have him invited to Melbourne this week.
He also attended Saturday’s grand final and was inspired by the AFL’s tallest player, 211cm Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands.
“I was really excited about Sandilands because he’s kind of what I want to be like, the big guy running around getting every tap,” Cisco said.
He’s hoping new Melbourne coach Paul Roos, who he trained under at Sydney, might offer him a deal, but would be happy to end up at any club under the AFL’s international rookie scheme.
“To be able to come to a country like this and play a professional sport, there’s really nothing else I could ask for,” he said.