“It’s like a foreign language,” the man with a Texan accent says with a soft chuckle.
“It’s interesting to try and explain Australian Football to my friends, I show them clips on my phone and they say ‘oh that’s rugby’.
"I have to then explain to them that it’s not and they get this crazy look on their faces.”
Phil Young is a High School Football Coach from Fort Worth, Texas and he loves the Australian game.
He loves it so much he’s dragged his wife and two teenage children 13,700km to watch his favourite team, the GIANTS, play in Western Sydney.
“I’ve followed Football closely for the last 15 or 16 years,” Young said.
“I’d been a Swans fan but I fell in love with the GIANTS around two years ago, there’s something about them, an edge.
“They’re playing without a chip on their shoulder, they’re the new team and everyone treats them that way. It allows them to play on another level.”
Like many stateside lovers of Australian Rules, Young first caught a glimpse of the game featuring men dressed in sleeveless shirts and tight, daisy-duke like shorts in the early 90’s on ESPN.
Since then he’s twice made the pilgrimage to Australia to watch a game in the flesh.
“My wife Renee and I jumped on a plane in 1997 to come and watch the Swans, that stoked the fired in me even more,” Young said.
“I was so in love with it that in 2000, even though my daughter Annesly was one at the time, I told my wife I was going to the Grand Final.”
Paul with GIANTS Senior Assistant Coach Al McConnell on a tour of GIANTS HQ
Young didn’t exactly drag his family along on this particular trip kicking and screaming.
Like many before them, watching football has become a family affair for the Youngs.
“My wife is a huge fan,” Young laughs.
“When a game comes on television at one o’clock in the morning and no matter who is playing we watch it together. My son Riley loves it too and wants to play.”
Young’s children experienced their first live football match in the GIANTS’ round 14 win over Carlton at Spotless Stadium.
“It’s a beautiful stadium and we were right behind the bench so the atmosphere and the fans were great,” he said.
“Riley and Annesly didn’t know what to expect, but they loved it.”
A former college Gridiron player, Young wishes he had the opportunity to try the version of football that is so foreign in the US.
“American football is almost scripted, the game is so choreographed,” he said.
“I love that the AFL is so wide-open despite there being game plans in place... It would have been fun to try.”
Young has taken that sentiment into his current role as the Head Coach of Arlignton Heights High School’s Gridiron team.
During the off-season he often distracts his players with a pick up game of Football.
Paul with the Arlignton Heights High School’s Gridiron team
“I try to introduce my kids to the game and show them some video clips and teach them some of the basic rules,” Young said.
“They try kicking with American footballs put they’re too pointy so it doesn’t really work, but they have the best time trying to play the game.”
Young has kept a close eye on the AFL’s American experiment that has seen former college basketballers and footballers participate in a US Combine.
The program has seen St Kilda’s Jason Holmes become the first American born and raised player to debut in the competition, a feat matched shortly after by Collingwood’s Mason Cox.
The rise and rise of Cox has been of particular interest for the Youngs as the basketballer-turned-ruckman grew up not too far from where they live.
“I think if football was a little more exposed in the states we’d see more players like Mason move to Australia,” Young said.
“There are so many young men that can’t make it professionally in American football; there’s a glut of talent.”
Young thinks Americans can take to football like Cox and Holmes have as it appeals to US sensibilities.
“It encompasses a lot of skills, the running, jumping and tackling it’s the sport of sports,” Young said.
“It’s the ambiance of the game too. You don’t see as many egos in AFL as you do in professional sports in America. I don’t see the selfishness.
“I’m always seeing a love for the game and team-mates.”
The GIANTS are proud to celebrate the 2016 Toyota AFL Multicultural Round during their match against Collingwood at Spotless Stadium on Saturday, July 9.
Multicultural Round highlights the contribution multicultural communities have made to the game’s history and welcomes new communities to embrace Australian Football as fans, players, umpires or administrators.
