Imagine a round field larger than a football or soccer field. You score by kicking via punch passing and ruckman and forward pockets. These are just a few of the things we learn about Australian Rules Football in this episode. Our guests, James Henderson and Terry Clark, play and coach for the North Texas Devils, and fill us in on the basics of Footy.

Enjoy this episode and other episodes of Hustle and Pro in our archives.

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Show Notes

[00:48 ] Backgrounds of James and Terry

[02:27 ] Aussie Rules Football – What is it all about?

[15:39 ] About the North Texas Devils

Resources within this episode: 

• NTX Devils:  Website | Instagram @ntxdevils | Facebook | Twitter


• Kelly Walker: Bio | Instagram @kelly_walkertexas |  Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX

Transcript: (machine-generated)

Hello and welcome to this episode of Hustle & Pro. I’m your host, Kelly Walker. On this episode, us, Texans, are going to get schooled on Australian rules football thanks to our guests, James and Terry. Welcome to the studio, guys. Thank you, Kelly. Thanks for having us. Yeah, this is fun. So, we’re Instagram friends, right? And so we’ve messaged each other. And you, obviously, realize I don’t know a thing about Australian rules football because I don’t even know how to say it correctly ’cause I’ve mentioned the sport as the wrong sport, which we’ll talk about in a little while. So, I wanted to get you guys in here and teach me, you know, what, I don’t know, what I need to know. ‘Cause it’s fun. We have a team here in this area. So, before we talk about the North Texas Devils, I want to know about you guys, specifically. You know, what’s kind of, what’s your background in sports? And so, I guess, maybe James. Let’s start with you.

Yeah. So, um, I’ve been sort of playing Australian football most of my life. Um, played at a few different clubs growing up. It’s one of those sports that, you know, in Melbourne where I’m from, everybody essentially plays Australian football from the age of about five onwards. Um, so I played it a few different clubs. Transitioned to rugby for a period of time, uh, rode for a period of time. And then, uh, ended up in Sydney with a team up there where I ended up coaching for a few years after a bit of an injury that put me out of playing. And then traveled overseas and came to the U S and found that there was a local amateur league. So I got involved here as well. Awesome. What about you Terry? So I was introduced to footy maybe three or four years ago. But me primarily growing up, I played basketball. So I played basketball in high school. That’s as far as I took it. But besides that I played in a lot of rec leagues here in Dallas.

I was going to say I picked up some accent for James, but I wasn’t sure where I’m hearing you from. So you’re from here. I’m from Arkansas. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So yeah, I don’t really have an accent because- Oh, you do. Well, really? We all do. Okay. Because my, my father is from Arkansas. My mom’s from New York. So, I kind of go in between both of those, but primarily, you know, growing up, you know, there’s traditional sports, basketball, football, a little baseball, but definitely no footy, no footy.

I like that: footy. That’s what that would all you guys call it. I mean, Australian rules football is kind of a mouthful, so yeah. Aussie rules or footy you can go with. Aussie rules. I like that, too. Okay. So what it’s not is American football and it’s also not rugby. Right. So I guess let’s go there. Let’s sort of tell me like the similarities for people like me who are used to American football. What are the similarities with these mainstream sports that like Americans know? And then I guess what are some of the main differences? If- that’s, that’s a lot, but I guess start there.

Let’s unpack that a little bit. Um, I think that the, the most, probably the most similar thing to sports that you’ve known already in terms of American football or rugby is the ball is somewhat of a similar shape. But as you can see, it’s a little bit of a different shape.

Yeah, I’m holding one now. It’s more rounded at the, you know, the ends aren’t as tapered off. More eggy.

More eggy, correct. Yeah. Um, that’s about where the similarities end. And, and so when I do describe this game to people who’ve never seen it before. I actually asked people to visualize a combination of soccer with basketball. Yup. Oh. That’s the, the reaction we get.

We’re on a grass field, whatever you call pitch, field, whatever. So, you’re on a field with how many players are on your-

So we’ve got 18 players on each side on the field at one time. So, it’s 36 guys running around. So that’s soccer plus basketball. Exactly. And in terms of, you know, the, the reason I sort of describe it like that is because it is a 360-degree game. So there’s no onsite, no offsite, people aren’t lining up against each other as you’d have in rugby or in American football. Um, so that’s probably where that basketball similarity comes into it.

So when you go to start the game, your players are mixed on each side of the field.

Correct, correct. Um, and when we do start the game, the other basketball similarity is that there’s a tip-off, although we bounce the ball or throw the ball up, so it’s a little bit different, and the two tallest guys will generally jump up and then I’ll do that tip off to- get possession. Correct. Okay. And then the other interesting thing, though, that always throws people is it’s not played on a rectangular field as rugby or American football would be. It’s actually played on a cricket pitch, a cricket field. So it’s a large oval field, um, almost circular.

Is it common though that you’re converting a soccer field into this for you or is that not- size-wise does that not convert?

Yeah. So the, the average field length, cause the fields actually vary in size. There are some dimensions that need to be the same and regulated on every field. But the average fields run at about 185 yards long by about 155 yards wide.

That’s huge, right? Well, you do have 18 on each side. So I mean there’s a lot of players out there. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of running. Okay. So I’m visualizing that. All the players, the round- that’s crazy big. So what’s the goal situation? Is there an actual structure to the goal or an inline or end zone?

Yeah. So there’s a goal. You got to kick that through the goal.

I told you, I’m like basic, here. You have to like, spell it out for me.

Um, no, there’s a goal and you actually have four posts. So four upright posts. There’s no horizontal posts, just the vertical posts. The two in the middle are much taller. And when you kick it between those two, then that’s a goal. That’s worth six points. Then there’s two shorter posts on the outside. And when you kick it between the large posts and the short post that’s worth one point.

So scoring opportunities are kicks, not, you don’t run anything.

You’re not running things through. It’s all kicking.

Can every player- I’m jumping all around here. First, I was going to say, can any player kick it? Or are there designated players that aren’t allowed to play? Any player can kick it. As a player, are you an offensive specialty defensive or is everybody everything?

Uh, so you, you are sort of more specialized, but everybody can run everywhere. So you don’t have sections or areas that you have to stay within. So you will have guys that become better defensively because you do need to learn some of the skills to be a defensive player. And then you’re going to have some guys which are much better. And as- I keep saying guys, I should say guys and girls, because there’s a lot of women who play as well. But a lot of the people who play you’ll end up having some of those specialties, depending on what you’re good at. Do you have positional names? Yes. Okay, what are your positions?

So I play ruck. Ruck, the ruckman. So it was kind of like he said, at the beginning of the game, it starts with a jump ball. So if you play baske