Canadian Player plays first match for Sydney Swans
May 2, 2009

24-year-old Canadian and Victoria, BC native Mike Pyke will make his professional debut to the Australian Football League (AFL) this Sunday afternoon in front of 40,000 fans with the Sydney Swans Football Club.

Mike will become the first Canadian to play in the AFL. His rise to the most elite level of the sport in such a short space of time is unprecedented in AFL history. It’s been just 10 months since a friend who was working in Melbourne, Australia (the home of AFL football), sent an email to an agent saying he knew someone "who might be pretty good". While AFL fans have become accustomed to Irishmen making the transition from Gaelic to Australian football, a 24-year-old Canadian rugby player rising to the elite level so quickly is unprecedented.

Christine Peterson, who had just returned to Canada last week after spending three weeks with her son in Sydney, will board another long-haul flight and be at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. It will be, she says, a head-spinning experience watching her son play a game at the elite level that was a strange novelty when he was a child.

The governing body of AFL footy in Canada (AFLC) are currently working with the Sydney Swans Football Club and Mike on a number of initiatives to drive awareness of the already fast growing sport in Canada. Australian footy has been played in Canada for over 20 years. In that time, 26 clubs have been established in 4 provinces including the Canadian men’s, women’s and junior’s National teams. For more information on playing Australian footy in Canada go to www.aflcanada.com.

More details can be found here