Australia’s pipeline to the NFL includes talent, not just eyeballs

MELBOURNE, Australia – Troy Wykes lifted his T-shirt sleeve to show a red-inked 49ers tattoo on his right biceps. He’s been a fan since 1994.

Yep, that is the last season they won a Super Bowl, capping a five-ring run that began in 1981 and nourished an international fan base.

As president of American Football Queensland, Wykes is committed to developing the next generation of Aussies in this foreign sport, which is coping with enrollment challenges here as it is in the U.S.

“I don’t do too much with flag football. That’s one of the reasons why they named me the president of American Football Queensland. They wanted someone that still cared about the original game,” Wykes said in a video call this past week. “There’s a lot of care about flag but everyone is forgetting about tackle.”

Flag football is indeed surging. A big push comes from the NFL, whose unabashed motive is to grow the game: Flag football won’t just debut in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but continue on to 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Wykes’ backyard.

Commendable as that is, the 49ers and the Rams are playing tackle football at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the NFL’s regular-season debut in Australia. Kickoff is Thursday at 5:35 pm PT (Friday at 10:35 am AUST).

“I bought a ticket straight away for $200,” Wykes said. “I waited two hours before so I was in the queue but the system didn’t pause to let you buy more than one.”

He is not alone in his appetite for the NFL and American football, even if the country’s top sport is, depending on the region, either Australian rules football (a k a “footie” for the Australian Football League) or rugby league with its National Rugby League and State of Origin three-match series.

“A lot of people know about American football but don’t know we play it,” Wykes added.

Seven Aussies made the NFL’s 53-man roster cut last week: Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata, Jacksonville Jaguars guard Dan Faalele, and punters Michael Dickson (Seattle Seahawks), Tory Taylor (Chicago Bears), Jeremy Crawshaw (Denver Broncos), Cam Johnston (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Brett Thorson (Minnesota Vikings). Faalele, Taylor and Thorson are Melbourne natives.

Mailata and Dickson celebrated Super Bowl wins the past two seasons, respectively.

“Mailata is not just a poster child for the NFL in Australia but for their international talent presence across the world,” said Laurie Horesh, ESPN’s Australia-based NFL expert. “It’s not just on the field, but how jovial he is, how good he is with media, and his (family charity) foundation. He’s the complete package.”

Although no Australians are on the 49ers’ or Rams’ 53-man rosters, undrafted rookie punter Jack Bouwmeester is on the Rams’ practice squad after starting training camp with the 49ers. Bouwmeester got his start working with Prokick Australia, an organization that has pumped out several NFL prospects, including former 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky, who is now on the New England Patriots’ practice squad.

“We’re just a couple of blokes trying to give opportunities to guys and some have gone on to do cool stuff,” said Nathan Chapman, owner and founder of Prokick Australia, which specializes in punters and kickers.

Over 400 Prokick prospects have landed scholarships to American colleges.

And now the NFL has landed in Australia, the furthest away from the U.S. it has played a regular-season game; a 1999 preseason game was played in Sydney between the Mike Shanahan-coached Denver Broncos and the Jim Harbaugh-quarterbacked San Diego Chargers.

“This is not the circus coming to town,” NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said on a media conference call. “This is not just us coming for one game. This is part of a long-term commitment to Australia and the region of bringing games and year-round activation.”

The NFL installed an office in 2022 up on the Gold Coast, where it also has a youth academy at A.B. Paterson College in Arundel. Up there in the state of Queensland, as well as here in Victoria, the NFL is providing free flag football kits to every school over the next two years.

“We’ve been running a flag program nationwide for the last three years. I’m a big believer that the easiest way to become a fan of the game is to play the game,” Charlotte Offord, the NFL general manager for Australia and New Zealand, told this news organization. “And so we extended that program from a pilot in 10 schools in 2022 and we’re now in more than 500 schools playing actively across the country now, which is really exciting.”

That influx of flag football is welcomed here, as in America. Tackle football, after all, has its dangers.

“It’s probably gone backward a bit and that’s with all contact sports,” Wykes said. “Parents are aware of concussions and long-term injuries. The participation level has dropped.

“So kids are playing other stuff like soccer and flag football now. Especially with the Olympics, that participation has flown up definitely.”

More Aussie eyeballs than ever are on the NFL, however.

“It’s grown in the last 10 years, from a visual aspect with more people tuning in,” Chapman said.

As for bringing the NFL to Melbourne, there’s a reason it’s called the sporting capital of Australia, seeing how it hosts big-time events such as AFL Grand Finals, F1 racing, the Australian Open tennis major and cricket showdowns.

“The NFL wasn’t such a market, but they love top-level sport,” Chapman added.

And some Aussies still love the concept of playing – or coaching – American football.

Wykes, 44, took up the sport in 1994, when he was a 12-year-old getting “the crap beat out of me” in the under-18 division. He went on to play professionally in Europe, specifically in Austria and Serbia, although he paused his American-football career to work in Australia’s “dirty stuff” iron-ore mines, then the oil and gas industry.

“All the cheerleaders and how many people you had at games, that is what got me addicted at a young age,” Wykes said.

His passion for the 49ers is unwavering, especially with regard to 10th-year tight end George Kittle.

“I still think of Kittle as a rookie. It makes me feel old,” Wykes said. “Hopefully we can get a damn ring for him before he runs out of gas.”