Reece Walsh and Nick Daicos, Olympic gold medal teammates.
Now that’s got a ring to it.
NRL, AFL and Super Netball players could soon become Olympians, with flag football set to be played at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Flag football is essentially gridiron but without tackling and Australia plans on competing for a gold medal by recruiting athletes from a variety of sports.
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Gridiron Australia chief executive Wade Kelly said his sport will be flexible and allow players to continue in their professional careers while also chasing their Olympic dream.
Kelly’s pitch to prospective athletes is simple – would you like to win an Olympic gold medal?
“It‘s a 360 degree game, you’ve got to get down field, turn around and catch the ball. That’s AFL, that’s netball, that’s basketball. And then you throw in the league and union guys who are used to playing Oztag,” Kelly told News Corp.
“Look at guys like Reece Walsh, how good he be up against Tyreek Hill as a wide receiver. Patty Mills, amazing in the air. Guys like (Charlie) Curnow in the AFL, imagine him going up against some of those NFL superstars.
“Then you look at the girls. Liz Watson in netball. Isabelle Kelly from rugby league has been a fantastic player, she would really adapt well to the sport. And then the AFL girls, you could take your pick.
“We’ve also got our own players who are doing really well for us at the moment and we’ll bring extra athletes from other sports.
“We’re a start up sport and we want people from other sports coming and having a crack at making that Australian team for 2028.”
In NFL flag football, teams play five-on-five and each game consists of two 20-minute halves, but tournament games are typically shorter with 12-minute halves.
Instead of tackling opponents, players wear two flags that hang along their sides by a belt and defenders stop the ball-carrier by removing one or both of their flags.
The NFL’s popularity in Australia is booming and the league has already recruited AFL and rugby league stars to the US, most notably Philadelphia Eagles’ tackle Jordan Mailata, who played lower grades with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
North Queensland star Valentine Holmes and former NRL player Jarryd Hayne also took sabbaticals from rugby to league to play in the NFL, with the latter cracking the San Francisco 49ers starting side.
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“Everyone has been talking about the NFL for the last 15 years, year-on-year it’s going nuts,” Kelly said.
“In the last 48 hours there’s been guys that play elite professional sports that have reached out, interested in playing.
“I had a conversation with an NRL player last week that would love to play in it.
“For a lot of our AFL guys and girls, union, league, and netballers, NFL players are their sporting heroes.
“To get a chance to play against a Patty Mahomes in an Olympics would be a dream come true.”
Gridiron Australia has fielded Australian representative teams for four decades but its flag football side only started competitively in the past 12 months.
The NFL set up an office in Australia 18 months ago, with a primary focus of pushing flag football under the NFL banner into Australian schools.
Last year, ten primary schools in Queensland and northern NSW competed and the winning school flew to Las Vegas to play at the NFL’s Pro bowl weekend in the international championships.
This year, 84 schools are competing for that title and Pro Bowl experience.
AUSTRALIA’S POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR 2028 OLYMPIC TEAMS:
MEN:
Charlie Curnow
Nick Daicos
Reece Walsh
Joseph Suaalii
Jason Saab
Kalyn Ponga
Alofiana Khan-Pereira
WOMEN:
Tamika Upton
Isabelle Kelly
Jakiya Whitfeld
Bonnie Toogood
Gemma Houghton
Sophie Dwyer
Sunday Aryang
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