They never train, they smoke at half-time and they debrief at the pub. But these unlikely footy stars are playing to win.
BY now, most footy teams are well into a long and gruelling pre-season training program. Running and more running, interspersed with gym, pool and boxing sessions, and the occasional skills drill.
Yet in Melbourne’s north the blokes from the Rusty & Unfit Football League haven’t even thought about pulling on the boots.
Like many great ideas, the Lalor-based RUFL took shape over a few beers and a barbecue. As the league’s president, Travis Euesden, explains. “We were just talking about how we miss playing footy,” he says, “because we were unfit, or had never played before, or couldn’t because of long work hours or young families. We just thought, why don’t we get a few blokes together and have a match?
“It was only meant to be a one-off thing but after one game everyone loved it and through word of mouth it spread.”
The RUFL had humble beginnings – that first game, played in Mill Park in March 2010, had 14 players on each side. “It was just a bunch of guys going out and playing footy,” Euesden says. “Half had black shirts and the other half had white shirts.”
Just two years later, the league has more than 100 players, ranging in age from 17 to 45, across four teams. Major sponsors have jumped on board – including the Imperial Hotel on Bourke Street– and players were invited to appear on The Footy Show after the league won $5000 for local junior club Lalor Stars through the My Blood Oath TAC campaign.
Teams kick off every four to six weeks from March to August, depending on ground availability. Players are mostly blokes who’ve played before – “but not for years and years” with work and family commitments getting in the way, says Euesden.
Another appealing reason for the rusty and unfit to play is that there is no such thing as training.
Everyone wants to win, but as Euesden points out, “everyone is also mates”. The group is tight-knit and missed goals or marks are joked about at the pub afterwards.
Played in a round robin format, the four teams in this year’s competition are the Red Devils, Black Magic, Blue Evolution and White Ice. Red Devils are the reigning premiers, defeating Black Magic by eight points last year, despite a late fightback by the Magic.
Last year 130 people – players, family, friends and fans – attended the league’s presentation night, which was hosted by young Melbourne player Addam Maric, and former Demon Tom Scully, now playing with Greater Western Sydney Giants.
The league has attracted so much interest that in late February it held a “draft”, hosted by former Richmond champion Matthew Richardson. New players to the league were selected by one of the four teams via a lottery system.
Also just like the AFL, the RUFL celebrates players from all backgrounds. One of the biggest success stories to come out of the 2011 season was New Zealander Tyler Caskey.
Caskey, 32, moved to Australia in 2004, with a background playing basketball and rugby. One of his basketball teammates, Chris West, who happened to be the captain of the Red Devils, invited him down “to have a kick”. It didn’t take long before the game had won him over.
“It was something I’d always wanted to do,” Caskey muses. “I’d played a bit of rugby and soccer. But this was my first ever game of AFL footy.
“I had an absolute laugh. I loved it. It was probably my favourite time I’ve ever had on a sporting field.”
The topic of footballers from other codes adapting to Aussie Rules has been hotly debated. So how did Caskey find it?
“Well, being a Kiwi who’d played a bit of rugby I found it so much different,” he says. “You’ve gotta work real hard to have a crack at the ball and avoid tackles. In rugby you can run head first into someone without worrying about giving away a penalty.”
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the RUFL, which has seen an impressive growth in numbers, is its uniquely laconic approach to the game.
“It’s the best fun you can have with a ball,” Caskey says. “There’s no pressure to perform and you get to meet a whole range of different guys. For example, I didn’t think I’d ever have much in common with a 20-year-old Greek kid who has a smoke at half-time but we play the same way and get on real well.”
Euesden reckons the RUFL just keeps getting better. “It has become a lot more professional. Lalor Stars came down and watched one of our games and then approached us to get involved,” he says.
The Stars play in the Northern Football League, and some of their players run the boundary and do the water for RUFL. The club gives the RUFL access to club rooms, a canteen and a PA system, which is used to blast each team’s theme song as they run out – Ice Ice Baby and Back in Black are among them.
Despite its relative infancy, Euesden says the league enjoys a “nice cash flow”, thanks entirely to sponsors. Still he puts the success down to something very fundamental – a love of footy.
“It’s an alternative to playing competitive footy, where you either have to go hammer-and-tongs or not play at all,” he says.
“There’s no big hassle with training and pre-season and all the rest of it – that’s what it’s all about for us.”
The season starts March 31 and you can follow the action at rufl.com.au or facebook.com/theRUFL.
