There are faster players, and bigger ones, but the Southern Football League team the Southern Dragons have one stat nailed - they cover more territory than any other team.
The 100 players who fill the team's three sides come from 25 countries.
With two sides in the Grand Finals at Jack Barker Oval Cheltenham this weekend (both Seniors AND Reserves), the world is not only their origin; it's their oyster.
And Jamie Pi, who started the ball rolling, says black, white or brindle, the only colours that count are the grey, white and red on the Dragons' jumpers.
"It is for anybody and everybody. Once you put on a Dragons jumper, you're a Dragon playing Dragons footy," Pi says.
"This season we've got more than 100 registered players. We've got every nation under the sun, almost."
It started when, as a Dandenong High kid short on English and mates, Chinese-born Pi got up the guts to ask to join the lunchtime footy.
They let him in to be the stepladder for speccies, but it grew into a boots and all passion, into a team for kids foreign to footy, then into three of them.
Asia, Eastern Europe, the Pacific, Britain, Mauritius and the Middle East all figure in player pedigrees, and there are 11 Australian-born Aussies to boot.
In 2006 Pi was playing for Hawthorn Amateurs and met Tri Thoi, a Vietnamese boat kid playing for Box Hill North. They had an idea - start a club for players like them.
"The thought was to get the kids who are afraid of playing in a mainstream environment... who couldn't go in cold to the local footy club," Pi said.
Earlier this year the side won the TAC's Blood Oath campaign and $30,000, flogging all comers, but there are bigger goals to chase.
Pi says not many parents come to watch. Many don't have weekends off.
"Volunteering at a footy club is pretty low on the to-do list," he said.
"Our next generation will have the support from us. We're starting to put the footy culture out to our communities, to spread the message."
"Part of that is to explain how Aussie rules breaks down barriers, and part is to show the world what we've got."
Pi called an AFL exhibition match in Shanghai for the local TV last year and interpreted a game for Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping when he visited.
"You have to explain the rules, things like being able to jump on someone's back to take a mark, why they call it football when there's handpassing," he says.
"But to see those Chinese kids getting exposed to footy, it's a great feeling."
WHERE THEY COME FROM:
Japan: 1; Cambodia: 18; Malaysia: 8; Vietnam: 28; China: 14; Korea: 1; Australia: 11; India: 1; Scotland: 1; Turkey: 1; Philippines: 8; Ireland: 2; New Zealand: 1; Greece: 1; Pakistan: 8; Malta: 1; Macedonia: 1; Romania: 2; Poland: 1; Israel: 1; Lebanon: 2; Solomon Islands: 1; Italy: 1; Armenia: 1; Mauritius: 1
DON'T MISS THE MCDONALD REAL ESTATE SOUTHERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 3 GRAND FINAL THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, AT JACK BARKER OVAL CHELTENHAM.
GRAND FINAL MATCHES COMMENCE AT 9.30AM WITH THE NAVY'S VERY OWN CERBERUS FOOTBALL CLUB TAKING ON CHELSEA HEIGHTS, WHILST MOUNT WAVERLEY AND THE SOUTHERN DRAGONS BATTLE IT OUT IN BOTH THE RESERVES AND SENIOR GRAND FINALS.
'SOUTHERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE - WHERE THE LOCALS ARE THE LEGENDS!'
Last Modified on 23/09/2011 14:04