The Australian Football Club at ASU may be a new club on campus and the team may be small in number, but that hasn't stopped them from making some lofty goals this season.
"We want to win the local league," said Jason Parks, club president. "We want to go to the college championships and win as well."
Parks said the club currently has 16 members. It was organized on campus a year ago and started with a core of five league players who then recruited others.
Parks described the sport as a mix between soccer and rugby.
How the game is played:
The teams play four 12 minute periods, with nine players on the field at a time for each team.
The game is played on a soccer field, with the corners rounded off.
The ball is advanced by running with it, kicking it or by handball.
There are two ways to score: goals and behinds.
Goals are scored by kicking the ball between the large goal posts and are worth six points.
Behinds are worth one point. They are scored when the ball passes between the large posts in a manner other than a kick, when the ball hits one of the large posts, or when the ball passes between a large post and a small post.
As in other sports, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
"You get bumps, bruises and scrapes," the Bio-Engineering doctoral candidate said. "You don't have to be huge to play it. You have to be in shape, but anyone can play."
The team plays in the Arizona Australian Football League. They are currently in third place.
The sport, often called "footy," has a huge following in Australia, similar to the NFL in the United States.
"Some guys get paid a lot of money," Parks said. "They play in stadiums packed with 70,000 people."
The Arizona Australian Football League plays a version of the game called "Metro Footy." This version allows more players to get involved in the game, as it is played on a smaller field and with fewer players than regular Australian football.
Arizona had the first Metro Footy league in the country.
"I played soccer since I was four, but I was getting tired of it," Parks said. "Then a friend introduced me to Australian football and I've never gone back to soccer."
Parks added that he liked the quickness of the game.
"It's a fast game that has some roughness to it that I enjoy," the Alberta, Canada native said.
The team's next game is Saturday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. at the band field against Chandler, the team just above them in the standings.
The team has four regular season games remaining.
Jeremy Cluff is a journalism junior. Reach the reporter at jeremy.a.cluff@asu.edu.
