Maia Westrupp has jumped into the deep end to chase an Aussie rules dream he never had, in a sport he's never played.
The 18-year-old from Whakatane has moved to Melbourne after his athletic talents were discovered by AFL club the Demons.
It's hard not to be in awe of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but that's something Westrupp's only recently discovered.
"To be honest [it wasn't a childhood dream to appear at the MCG]. The childhood dream was always to be an All Black or play league. But now that I'm [at the MCG], and I've actually sat in the crowd and experienced 70,000 people cheering, it's the dream to play here one day," Westrupp says.
The 18-year-old, who is a New Zealand volleyball representative and a rugby first-five, showcased his athletic abilities in an AFL combine in January in Wellington.
A few months later, the 187cm Westrupp is on a full-time Melbourne Demons scholarship, training with the forwards, the guys who kick the goals and learning Aussie rules from scratch.
"[It's kind of like] going to AFL University, without the qualification," he says.
However AFL has its rewards as the highest-paid of the Australian winter codes. One who knows is Wayne Schwass, who moved over the Tasman as a 10-year-old and went on to win an AFL premiership.
"I admire Maia for what he's done because it's a big decision as an 18-year-old kid to defer university. He's a very smart young man to leave his family and come over to a foreign country with a foreign game and make that investment into his own career," Schwass says.
But Westrupp isn't alone. Teenagers Kurt Heatherley and Shem Tatupu are in the Hawthorn system, with Heatherley set to be in the next AFL draft.
If the trio is successful, Schwass feels eyes will be opened.
"I firmly believe that New Zealand athletes with other opportunities will start to recognise that there are career opportunities in Australia playing AFL footy," he says.
Like Westrupp, they will go through a crash course before being given the green light to play.
"I'll be ready to play a game when they say to me 'you're ready'. You know enough about the structure and the ball movement and stuff like that," Westrupp says.
Westrupp's AFL education is underway but there's plenty of work ahead to achieve his new MCG dream.
3 News
source: newshub archive
