13 June, 2012 9:35AM AEST

Living off the grid - American football in coastal Australia

Is converting Australians to gridiron like converting Americans to cricket? A Wollongong team is out to show us why we should love American football.

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It's pre-season time and Wollongong Mustangs captain Brad Golledge is on the lookout for fresh talent to play in the 2012 football season.

But it's not football as Australians or Europeans know it - it's gridiron.

American football is a small-time sport in Australia.

The only time the code gets any real mainstream coverage is around Superbowl time, and even then there's almost greater interest in the half time entertainment than the game itself.

But Brad and his Mustangs team mates are pushing on, sometimes in the face of great challenges.

In their first season, the coach decided to disband the team, which forced Brad and his co-captain Mitch Hunt to max out their credit cards and buy new equipment.

"We lost every game that year and got pounded, but it didn't diminish our love for the sport because we were getting our arses kicked," he said.

"A flogging in American football lasts a good three hours too, it's not much fun."

He says it all started when he and Mitch chanced on a local team training at the Wollongong TAFE grounds.

While they were both gridiron fans, they didn't know a local team existed, so they went back the same time next week and 'hung around until some people showed up'.

"We were pretty useless at the sport initially but we were having so much fun."

Under his promotion the team now competes alongside nine other teams in the NSW Gridiron division one competition.

With Wollongong being home to thousands of American international students who study at the local university, you'd think Brad would have a star-studded team of naturals.

"Technically we should be great, but it's about getting the message out there that we have a team - just telling people that follow the sport we are here is important.

"It's taken a long time to get a foothold in this country but it's starting to pick up.

"It's a lot like rugby league - it's got a tackle count and you tackle in the same way, but you can throw the ball forward and it's played in pads."

For Mitch Edwards, the sport provided a welcome change of pace and aggression to soccer, which he'd played for 10 years.

"It's a lot more physical than soccer and it's just good to have a really close team," he said.

"Because there isn't a big following [for the sport] it's a tight knit group of people.

"A lot of people look at me strangely because they see the pads and think it's soft, but you have to give it a go to judge that."

Recently gridiron has received some interest in Australia, but not for a game played by men.

The American Lingerie Football League franchise rolled into Brisbane and Sydney earlier this month to play two exhibition games, showcasing two of America's top female gridiron teams in that league.

The code has been criticised for objectifying women, but Brad says the women are willing participants who are impressive athletes in their own right.

"I've seen a game and those girls can really hit...and they're not bad on the eyes either.

"The women like playing it and it's an amazing sport to play, so if that's what attracts Australians to the sport in this country, I'm all for that."

While most people grow up learning how to bowl a cricket ball or kick a football, the gridiron spiral pass is a skill that Australians tend to find difficult.

"When we first started playing, it was left to me or Mitch to be the quarterback and we spent nine months trying to learn how to throw the football and I still can't.

"It's not like throwing a cricket ball - it's about wrist movement and imparting spin on the ball."

The Wollongong Mustangs are holding an information and registration day at Wollongong TAFE fields on June 17th.