Melbourne's, Saturday Age newspaper , reported a news story of three young Somalia men who were playing AFL football, in the amateur AFL affiliated EDFL.

Proud to wear their football jumper , jersey , guernsey , they talked of how much the sport had given them .

Two brothers and a cousin , who all were united in their love of AFL football.

They felt it was a great sport , which had provided them with many opportunities.

They saw it an opening to assimilate into Australian society , and gave them a chance to excel at a sport they have grown to love.

Playing football has helped them recover from bad memories of a war torn homeland .

As superior athletes , they are providing the AFL with a home grown success story of converts to the code .

AFL football was not a game they played in Somalia before migrating to Australia as 12 year olds.

Currently glamour and money are being used by the AFL to attract the signing of high profile recruits ,eg. Folau and Hunt .

Both are untried converts to AFL.

Its heartening to see that grass roots AFL football is still flourishing and has a lot to offer young people everywhere.

It is with pride that these young people wear their football jumper , jersey , guernsey every match day .

Proud to wear their Lions themed Football Jumper

Tags: 12 year olds, AFL, afl football, converts, cousin, football jumper, game, glamour, grass roots, great sport, guernsey, jersey, jumper, Lions, match day, Melbourne, memories, migrating to australia, Muticulturalism, news story, pride, saturday age, somalia, success story, two brothers

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