SYDNEY - AFL club Sydney has fashioned Australian rules footballers from rugby league, rugby union and Gaelic football - now the Swans have signed US college basketballer Alex Starling.
The 22-year-old will combine his studies at Florida's Bethune-Cookman University with several trips to Sydney this year to meet Swans' coaching staff and try to learn the skills required to cut it at AFL level.
Starling has joined the club under the AFL's international scholarship scheme, with Sydney hoping to add him to its senior list as an international rookie in 2013.
While there have been plenty of basketballers to cross over to the AFL - headlined by Dean Brogan who won both an NBL and AFL premiership - the Swans' American approach is unique.
The 196-centimetre, 93-kilogram forward was identified by Sydney's academy coach Paul Roos during a trip to the US in 2011.
Roos invited Starling and three other college basketballers to a two-day camp in Redondo Beach, California, last June.
Starling impressed him, and then came to Australia for three weeks of testing last August, where his athleticism made an impression on the club.
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