Article content continued

Fly, pass, defend, hit, lead and play multiple positions: The consensus is that he can do it all. Football punditry is as much of an Australian industry as a North American one, and the AFL’s in-house “draft guru,” Callum Twomey, has hailed McGrath as a professional captain-in-waiting, prepared to start from the outset of 2017.

He will do so with Essendon FC, a club founded in 1871 on the northwest flank of Melbourne. Essendon has done well over the years, better than any AFL team in history, measured by its 16 league championships, the most recent in 2000. But Essendon finished last in 2016; 12 of its players, embroiled in a years-old doping controversy, were banned for the season. They now have a player — a saviour? — who still lapses into Canadian twang around his family.

“A lot of people say (the AFL is) going to be a huge step up and that pre-season is really demanding, but I wouldn’t play footy if I didn’t enjoy all the things it entails,” McGrath told The Age. “I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the one thing I’ve been waiting for.”

Mike Pyke retired from the AFL in 2015, after sticking with the Swans, kicking 48 goals in 110 career games and winning a league title in 2012. He was the first Canadian to accomplish the feat. Over time, Pyke won renown for a trademark goal celebration, in which he’d trot back on defence without a shout or smile, and for his work ethic. “He studied video for hour after hour, and he also embraced the history of the game and its great players,” Taubert said. “What he managed to do in his time in the game is remarkable.”

Essendon plays its first AFL game of 2017 on March 25, and face the Swans in Sydney on June 23. Presumably, Pyke will be watching.