WHEN American college basketballer Jalen Carethers saw Richmond hard nut Dustin Martin give one of his teammates the don’t-argue at training, he knew the sport was for him.

The 21-year-old from Virginia, who stands 201cm, ignored offers to play ball in Germany and Estonia to try for a shot at an AFL career.

He was at Punt Rd on Wednesday with fellow Americans Kye Kurkowski (209cm, 98kg) and James Johnson (206cm, 106kg) trying to impress recruiters from 18 AFL clubs.

“Dustin from Richmond, I like his don’t argue,” Carethers said.

“I picked that language up. We came for a tour of the Richmond facilities and watched their practice. I saw him give one of the guys a don’t-argue and knocked him off his feet. I’ve been a fan since.”

media_camera Tigers midfielder Dustin Martin brushes aside Port Adelaide youngster Darcy Byrne-Jones. Picture: Colleen Petch.

But that’s about all he knows about the game.

The trio was hand-picked by the AFL to trial in front of club recruiters, after impressing at the league’s international combine in Florida in April.

Carethers had never heard of the game before he was contacted by an American scout.

“At first I was apprehensive about it, I was like ‘I want to play basketball’,” Carethers said.

“But I just talked about it and thought about it and I was like, why not give it a try.

“It’s an opportunity. It could be a blessing.

“There was a guy Eric Wallace (a North Melbourne international rookie), he lives about 30 minutes from me.

“I knew he went to go and play but I didn’t really look it up. I just thought he was in Australia playing basketball or something.”

media_camera Jalen Carethers flies high for a mark. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Carethers runs fast and jumps high. And if the session at Punt Rd was anything to go by, he can take a grab, too.

“I got 2.79 sec in the 20m sprint and my vertical (leap) was really high,” he said.

“I’ve just got to build my endurance, my tank up, and continue to get stronger.”

He touched a Sherrin for the first time in April but it’s been during this 10-day camp in Australia that he’s really got a taste for the sport.

“The first thing I did was throw it like an American football,” Carethers said.

“They said, no, no you kick it. I said kick it? I don’t know if my legs can kick.”

He described AFL as one of the toughest sports in the world and admitted his mum had misgivings.

“We watched a couple of clips on Youtube when we first heard about it and she was like ‘No, what are you doing?’. She just wants her baby to be OK.”

Clubs can list the players as an international athlete through the category-B rookie system.

AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said the US could become a fertile recruiting ground.

“We’re a population of 23 million — there’s 380 million over there (in the US),” he said. “There’s so many colleges and they all have great athletic programs and only 50 get into the NBA so on the edge there there’s some very talented first-choice athletes.”