Ask a rookie viewer of Australian Rules Football to describe the sport, and they might say utter chaos — and, also, a bit like rugby. Ask Canada’s Mike Pyke to describe it, and he’d say it’s one hell of a job.

Pyke is, perhaps, the unlikeliest of this rough-and-tumble sport’s heroes: A 6-foot-6 native of Victoria, B.C., he grew up playing basketball, soccer, and hockey before turning his focus to rugby. But in 2008, when he was playing for French rugby union team US Montauban and injuries took its toll, it forced Pyke to look for work after his rugby dreams fell through. On a whim, a friend suggested he give Aussie Rules a try — no pun intended.

At that point, Pyke had only seen a smattering of YouTube clips of the sport, of men jumping on shoulders to catch the ball in front of 80,000 fervent fans. But Pyke thought his rugby ball-handling skills were transferable, so that June of that year he headed to Sydney for tryouts with the Swans, runners-up in last year’s Grand Final.

A few days later — after endurance tests, agility and speed analysis — they signed him, and this weekend marks Pyke’s seventh year with the Swans. For the first time in his 90-game career, Pyke will start the season as the number one preferred ruckman, a position where the player is in the thick of play, battling for the ball.

“It’s something I’m more comfortable with this year. I know what to expect. Last year I’d only played on my own three times. I certainly wasn’t used to it,” said the now 31-year old Pyke. “Having a short pre-season didn’t help my campaign, but this year I feel a lot more comfortable with it.”

Recently, Aussie Rules has seen an influx of international recruits from Ireland, Sudan, New Zealand, France and the United States; Pyke was the first Canadian to play in the league, and in 2012, he became the first to win an AFL title, with the Swans.

When Pyke first joined the Sydney Swans, many predicted it would take him years just to be competitive, and some former Aussie Rules players called the Canadian experiment a joke.

Australians eat and breathe their football, the way Canadians pay homage to hockey, but for foreigners making the switch it's not so easy. (There is an Aussie Rules league in Toronto, called the Australian Ontario Football League, with 800 players, roughly 400 of whom are Canadian. It has two men’s divisions and a women’s league. The men’s second division trophy is called the Mike Pyke Cup.)

But there were lows for Pyke, too: during his first year, he played just eight of 23 games. He suffered injuries, for which he has recently undergone stem cell therapy, a new procedure to regenerate cartilage in his beat-up knee.

And Pyke had to adjust to steep learning curves, like learning how to bounce the oval-shaped ball every 15 metres, and passing the ball by hand instead of throwing the ball like in rugby. (Aussie Rules pinches bits and pieces from nearly every sport you could think of: the speed of hockey, the spike from volleyball, the endurance of a marathon runner, the jump shot from basketball and even the balance of a tennis player.)

But after his challenges and alongside the team championship, Pyke has also had individual success: he was awarded the Dennis Carroll Trophy for most improved player in 2010, and in 2013 played in every Swans’ game.

“Mike is a great success story. It’s an incredibly big decision to move your life and family from one side of the world to the other to try your hand at a foreign sport,” said Swans recruiting manager Kinnear Beatson. “To go on and win a premiership, hold down the ruck spot at the club, and have a successful career is a great achievement.”

Beatson said the team is more frequently looking at international players as they deal with both a stretched Australian talent pool and an expanded 18-club competition. And their greatest need, he said, is players with height — like Pyke’s 6-foot-6 frame. Knowing Pyke was a Canadian with an extensive rugby resume made him an ideal candidate, Beatson said.

“We look at international athletes more on a specific needs basis and we’re looking for players who can help improve the team,” he said. “What impressed us about Mike is that he displayed excellent ball-handling skills, he was used to physical contact coming from rugby and he of course had the size of the athlete we were looking for.”

Pyke has become part of a worldwide club of multisport athletes, or “code hoppers.” Former Aussie Rules players Scott Harding and Ben Graham made the leap into the NFL. Josh Bartel went from the league to the CFL. Russell Wilson went from playing baseball with the Texas Rangers to quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks.

And Gaelic football players have, in recent years, made careers in Aussie Rules using their hand skills and dynamic play. The league has tried to attract overseas players by promoting the game with the Irish-Australian International Rules series, an international scholarship program and every four years they host the International Cup, where 250 players from 18 countries — Canada is one of them — square off on Australian soil.

Pyke’s contract with the Swans expires in 2016, and he has said he plans to stay in Australia and play football as long as he can. (A post-football career in finance is possible.) His Canadian wife Florencia and their two kids now call Down Under home, and they revel in 300 days of sun.

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The family lives a short drive to ANZ Stadium, where the Swans play their home games, and a stone’s throw away from lapping waves and ocean. His mates gave him lamb chops and Vegemite when he became an Australian citizen in 2014 and speaking in Australian slang, using terms like fair dinkum — Canadian translation: for real — is now second nature.

When the ride of playing football is over, and he’s reflecting on a remarkable sojourn, Pyke said he will recall the 2012 Premiership title as the single, most eloquent sporting achievement he’s accomplished. Australians who have grown up with the game can spend 20 years trying to win a premiership and never ever achieve that dream; Pyke was lucky enough to win a flag only three years into his AFL career.

“Premierships are just so rare to achieve. When you get there, that’s why they’re just so special,” he said. “To do that with my teammates and play a role – nothing can beat that.”