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A Blast From The Past - Letter of Interest

April 23rd 2009 | posted by Brent Mergen

G'Day,

So, I was just cleaning out my inbox and found Tony Fairhead's response to this email, and read it through about four times now.  I find it interesting looking back to my first thoughts of this unknown adventure, at a time when I was only expressing interest in the opportunity.

A little Background:

First, Tony is the man who kick-started the Yankaroo Program when I was a study abroad student at the Uni of Notre Dame, Australia in Freo. I have explained him to people as a grandfather figure, a mentor, and a great friend to not only me but also, the American students and the game. Find more at: http://www.usfooty.com/usfooty/content.aspx?section=aboutusfooty&id=22. Second, Tony introduced Tiger and I to Terrence O'Connor; you'll see the significance of Tony and Terrence to USFooty on that link above. Third, Kevin Sheedy is the Vince Lombardi of Australian Football, a living legend who is very interested in the International expansion of the sport.

Last but not least, the un-edited (copy-paste) version of my Email to Tony on October 22, 2008 (no Mom even though its unedited its nothing vulgar, go ahead, proceed and enjoy!)!

 
 
Hey Tony,
 
How are you doing mate?  Still Traveling the US?  I hope all is well, and that you are in a warmer place than Colorado or Minnesota. 
 
Anyways, I am inquiring about the chance of coming over to WA to play Country Footy as we have spoken of.  And with that I will need contact info for Dale Ballantyne, as he was unable to give Andrew ‘Tiger’ Werner and I his business card at Nationals.
 
I hope that it can all work out; I think it will be a brilliant and exciting opportunity of a lifetime to play footy in WA again.  Once I thought studying abroad and seeing WA would be great, but now, since being there, I only want to go back and see how I may develop in Footy and experience another level of competition. 
 
USFooty and the AFL are on the right path with giving Sheedy’s dream a chance, “it could be another 5-10 years before America produces a home-grown AFL player.”  I think it first must start with this program where Americans with some potential, come to Australia to play.  Nothing against USFooty, but we are not going to get that good with our competition here, maybe in 5-10 years yes.  I like this idea, I think of it like a ‘boot-camp’ for USFooty players – as we were in a ‘boot-camp’ as study abroaders – although this one is the real thing! 
 
I also think this program will be great to develop and interest current American footy players further – I have spoken with Kyle Peters and Chris Bolin just recently about this program as they are intrigued to be a part of it after graduation as well.  WA country footy and USFooty are on the right path in getting involvement, interest, and development to soar. 
 
I am excited to experience the working side of Australia too.  As a farm-boy, I would make myself available for whatever opportunities arise.  As you know, I will be graduating with a degree in Accounting in December, so if I need to count the number of grapes in a vineyard, I should be able to do it faster than anyone!
 
I hope I can be a part of the start of this new program of 20 Americans in WA country footy, I know Tiger is very interested too.  I think it would be great to be there with another Johnnie.  I also can’t leave out the others; do you know if Danny or Gabiou are interested?  Should I forward the working visa information onto them as well?  Hopefully we can continue this groundbreaking way of getting college students involved in footy across America and improving the competition on both sides of the pond.  Go Yankaroos!
 
Alright Mate, times are busy at school I must be getting back to studies.  If I have never said it before, thanks for everything you have done for me, the Johnnies, Yankaroos, USFooty and the rest of the footy world.  Footy is truly an exciting and upcoming sport in America of which I am glad to be a part of.  Hopefully I hear from you soon with Dale’s information or if you want to forward this email on to him, that will work as well.
 
Cheers Tony,
 
Brent Mergen