If you have been watching various news items over social media, among all the depressing news there have been some positives for us Asian Australians. Even though there have been some Asian Australians joining the ranks of the various Australian football professional leagues, it is still a very rare sight.

Australian professional football, whether it be AFL, soccer or NRL have always lacked Asian diversity. But it looks like things may be changing with some additions to the AFL.

The first AFL player we will profile is Jayden Nguyen – who is also the first Vietnamese Australian to play the AFL at a top professional level. Nguyen joins the Essendon Bombers and since his debut has performed well for the team and held his own. Only 19 years old, Nguyen’s parents arrived in Australia from Vietnam in the 1980s as refugees and settled in Melbourne.

At a recent after match interview, Nguyen paid homage to his parents and the broader Vietnamese community:

 “I’m pretty rapt with the support I’ve got over the past few days from the Vietnamese community, and the Asian community in general, “I just feel like it helps push me and makes me feel proud about myself.”

What an awesome Asian Australian and really one to watch.

Now let’s travel up north to Queensland to meet another Asian Australian, playing within the ranks of the AFL – Alex Davies.

The 23 year old plays for the Gold Coast Suns and credits his career successes and achievements to his parents. Davies’ mother is Japanese and his father is Caucasian. It took Davies awhile, but with hard work and determination, he has scored the elusive spot with the Suns. He is also the first player of Japanese heritage to play a match at the AFL Premiership – just like Nguyen who is the first with Vietnamese heritage.

In a recent interview with ABC Asia, Davies spoke about a number of things, but two awesome quotes from the interview were answers to questions :

“How do you bring your culture to the game?”

“Probably just my diet. A lot of just Japanese food … Japanese curry. I love natto, which is just fermented soybeans. It’s like staple for a Japanese household, for brekkie and stuff. I can’t get enough of it!”

AND….

“What is the most Asian thing about you?”

“How I look and what I eat. Where I travel in the off season — a lot of Asia trips, I’ve been to Vietnam a few times, Bali … that’s the most Aussie thing actually! But I enjoy Asian culture, like temples and everything”.

Despite still having a ‘cultural division’ history, the AFL has been trying to make changes and will shortly launch a cultural diversity action plan which, as well as highlighting the game’s geographic regions of priority, has a broad goal to increase participation and engagement within non-traditional football communities.

We will definitely try to get an exclusive interviews with these awesome Asian Australian players who have broken the mould!~

Images via AFL, Instagram and Facebook