IN New Zealand, the people spruiking Australian football never call it that.
They try to separate the country from the game. It's AFL.
Auskick is KiwiKick and almost all the 80 missionaries working under the AFL NZ banner are New Zealanders.
"We just avoid Australians because we don't need the gospel," AFL NZ chief executive Rob Vanstam said. "We need to grow it from New Zealand's point of view."
They're starting with youth - 95 per cent of the 30,000 registered participants are five to 12-year-olds.The game has found a home on free-to-air TV - a new channel is showing six games live a week - and the first AFL match for premiership points will be played in Wellington on Thursday, Anzac Day.
They're giving it a real crack across the ditch.
Pathways for talented teens are also being forged - a South Pacific side plays in the under-16 Australian national championships and the AFL held its second New Zealand combine in Wellington in January.
Melbourne spotted Maia Westrupp, a 187cm New Zealand volleyball representative, at the combine and signed him as an international scholarship holder.
Hawthorn already has New Zealanders Shem Tatupu and Kurt Heatherley on international scholarships.
"The beauty of AFL is the product is so good," Vanstam said. "People play it and they enjoy playing it, that's the strength of it."
But it's a tough ask in a proud rugby union country. As Vanstam puts it: "The All Blacks, they rule".
"I guarantee you that, even though playing AFL, he (Shem Tatupu) would still have in the back of his mind the dream of playing for the All Blacks one day," he said.
"The sport's got nothing to do with it. It's just the fact they want to represent their country."
Vanstam said with 17 players with New Zealand heritage currently in the AFL, a representative team to play an indigenous Australian side could be a future option.
AFL international development manager Tony Woods said there were representative opportunities for youth: "In the last two years we've been touring the level 1 AIS AFL Academy to New Zealand, which gives the guys in New Zealand a chance to play for their country.
"Looking down the track, if there was an opportunity to create a competition which allowed New Zealanders to play open age at the highest level representing their country, then absolutely we'd look at it."
Woods said AFL clubs looking to recruit international players would need to be understanding.
"In the case of Shem, Hawthorn have been very patient, and have encouraged him to remain in New Zealand to finish his schooling," he said.
"They're even encouraging him to continue playing rugby while he's in New Zealand in the down time, when there's no AFL football for him.
"That's reflective of a really progressive way of thinking, which the AFL clubs are going to have to continue to innovate in that way as they start to open up the club to international players."
Before New Zealand has an AFL team of its own, Vanstam said the country had to embrace the game.
"Considering we're just about to get our first game in 140 years, we're not going to push too hard too early," Vanstam said.
"I think the Hawthorn model of playing four or five games in Tassie is something we could target initially."
"New Zealanders first have to embrace the game. I'm not going to do that for them. Firstly, they've got to fill a stadium up and then they've got to fill it up five times and then once they've done that, all these five to 12 year olds are grown older and grown up with the game and then there's an opportunity."
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