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“The Olympic Games – it’s the pinnacle of global sport… and the player interest is real and palpable,” NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said after an NFL owners meeting in New York on Tuesday.

“That opportunity for athletes to represent their countries,we understand the desire,what they have spoken out about and what we will continue to do is work with the players,[NFL] Players Association and the clubs in the time ahead to determine the process and then work with USA Football and IFAF[International Federation of American Football] on that.”

The NFL has long seen flag football as a vehicle to further its expansion goals,with Australia front and centre given local enthusiasm for the game and a growing talent pool.

NFL data claims the sport already has an estimated 20 million participants in more than 100 countries,and Kelly concedes Australia is a late arrival to flag football.

‘We’ll be the ones that challenge the USA at those Olympics.’
Wade Kelly

Australia’s senior men’s side travels to Malaysia next week for its first international tournament,the Intercontinental Cup,where it will compete against the likes of New Zealand,Japan and other Pacific nations.

Like the US and its NFL megastars,a crack at an Olympic gold will be used to target some of Australia’s most dynamic athletes.

Kelly highlighted Broncos livewire Reece Walsh,AFLW gun and professional boxer Tayla Harris,and Wallabies flyer Marika Koroibete as potential Olympic converts.

“And we’ll be the ones that challenge the USA at those Olympics,” Kelly says.

The basics of flag football

Five players per team,playing on fields typically 45 metres long with an additional nine-metre long end zone and 23 metres wide.
A team has four plays to cross halfway. Once they do this,they then have four plays to score a touchdown.
A play runs similar to those in gridiron,with the ball declared dead when a ball-carriers flag is removed - mirroring a tackle in the contact sport.
Each team is only allowed one forward pass per play,and the quarterback has a seven-second ‘pass clock’ to move the ball or the play is called dead.
There are no fumbles in flag football. The attacking team starts a new down if the ball is fumbled.
A touchdown is worth six points,with teams able to attempt either a one or two-point ‘point after touchdown’ play. A one-point play is taken from the five-yard line and must be a passing play. A two-point play is taken from the 10-yard line and can be either a running or passing play.

“We fully expect the gold medal matches to be the USA versus Australia in both the men’s and the women’s[events]. Our athletes are just perfect for it.

“The sport is basically a cross between AFL,netball and OzTag. So you give these athletes the field,it’s turn around,jump high and catch the ball,or stop someone from doing that. That’s the skill set and that’s what our AFL guys,our netballers and our basketballers do.

“Add in the fact you’re trying to take someone’s tags off in defence,that’s suited to our rugby league and union boys and girls and so many of them come from playing touch and OzTag that it’s a natural fit.

“We’ve got the opportunity to come up with our own dream team and we’ll be flying up the world rankings as soon as we do that,so we fully expect to be playing for those gold medals.”

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