Australia’s Olivia Manfre embracing being a flag football pioneer: “All of this started with a ‘what if?’”

From Aussie Rules to Flag Football

With its emphasis on physicality, agility and dominance in the air, it’s not all that surprising that scouts saw enormous potential in Manfre.

And, on some counts, the Aussie certainly sees advantages.

“For AFL, my main role was to mark the ball, so catch the ball and kick goals, and I think, on the flag football field, immediately that translates to catching and because AFL is contact. We have to catch in traffic when there are people who are trying to tackle us.

“I think a big part of my game is going up and taking big catches, being able to catch in traffic and then in terms of like the mental side of things, it's being able to read the play, finding space in front of you to kind of navigate around opponents to score a touchdown.”

But in the same vein, there are still some significant gaps, particularly as you cross codes. One of the big ones, the Australian concedes, is in the fundamental understanding of the game.

“It's the technicality: there's nothing like it. It's so strategic,” Manfre explains.

“With AFL, it's very much free play. We have our structures that we need to get into, but it's never, you need to run this route, it's like, get open. So that has been the most challenging part for me.

“I think that now I've been able to develop kind of this different way of thinking, you know, in terms of offense. It's like, okay, how can I use my weapons in my toolkit to get around my defender? In college, I've also had the opportunity to play defense as well. And so being able to read the play and everything is gonna help build it. So my defense helps my offense, my offense helps my defense.

“It's a very abstract way of thinking for people who have never picked up the sport. But, and again, that kind of contributes to why America is so good. It's because they've been exposed to it since they were tiny.”

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