Pyke success comes with warning: Eales

[beige]

Wallabies legend John Eales has marvelled at the rise of Sydney ruckman Mike Pyke as the former Canadian rugby international prepares to confront Fremantle's Aaron Sandilands in Saturday night's preliminary final at Patersons Stadium.

But Eales, who was in Perth last week for the Wallabies' win over Argentina, warned other code-hoppers to think carefully about the legacy they wanted to leave on their sport before following in the footsteps of Pyke, Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt.

The former Australian captain said he couldn't imagine how he would have been able to make the transition from the game which made him famous to the AFL, like Pyke, who ran the length of the field to score a try against the All Blacks in 2007.

Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...warning-eales/

[PeterM]

When I look at Rugby Union and at AFL there are certain skills you learn in both games that help to play the other to a certain extent.

Comparing the success of the 'code hoppers' isn't really fair when looking at the success or otherwise of the person in question as they all play different positions and each of those positions can take different lengths of time to 'master'.

I applaud anyone who has the courage to change sports in order to have a go at making it at the highest level in sport