Alexander Aurrichio, who was tragically killed in June, celebrates a win while playing for Southport Sharks in the NEAFL.
Men instinctively know when they’re in the company of an exemplary man.
Aussies call him “a good bloke”. Those of us with New York roots, though, call him a “stand-up guy”.
Alexander Aurrichio, who years ago daringly set out from across the world to pursue an AFL dream — but was tragically killed in a biking accident near Darwin in June — was both a New Yorker and the quintessential stand-up guy.
Two months on, I still refuse to believe “Rooch”, as his many teammates called him, no longer walks the earth.
I had the honour of knowing him for five years, following his dream for my book about the AFL’s experimental recruitment of American athletes. While Jason Holmes became the AFL’s first US-born-and-bred player, and Mason Cox its most successful, Aurrichio, who was 30, became footy’s most beloved American import.
But don’t just take my word for it. Ask his best mate.
“I remember meeting him in the gym,” recalls Tom Fields, who lined up alongside Alexander for three different clubs — Northern Blues (VFL), South Adelaide (SANFL), and Southport Sharks (NEAFL) — and wrote the moving eulogy for his memorial service.
“This behemoth of a man comes in, yelling in an American, New York accent: ‘What’s up, baby?’ He had this magnetism. I thought: ‘Who is this guy? I need to hang out with him’.”
Aurrichio had just been signed by the Northern Blues and toiled as a developmental league ruckman. Months before, after attending the AFL’s international scouting combine in Los Angeles, he wasn’t flown to Australia to further test with AFL clubs.
But all Aurrichio needed was a plane ticket and a challenge. He let his astonishing work ethic, smile, sincerity, and incredible knack for being in the right place at the right time do the rest.
Aurrichio, who had played in the amateur United States Australian Football League (USAFL) with the New York Magpies, worked odd jobs to support himself in Melbourne, while bonding with people inside and outside the footy world.
Aurrichio became irresistible — absolutely impossible not to like.
As physically imposing as he was, his disarming smile, gentle nature, hearty laugh, and great humility spoke for him. To say Aurrichio had people skills would be putting it mildly.
“I was with him once, catching up in a cafe and he’s loud and positive, talking about what he’s doing, and people from three tables over were looking over their shoulders at him,” says Fields, whose father Neville was a star during 14 years in the VFL with Essendon and South Melbourne.
“But they weren’t staring. They wanted to listen in.”
Fields especially remembers taking his mate to his Gold Coast hometown, during a SANFL season bye week.
First, the pair nearly missed their flight because Aurrichio — an exercise fanatic — insisted on working out beforehand. With Fields “absolutely smashed” after the gruelling session, he drifted off to sleep on the plane.
“I wake up,” Fields says with a laugh, “and Alexander’s been talking to our seatmate for two-and-a-half hours. Two weeks later, the guy from the plane came to our place in Adelaide and gave him one of his mountain bikes, after Alexander told him how much he liked riding. And because of Alexander, he bought a club membership.”
Being a team ambassador was nothing new for Aurrichio. In 2015, he took out one of the Northern Blues best clubman awards. Two years later, South Adelaide players knew they had a “stand-up guy” on their side.
“Anytime we were out and one of the kids on the team had too much to drink, Alexander would literally carry him over his back and take him home,” Fields says, smiling warmly.
“In 2017, we were at the bar of a club sponsor after we lost an elimination final and this guy keeps bumping into Nick Liddle, our best and fairest winner. He tries to be a ‘hero’ and tells Nick: ‘Let’s step outside’.
Alexander sees this from the other end of the bar, so he rushes over, grabs the guy, puts him in a headlock, walks him up to the front and hands him over to the bouncers. He says: “Here you go, fellas. This guy was causing a bit of trouble, so I’ll just hand him over to you. Thanks!’”
No wonder, then, in the moments Fields ran out with Aurrichio, he felt especially safe when, as part of the ruckman’s ritual, he’d firmly shake his hand and bring him in for a customary, brotherly embrace.
Fields says he hopes to travel to Darwin and, as a tribute to his best mate, line up for Aurrichio’s last club, Waratah, in the NTFL.
For now, though, Fields — who teaches at-risk Queensland teens — honours him by emulating his Herculean fitness regime.
“I go down to Main Beach in the morning and go swimming in the ocean,” he says. “That’s how I connect with him — saying g’day, and trying to get his nod of approval.”
Exactly what any man would want from a stand-up guy.
