When Jin Song Li went to his first AFL match, he didn’t fall in love with the sport straight away.
“At the beginning, I [thought it was] aggressive, and a little bit rude,” he said.
At the time, China-born Li was studying as an international student at the University of South Australia. He’d been given a free ticket.
“But after [friends] introduced me to the extra things of Australian Rules football, I began to think, ‘oh, it is a really interesting game',” he said.
“Full of body contact and skills. It’s a really good balance of aggressive sport and skillful sport.”
Li now knows the sport so well he was selected by Port Adelaide Football Club last year to become their Mandarin-language commentator, calling the game for Chinese audiences in Australia and overseas.
“It is quite a different sport than any other sport in China,” he said.
Port Adelaide Football Club is well aware of this point of difference, and hopes to introduce the sport to millions of Chinese viewers.
The club recently inked a deal to broadcast games nationally on China Central Television.
Chief executive Keith Thomas said the deal meant a potential viewing audience of one to two million.
"One of the things that we've been thinking about is how do you grow Port Adelaide and how do you grow the AFL?” he said.
“We actually right at the start thought it's probably going to be easier to convince an ambivalent Chinese person than it is to convince a rusted on NRL person to play and embrace our game.”
Port Adelaide’s China ambitions don’t stop there. The broad-ranging strategy has also lead to the recruitment of Guangzhou-born Chen Shaoliang.
The former basketballer said it didn't matter that he didn't grow up playing the game, because the language of sport was universal.
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He said he didn't think the game would be difficult to communicate to Chinese audiences.
“Sport is about body language,” he said.
“You don't have to use your mouth to communicate, you use your body to compete."
Tim Harcourt, economist and fellow at the University of New South Wales' School of Business, said the deal was about more than growing fans and revenue.
"It's really a great form of football diplomacy,” he said.
“China is very interested in Australia, and sport is one way to move the relationship beyond just coal and iron ore, and rocks and crops."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a landmark arrangement for Port Adelaide to play a game in Shanghai next year for premiership points on the first day of his visit to China last month.
The deal with state-run television shows a high-level commitment from China's leaders.
Port Adelaide has also been in talks with China's education department to introduce AFL to school students.
Mr Harcourt said the appeal lay in sport's contribution to a healthy lifestyle.
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"China is very interested in improving health and well-being for its growing middle class,” he said.
“We're seeing companies like Blackmores doing very well in China, and a lot of Australian clean food and health-type products doing very well in China.
“I think they see sport, physical exercise, those types of things as very important for their children."
Testament to that interest is Port Adelaide's new multimillion dollar sponsorship deal with Chinese company Shanghai Cred.
Mr Thomas said the investment went both ways.
"There’s a lot that's gone in it. It's not a small investment, it's a large investment, but we think it's an important one," he said.
