Jacek Śledziński can remember sitting in front of the television and watching, for the first time, a game that was both “interesting but very strange” – nothing like the sports he’d watched as a kid.
It was Australian Rules, then broadcast on a random station in the early hours of his native Poland.
“There were a lot of things happening,” Śledziński recalled of this foreign code.
“It was much different to Rugby or American Football, the sports I knew of at the time. The more I kept watching, the more I enjoyed it.”
Fast forward several years and Jacek found himself witnessing Aussie Rules first-hand during a recent Sydney Swans training session.
Jacek, a media freelancer with a history in sports marketing, and wife Hanna are 12 months into a two-year working holiday in which the pair are travelling the globe and reporting on the world’s most unique sports.
So far, they’ve scaled most of Asia and explored a fair chunk of Australia and New Zealand. They will be in Hawaii for the next month before jetting over to the United States.
Most of the next year will be spent in Central and South America before the long journey back to their home in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
In regards to sports, they’ve sat ringside for Muay Thai in Thailand, admired the talents of Chinlone players in Myanmar and tackled Kabaddi in India.
Arriving in Australia late last year, it was obvious to Jacek which sport he’d like to tackle next.
“We wanted to stay away from popular sports, like soccer, and stick with local or national sports,” he said.
“In Poland, we don’t have a sport unique to our country. But here, the choice is simple. You have your own game and I think that’s pretty cool.”
Jacek and Hanna were enthralled from the moment training started. Camera in hand, Jacek paced the Lakeside Oval boundary line capturing and documenting as much of the action possible.
After the session, Harry Cunningham stuck around to give Jacek (on camera) a crash course on Australian Rules.
The footage will be edited and produced into a feature which will then be pitched to Polish television, radio and publications.
Jacek says the return for investment isn’t much but his passion for life – and sport – is what’s driving the project.
Hanna and Jacek Śledziński, from Poland, are searching the globe for the world's most unique sports.
“On one side, it’s a holiday. But on the other side, it was a big decision because we quit our jobs and sold our apartment to fund the trip,” he added.
“We get some money from the magazines, but it’s not big money and won’t cover our travels completely.
“It’s probably our last chance to do something like this as we don’t have any kids, yet, or any commitments keeping us at home.
“While it was a big decision, a big project, it’s the life experience that inspires us.”
Surfing in Hawaii, the next frontier, will no doubt take the edge off.
Jacek will be ‘back’ in more familiar surrounds in the USA as the pair look at American Football.
Before packing up his life Jacek was general manager of the Warsaw Eagles, one of the top teams in the 11-year-old Polish American Football League.
America's code is experiencing a considerable boom in Poland with the competition growing from four teams in its inagural season in 2006 to 76 teams across six divisions in 2013.
The Śledzińskis are due home in April, 2018.
