SEARCH for 'Mike Pyke' on the website of his home town's newspaper, the Times Colonist in Victoria, British Columbia, and you get precisely no hits.
The Times Colonist has been producing all the news fit to print on Victoria and Vancouver Island since 1858, but it seems it hasn't heard of the town's Canadian rugby international turned AFL Grand Final players.
The search function offers articles on Jersey Shore's Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino, Mike 'Boogie' Malin, the winner of the oxymoronic Big Brother 7: All Stars, and even Mike Fitzpatrick, although he turns out to be a sports journalist rather than the AFL chairman.
But wait, look more closely and there's an external link to an article from Canada's wire service, the Canadian Press, entitled From World Cup to Aussie Rules final: Canadian Mike Pyke on remarkable journey.
Pyke's story is retold, and the author then attempts a summation of Australian football for an unfamiliar audience: "The tall ruckmen go after the ball, like NBA centres at tip-off only with far more body contact, hoping to divert a teammate to trigger an attack.
"Their secondary role is to offer an escape valve if the team is under pressure and needs to clear the ball from its own end."
It's understandable that the good people of Victoria - 80,000 of them according to the latest census - need some education in a foreign game.
The town has two significant ice hockey teams, two soccer teams, baseball, soccer, lacrosse and gridiron teams, and it boasts such luminaries as Steve Nash, twice NBA MVP, a couple of Major League Baseball players and Tour de France cyclist Ryder Hesjedal.
All of those, along with a handful of Olympians and a field hockey player, make it into Victoria's Wikipedia entry under 'Sports'. Alas, no mention of Mike Pyke.
'Notable people' include the sports stars, singer Nelly Furtado, a few B-grade actors and a criminal. But no Mike Pyke.
It doesn't seem to bother the 200cm, 103kg ruckman though.
"News has trickled back to home, some people are starting to take some notice now, which is exciting," Pyke said at Friday's Grand Final parade.
"But really my focus is on the game, it's pretty exciting, we're looking to get out there and have a red hot crack at these guys."
Victoria is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and is the capital of British Columbia. It's situated about 100 kms from the city of Vancouver, which usually goes turn-about with Melbourne in assessments of the world's most liveable city.
The parallels between Victoria, BC, and Melbourne, Victoria, are manifest. Both are known for their gardens. Europeans settled the Canadian town in 1841, a few years after Melbourne was established.
Both places pride themselves on their art and culture and their world-class culinary experiences.
Pyke says there's something else the cities share in common, and isn't worried by the forecast for wet weather on Saturday.
"There's a fair bit more rain back home than there is here, so I feel more at home tomorrow if it's raining," he said.
"It's not a concern for me at all, I couldn't care less what it's doing.
"I don't think it matters, especially in a Grand Final, the pressure's going to be on, the heat's going to be on, whether it's raining, pouring, snowing, it doesn't really matter.
"I think we've stood up in some really tough games and we play a style a football that should suit a Grand Final game."
But the good people of Victoria, BC, still don't know about Mike Pyke. Alert Wikipedia that that will change at about 5.15pm on Saturday if the Swans manage to shake down the thunder from the sky.
