The red ball leaves Eddie McAvinchey's right boot with a dull thud, spearing through the azure sky for what seems an eternity before scudding to earth just yards from a startled dog walker. Extreme vigilance may just have registered on the zeitgeist recently but the concept is familiar to the denizens of Glasgow's Victoria Park.

For just over a year, bemused bystanders have been taking evasive action after meandering inside the confines of the oval markings that denote the only permanent Australian Rules football pitch in the United Kingdom. The self- celebratory refinement of the city's west end may seem an incongruous locale for a sport with a primitive reputation to take root but for McAvinchey it is a field of dreams.

The 29-year-old, originally from Armagh, is at the vanguard of a disparate collection of individuals comprising the Scottish Australian Rules Football League, a four-team division begun by two Australian expatriates in 2003. Exposed to the sport while travelling after university, McAvinchey spotted an advert upon his return looking for players and quickly graduated to a position where he "pretty much" runs what goes on throughout Scotland.

The reason for his rapid ascension is obvious. The Glasgow lawyer appears an understated figurehead but his enthusiasm and ideology provide a vehicle for the sport to continue its nascent journey into the Scottish sporting spectrum.

The peripatetic nature of some of the combatants and lack of funding continually hamper his efforts but there are currently two sides in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, with another hopefully being launched in Aberdeen in the next few months.

Sheltering from the hail of balls and the piercing summer sunshine, McAvinchey tries to add context to the challenge the sport faces. "The guys who are involved tend to be either Aussie expats or British guys who've got this Australiana thing going on," he explains.

"In Glasgow we've a good mix, better than in Edinburgh where it is weighted to the Aussies, and you've got to do that because every six months when the transient Aussies pick up their backpacks and head off to Berlin or wherever, you need to find a new team. From time to time people come along but the difficult thing is turning them into committed players."

With a season running from April until September, albeit with a five-week window, and the sport totally reliant on sponsorship from companies with Australian links, the levels of dedication required are high. Add in the reputation of Aussie Rules as legalised violence and the ardour is dampened a little further.

Despite all that, though, McAvinchey presents a convincing case, referencing its novelty and drawing an interesting parallel to quell festering fears of fisticuffs.

"Anyone can play football or rugby but Aussie Rules is different and combines many of those sports - it's physical, fast, skilful, exciting to watch," he enthuses. "The great thing is that there is a position for everybody, regardless of their size or shape, so it's an easy game to take up. There's no such thing as a slow game because if you've got the ball in your hand, you can get tackled, and you don't want tackled . . .

"It is a physical game but it's not dirty by any means. In the 1970s and 80s it was violent but while the game has changed the perception hasn't - that it's just an excuse for people to beat each other up.

That's not the case because if you punch someone you're going to get sent off, so in that sense there's a synergy between us and rugby."

The sales pitch, and attendant assuaging of apprehension, is well-rehearsed. McAvinchey has been spreading his gospel in Glasgow schools, which he would like to add the sport to the curriculum, as some in England have. Not content with his achievements, he is determined to use Aussie Rules as a force for good, improving health and offering opportunities to youngsters deprived of them by social circumstance.

A wider pool of players would be a subsidiary benefit for the league but the intent is purely altruistic on the part of a man who, in his line of work, has seen his share of miscreants who would have benefited from immersion in sport.

"Look at the obesity levels and heart disease levels in Scotland," bemoans McAvinchey. "Kids aren't active anymore, but they can get their arses off the sofa and come along to our summer clinics, learn the core skills and get into junior competitions. It's free and if there's enough interest we want to get a team together to take to England later in the year to face their junior side, so we'd also be giving them a chance to represent their country.

"We want to give these kids opportunities and people like the BBC and McGrigors, the law firm, have said that the hardest working among them will get the chance to do work placements. That can open their eyes because some of the kids we work with are from deprived areas so we can open a few doors that wouldn't otherwise be open to them."

Frightening joggers in Victoria Park is clearly just the start for Aussie Rules in Scotland.

  • The summer clinics take place at Bellahouston Park, off Mosspark Boulevard, on Saturdays from 10am. Attendance is free and kids of all ages are welcome.