Talk:List of players who have converted from one football code to another

Untitled
Some of these players played many years ago others more recently. Perhaps a "Year of Retirement" on the tables would give a better indication on what era they are from. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Biatch (talk • contribs) 10 May 2006.
 * I agree, some sort of identification of dates would be more relevant than the use of bold text for current players, and easier to maintain.

Notability
I don't think there is much value in listing each and every player who has switched codes, particularly for league and union where code switching is so common. I suggest the list (at least for league and union) should only include those who have played at the top level in both codes. Mako 05:11, 9 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm going to remove the Schoolboy code switchers from league, as they were never really bound by contract (generally, they might have introduced something recently, but I dont know). So what I mean is, just because a schoolboy attended a high school that played union, or played league, and they went onto to play in the Super 14/NRL, its not really news-worthy/notable. Who knows, the schoolboy could have been league through and through and his school just happened to play union, thus its no big deal if they play schoolboys then leave. Also the list could be potentially huge. I havent checked the other lists, but I think it should be a general rule that the switch has to be from a large competition to another. Cvene64 13:08, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Cvene, I dont think that if someone played only as a schoolboy they should immediately be ruled out. Yes maybe if they only played for their school but i think that if a guy played for their national schoolboy side they should possibly be listed. I think we should limit the list to say 10-15 players and of those list the ones who either had the most impact on the game (i.e. Wally Lewis) or are generally acknowledged as being greats. Maybe we can have a spinoff article where ppl can list everyone they want to. Someone like Ryan Cross who played Aussie schoolboys, then NRL and then went back to union is a good example of someone who should be on both lists (at the time he was a big prospect for union and his signing to the Roosters was a reasonably big deal). Soundabuser 01:31, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah but you have to consider that most of these converts from the schoolboys sides are just people on sports scholarships to schools which just play rugby union, so its no real suprise they go to the nrl after. I just don't see the notability in a schoolboy playing a different code to his junior years. Its hardly controversial to say the least. Maybe some might be notable ie. Cross, but just listing name after name of highschool rugby players is not encyclepedic, as in mst cases its simply not that notable really. Cvene64 02:12, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

RU to RL
These pages are missing a horrifying number of Welshmen who "went North" between 1950 and 1990. -- GWO
 * The nature of Wikipedia is that it is biased towards the present. A lot of these players don't even have articles even though a lot of them are a hundred (or more) times more significant than minor squad players that do have articles.GordyB 14:22, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Soccer versus Association football
'Soccer' is a slang term derived from the official name 'Association football'. IMO the latter is more appropriate for use in the article, after all we don't refer to the other sports as 'gah', 'aerial pingpong', 'rugger', 'league', 'gridiron' or 'chavball' just because these labels are fairly common.GordyB 14:00, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree. :D
 * It's not slang in Australia, it's the name of the game (despite the very recent and mystifying efforts to change it). Association football would surely come a very poor third, usage wise, out of the three choices --Angry mob mulls options 17:53, 12 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Usage yes but the word 'shit' is much more common than 'excreta' but which is more appropriate for use in an article on the digestive system? I don't know whether 'Soccer' is the official term in Australia or not, it may be how they are marketed in Aus but marketing terms and official names are two different things. The organisation FIFA is the governing body for the sport wordwide and the 'A' stands for 'Association'.GordyB 21:37, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Get cracking changing the name of the soccer article then, it's even got your "shit" the title, gasp!. And oh noes, thousands of soccer clubs round the world use football or soccer only in the their names, start writing letters pointing out their errors. You might have a look at WP common names policy too, while you're at it. --Angry mob mulls options 11:47, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Shall we calm it down a bit? Maybe my use of 'shit' unneccessarily inflamed things but I'm not that upset to start a flamewar over what is a fairly minor issue. I don't have a problem with the word 'soccer' per se and can tolerate its presence in the main body of the text, it is not a very 'encyclopaedic' word and I don't think it should be used in headings.GordyB 14:03, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Horst Muhlmann and Bahr Brothers
This would be a good addition to the list for soccer to gridiron. He played in the Bundesliga in the ealry 1960's for Schalke 04 as their starting goalie and then went to the US where he played for Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles among other teams in a long career. Another notable is Chris Bahr, who played soccer and gridiron at Penn State and was also rookie of the year for the NASL Philadelphia Atoms in 1974 as a midfielder but went on to greater fame with Cincinnati Bengals and won a Super Bowl with Oakland Raiders of the NFL. I think Chris may have been capped for the USA, but am not sure. His brother Matt followed a similar path, also playing for Penn State and Colorado Caribous of the NASL and Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants (Super Bowl winner) of the NFL, though he did not have quite the same success in soccer as his brother. Their father, of course, was US Captain Walter Bahr who set up the goal that beat England in the 1950 World Cup.

Layout
The layout is really messed up and i dont know how to fix it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Supercameron (talk • contribs) 11:39, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Sonny Bill Williams and Gasnier
Where are they ? SHouldn't they be listed as recent rugby league to union converts. --Rulesfan (talk) 05:51, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Canadian football?
Canadian football is altogether neglected here; where does it fit in? It is so closely similar to American football, and switching from American to Canadian football is so commonplace that it would probably be self-defeating to attempt to list all the players, but I think there's still some explanation in order. Surely, there have been some Canadian football players to convert to a code other than American football? In fact, Canadian to American football might even be rare enough to warrant listing. Any other thoughts? Interesting topic... Strikehold (talk) 03:58, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, I took a stab at it, and created "American football to Canadian football" and "Canadian football to American football" sections. They could probably use expansion, since those are just the most prominent examples. Strikehold (talk) 04:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * About half of the players in the CFL are "imports" (i.e., from the USA or some other country.) And there are many Canadian players who join the CFL after playing college football in the "States."  A complete list of American to Canadian football converts would run to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of names (and there are some players who made the opposite move from Canadian to American football.)  And just to make things even more complicated, there is a third code of North American football: Arena Football and similar indoor games.  Timothy Horrigan (talk) 20:16, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Jason Robinson
Jason Robinson is listed in the rugby union to rugby league convert section when he is clearly not (he is also correctly included in the league to union section though). I don't know how to edit tables, can someone change this please? 6th April 2009 RC4282

Maurie Fa'asavalu
Again I don't know how to edit tables but I think Fa'asavalu should be noted in the Rugby Union to Rugby League convert section. Current England & Great Britain RL international who is a former Samoan RU international 9th April 2009 RC4282

Australian rules football to Gaelic football
?? What is the go with this section. Clearly all of these players started playing Gaelic Football before going on to play Australian Rules. Although they may have returned to Gaelic Football (or only played gaelic football in juniors) does that make them a convert from Australian Rules. In my opinion - no. They should therefore not be listed twice in separate categories. --Rulesfan (talk) 02:13, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You can convert from one thing to another, and then back to the first. The word does not necessarily imply anything about whether you had any previous link to what you are converting to, or imply anything whether you were alwasys linked to what you are converting from.  Check out the definition e.g. see .  These players converted from Gaelic football to AFL and later converted back to Gaelic football. Tameamseo (talk) 22:50, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

-- I agree with Rulesfan, players who go back to playing their original sport should not be included again, so all the Gaelic Footballers going back to Gaelic shouldnt be listed here. There is also a section for Soccer to Gaelic that should me removed for the same reason. (If you were to follow Tameamseo's arguement then you would have to list fellas like Gary Connachton - who plays for Athlone FC and Westmeath GAA twice a season - for switching between the two sports)

Possible basketball to American football
I'm just putting this here as a reminder for the future, if these players pan out in professional football: Strikehold (talk) 15:09, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Greg Paulus played college basketball for Duke (4 years, but not football) and is considering the NFL or transferring for college football.
 * J'Nathan Bullock played college basketball for Cleveland State (but not football) and is considering the NFL.
 * Basketball isn't a football code.GordyB (talk) 20:04, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Karmichael Hunt from NRL to AFL
I'm surprised no-one has added him to the list as it is big news in Australia about him becoming a player for the new Gold Coast team(GC17), he hasn't switched codes yet as he is still playing NRL(for the Brisbane Broncoes), it would be a good addition to this page I guess if its relevant at this moment.
 * As he hasn't actually done it yet and made the switch he doesn't belong in the list. He could break a leg playing rugby next year (and hence join that list) and never play a game of Aussie rules (WP:CRYSTAL) I'll add him to the text to hopefully avoid more people adding him to the list.The-Pope (talk) 11:51, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Multiple code switches
Karmichael Hunt looks set to become one of the first football players to play Rugby league, Rugby union and Australian rules football. I am interested to know how many times has such a feat been achieved in any codes of football. Perhaps there should be a section in the intro dedicated to such players who have succeeded at the highest level at not two, but three or more codes. --Rulesfan (talk) 23:51, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Title change ? "Multi-code football players"
There is an increasing trend of young players trying not one but two or three different codes of football before settling on a game of choice to resume their professional career. Some semi-pro and pro players are also switching codes in the off-season or between contracts. There is also increasing reference to "dual-code" internationals in rugby codes.I don't think the focus of the article should necessarily be players who "switched" but players who have made it to the highest level in more than one football code. So perhaps each section title could refer to "code AND code" rather than "code TO code" .... this might also solve the problem of duplicate entries when players returning to their original code. Thoughts ? --Rulesfan (talk) 23:29, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Australian Rules to Soccer/Association Football
I remember seeing a news report on Glenn Manton, a Carlton Premiership player, switching to soccer/association football and playing with South Melbourne Hellas — Preceding unsigned comment added by 27.32.135.162 (talk) 04:52, 22 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Glenn Manton trained as a goalkeeper and Ang Christou also trained at Victorian Premier League club South Melbourne FC at about the same time but while Lekkas actually played soccer I'm almost certain neither of these other two made it into the side. --Rulesfan (talk) 01:53, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Bahr brothers
Aren't Matt and Chris Bahr football code converts as well? They played soccer before becoming American football players. 173.77.196.221 (talk) 06:17, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Nate Ebner
He has played rugby on the international level and is now playing in the NFL for the New England Patriots. His Wiki page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Ebner

I was going to add him but I thought I might screw up how the page was formatted.

Mattsky (talk) 01:50, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

No offense but list is confusing and incomplete
If this is any football player who has played in another code then it is missing a TON of people. You could probably put almost any CFL player on this list because a lot of them are Americans. Does playing on a practice squad or offseason signing count? I was gonna add stuff to this list put it could take forever to list everybody and I don't know the exact criteria. Let's just assume that this list is for super notable players or something. Also, where does the Arena Football League.WikiOriginal-9 (talk)
 * Yes, it is a mish-mash. Someone needs to define the rules of inclusion e.g highest level to highest level, such as dual internationals (and even that is a mess of different levels). But quite frankly, can't see it being worth the trouble.

Notability still not established
I appreciate the hard work that's been done here but I'm afraid notability for this list isn't established. There are sources, but they are for a few players only. Their is not source on the topic of code switching generally (from all codes to all codes), rather than from one specific code to another. Furthmore the potential scope of this list is so massive as to make it pointless. For example, 2/3 of all the players in the Canadian Football League (est. 1949) are Americans who played American football in elite colleges and often professionally as well, they are all "code switchers" by the standards of this article. This amounts to thousands of people. The numbers of code switchers from other closely related codes e.g. rubgy league and rugby union must surely be in the thousands as well. Perhaps the list can be salvaged by creating tighter inclusion guidlines, but I have a hard time seeing what those would be. Probably a better choice would be to convert the article to prose, explaining the history of the code switching phenominon. --Kevlar (talk • contribs) 17:28, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

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Shane Long
I know that he played Hurling with the Tipperary minors. He also played Gaelic football at club level but did he play Gaelic football with the Tipperary minors? Mobile mundo (talk) 23:52, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

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