How Forrest Gump and rugby league helped NZ's newest AFL recruit

The name Mykelti Lefau sticks out for many reasons.

The 26-year-old's name for one (we'll get to that in a moment) but also the fact he's just joined a rare list of Kiwis plying their trade in the AFL across the ditch.

Lefau this week rising through the Richmond Tigers academy to sign his first professional contract, the last player named in the Melbourne club's roster.

"It's awesome, I'm so pumped with emotions, I'm filled with joy," says Lefau.

"I'm keen now to go on to the next step, which is obviously a debut game."

While there's plenty of players with Kiwi links who have made a name for themselves in the AFL — including new teammate Dustin Martin — Lefau is the only New Zealand-born-and-raised player currently in the competition.

After a background playing rugby union and league, Lefau left Auckland as a teenager to pursue sporting opportunities in Australia while living with his father.

However, much of his family, including his mum still live back in Auckland.

He wants to use his new found opportunity to drive a new pathway not just for Kiwis but Pasifika too.

"I want to do it for the culture — show there's another option for athletes and educate them when they're younger.

"Growing up as a Kiwi kid, we play lots of sports, they juggle everything and then choose the one sport. But if there's another option there why not, you know? I'm here so you can get here."

"I want to be that guy that drives this," says Lefau.

The driving force behind Richmond's move to hand Mykelti Lefau a contract was his physical prowess — developed thanks to his background in union and league.

"Athletically, he's as gifted as anyone we've seen, enormous strength, aerobically sound for someone of his size (195cm, 96kg) his agility is outstanding," says Steve Morris, Lefau's Richmond coach in the second-tier feeder league, the VFL.

"It's really rare the attributes he possess in our game, the brute strength."

Morris says there is a growing trend of looking at athletes from other countries and sports with Irish and American players joining the AFL recently.

"I'm hopeful Mykelti will grow a following at our club, one of the biggest in the land, you can't be drawn how he plays his footy, he's aggressive, quick, he fights. It'll be great to see him play at the highest level.

"In a short period of time of about three years I've worked with him, he's grown immensely and that's despite an ACL injury," says Morris.

Ironically, this sporting fairytale that seems fit for a movie, has a cinematic influence too.

If you're wondering where the inspiration for the name Mykelti comes after his mother finished watching the 1994 film Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks.

"You know Bubba? She saw the actor's name and thought that'll be my son's name."

Bubba, played by actor Mykelti Williamson, Gump's companion during the Vietnam War, who knew everything there was to know about the shrimping business.

"She saw that was the actors name and though, yep, I'm going to name him that."

"Funny story too, I met a guy who had the exact same name and story as me, I was like 'bro, our mums must have watched the movie at the same time'."

Here's hoping the next chapter in this rising Kiwi star's story continues to entertain, when Richmond begin the new AFL season next month.