Starling's long road from AFL dream to NBL deal

The NBL dream of Alex Starling has been almost a decade in the making and has gone via the AFL football field.

Starling, who signed a one-year deal on Tuesday, was brought out to Australia in 2011 to potentially play AFL for the Sydney Swans.

The three-time NBL1 Central champion arrived in Australia as a 22-year-old college basketballer and joined the Swans as part of the AFL's international scholarship program.

Sydney Swans 2005 premiership coach Paul Roos said Starling could’ve been an AFL star. 

"Alex was not only an outstanding basketballer but he has also played American football as well," Roos said.

Starling was one of four US students invited to a mini draft camp at Redondo Beach in California in June 2011.

After two years in the Harbour City, Starling made his way to Adelaide, where the AFL interest continued at Port Adelaide.

“He has an AFL-type body like Buddy Franklin,” Roos said.

“I’ve never seen a bloke cover ground like him.”

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But after several months training with Port Adelaide, the club committed its international rookie spot to Irishman Daniel Flynn and wanted Starling to prove himself via the SANFL.

But Starling then turned his focus to basketball, and during his first full professional season at Woodville, he led the Warriors to the championship and won the Woollacott Medal as league MVP.

“Ever since I started this career, I wanted to be a professional basketball player overseas,” Starling said.

“I always put in the hard work, those hard yards, regardless of the journey I am on and what I had to do.”

After a season in Victoria in 2015, Starling returned to join Southern Tigers in 2016 where he won his second NBL1 Central championship.

“Coming out to Australia I thought I could play at that (NBL) level,” Starling said.

“Over the course of the years opportunities just weren’t there.”

The 198cm forward then won his second Woollacott Medal for North Adelaide Rockets in 2018 before making the move to South Adelaide Panthers as the pandemic struck.

“I could have applied (for citizenship) in 2020, but with Covid and everything else it wasn’t my main priority,” Starling said.

“But looking at everything I’m doing in life, on and off the court, I made the decision to go and make that next step and apply for citizenship and hopefully get a crack at the NBL.”

After injury halted his 2021 campaign, Starling linked up with newly signed assistant coach Scott Ninnis at the Panthers for the 2022 NBL1 campaign and South Adelaide ended a 25-year championship drought.

“I showed I could play at the next level during that 2022 season and here we are,” Starling said.

“Having Scott there as well now is going to be cool.”