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Two teenage best mates are taking on the AFL's impossible odds | Playing on a Prayer
Posted
March 2, 2026
Views
17,369
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283
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March 2, 2026
17,369
283
1.63%
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44:43Now PlayingTeenage friends Adam Sweid and Huss El Achkar both have their sights set on being drafted into the Australian Football League. The odds against them being successful are enormous.
Since 1858, only seven Muslims have played professionally at the highest level of AFL (Muslims represent 0.25% of current teams). Adam and Huss do not attend private schools, and they have been raised in under-resourced football neighbourhoods.
But these best mates have secret weapons to help them outperform their rivals in the relentless and potentially crushing AFL ‘pathways’ system.
As members of the Bachar Houli Foundation, Adam and Huss are harnessing the power of an entire community previously unknown to the indigenous game of Australian Rules football.
The commitment of their families is rivalled only by the players’ devotion to prayer - the foundation of their almost unbreakable mindsets. “It makes me feel protected,” Huss says during the U18 National Championships. “And I want to be protected.”
Playing on a Prayer is a universal story about boys with big dreams, yet the circumstance of their dreaming is like nothing you have seen in Australian football’s storied past. Subscribe
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