PROMISING young basketballers Jarrod Fryar and Ash Constable were at the top of their games in Germany last year.The Ballarat-based duo pulled on the green-and-gold for Australia at the FIBA World Under-17 Championship.Each described the month-long tour as the best sporting moment in their lives – giving each a taste of what it would take to be an elite sportsman.This season, they have chosen a different path, joining North Ballarat Rebels in TAC Cup under-18 football, in a bid to fulfil their dreams of playing professional sport.They aim to follow in the footsteps of Jordan Roughead (Western Bulldogs), Matt Dea (Richmond), and Nathan (Collingwood) and Mitch Brown (West Coast Eagles), who each made a transition from the basketball court to an AFL list via the Rebels.Fryar is no stranger to football, having played some juniors with Lake Wendouree in the Ballarat Football League.However, up to this year the basketball court is where he has shone the brightest.Despite representing Australia in basketball, Fryar said there was always part of him that missed football.“I had a little bit to do with Rebels try-outs in juniors, but never really made the cut,” Fryar said.“In basketball I always seemed to make the top grades, but last year, after Germany, I didn’t get to the level I wanted to reach.“Germany was great. I couldn’t believe I was playing against the best kids in the world and playing overseas for a month, but I was missing footy.“I was happy with my performance in Germany, but I was not getting the offers I wanted from American colleges.”When Fryar saw an invitation to attend a Rebels’ screening test he thought it was worth a shot.So did his best mate Constable.“This is my last year in the TAC Cup – my final chance to have a crack,” said Constable, who hails from Horsham.“The past year-and-a-half of basketball was just flat out – no break, no holidays. In the end it just wore me down.“As a young kid growing up in the Wimmera, I always wanted to play footy.“Basketball commitments just made it hard to fit in.”The Rebels’ screening test put promising athletes from a variety of sporting disciplines through standard sprint, endurance and skills tests.Prospective candidates learnt exactly what the Rebels program was about on and off the field.Fryar and Constable impressed coaches enough to be invited to train with the Rebels squad.Then they realised just how much work they had ahead.Fitness was their biggest hurdle.The pair scheduled in extra laps of Lake Wendouree to build aerobic capacity required for football.They felt comfortable with marking and ball run-and-carry, drawing on similar basketball skills.Fryar said tackling was fine – “the Ballarat junior footy league was not exactly soft” – but kicking was one aspect they had taken extra time to fine-tune.Constable said the moment he was officially named on the Rebels’ list was a massive confidence boost.It made all the hard work he had done and all the hard work ahead worthwhile.Expanding AFL ranks has forced its clubs to scour other talent pools to find an edge in the game.Basketball Australia under-18 and Ballarat Miners head coach Guy Molloy said AFL clubs looking to basketball was not a new trend.“It’s something that’s been going on for a long period of time. In my length of involvement in junior men’s basketball we’ve seen a few guys take up football, most notably Jack Watts, who was number one draft pick in the 2008 AFL draft and a terrific basketball player,” Molloy said.“The investment in time we put into these players is certainly significant, but everyone is free to make their own choices in their sport.“It’s viewed in some respects that a career in football is a more lucrative one, but at the end of the day, if you want and are destined to be a professional sportsperson, you’ll get there.“I have nothing but good wishes for those two boys (Fryar and Constable).”Molloy said there were lots of parallels between basketball and a variety of other sports.In his time involved with Australia’s junior basketball program, Molloy has seen some good players change codes.At the same time, he said there were plenty that had potential to be good players in other sports and chose to stay in basketball.North Ballarat Rebels manager Phil Partington said footballers with a basketball background often had clean hands and were extremely athletic in their jump and run.While AFL clubs scour internationally in other sporting codes for recruits, the Rebels put out an offer across the region.This season, the Rebels squad also includes professional runner Lauchlan Dalgleish.Partington made clear no boy from other sports gets a free ride – they must still prove themselves alongside boys with strong junior football backgrounds.“They are not treated any differently to any other boy on any level – they must show us they have the potential to go further in football,” Partington said.“These boys have worked extremely hard, no doubt probably twice as hard through pre-season.“Jarrod and Ash are talented sportsmen. They have played international sport, they are self-driven boys and know what it takes to be the best.“In saying that, these boys still have a long way to go.“If successful, AFL is not an easy pathway for any player but if you do the hard yards, at least you’re on a good pathway.”Constable and Fryar played in the Rebels’ TAC Cup season opener and each said they were just as nervous as when they stepped out in the world championships in Germany.