continuing the history of Australians turning their hands – and their feet – to the American code.<\/a><\/p>\n Mitchito Owens (left), his cousin Tory Taylor (centre) and Mitchito’s brother Tomo (right) in their younger days. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n
The dream wasn’t initially the dream, though, with Owens, who is six years younger than Taylor, recalling his time playing Aussie Rules too.<\/p>\n
“He had a game just down the road at Beaumaris because he played for Mornington. I was pretty young but I remember him having a shot from close and missing. That’s my memory of him playing footy,” Owens said.<\/p>\n
“I just remember him being a typical local league footballer then he told us he was starting Prokick and the next thing you know, he’s off to play for Iowa University. Obviously as it goes on he had an unreal few years there and to get drafted was pretty cool to see.”<\/p>\n
NFL games can dominate TV screens inside AFL clubs and the Saints are no different, but Owens said he is still getting to know the intricacies of his cousin’s sport.<\/p>\n
Tory Taylor in action for the Chicago Bears in the NFL. Picture: Chicago Bears<\/p>\n
“I look at the scores, I still don’t really know what’s going on. I need to start getting my head around it, the boys have been telling me to get NFL Fantasy and I’ll learn it all that way. I do watch his highlights and look out for the scores,” he said.<\/p>\n
It goes both ways, with Taylor, a Richmond fan, attending some Saints games last season when back in Australia, including coming into the rooms post-game after one clash.<\/p>\n
As Taylor’s NFL season reaches its pointy end, Owens and the Saints are preparing for an improved 2026 campaign. The club’s recruiting spree, plus internal growth from players in Owens’ demographic, has it eyeing a return to the finals.<\/p>\n
Owens’ end to 2025 came early due to a hamstring injury but he has had a full summer program as competitive hit-outs inch closer.<\/p>\n
“It’s been good, we’ve all been training very hard. Having the long off-season helped and I got to work over the break and the hamstring feels good, I’ve been out of rehab since October and I’m feeling good, fit and strong,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Owens family. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the NFL playoffs get underway, Mitch Owens will be keeping a closer eye than most Mitch Owens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-421208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}