AJ Bala discovered rugby league in the late 1980s through the Canberra Raiders' growing popularity.
Rugby league is a sport that isn't "part of the world" in Sri Lanka, where Canberran Ajanthan 'AJ' Bala was born.
But in the late 1980s, his family discovered the Canberra Raiders.
They stumbled upon rugby league through the "rising glory" of the Raiders at the time.
"Everyone in Canberra was talking about them," AJ recalled on the Raiders.com.au website.
"The Green Machine was becoming a phenomenon, and in the middle of all that buzz, we got curious.
"One weekend, Dad turned on the radio. We didn't know the rules, but it didn't matter. There was a rhythm to the game, a heartbeat that matched our own. We were hooked."
While AJ was only...