Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes have signed former college basketball player Cameron Bokenham for the remainder of the season.
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Bokenham played three games at NCAA level for Brewton-Parker Wildcats during the 2014-2016 seasons before returning home to Australia.
He has spent the past couple of seasons playing with Eastlake in the AFL Canberra competition where he made 12 senior appearances.
Bokenham hasn't played so far this season for the Demons after having made eight second grade and 3 third grade appearances in 2023.
A clearance for Bokenham was cleared just prior to the June 30 deadline and Goannas coach Nelson Foley was delighted to have the ruckman on board for the rest of the season.
"It certainly is exciting, Cam is a pretty unique addition to the club and to the RFL," Foley said.
"He's got a pretty incredible athletic background after having a really successful college basketball career and basketball career in general.
"To have someone of his size but also his athletic calibre we think it's a massive get for us.
"There's no hiding the fact that while we are an exceptionally talented team and we've been going quite well so far, we are certainly lacking in the height department.
"With Tommy Smith unfortunately going down and being unavailable for a couple of weeks, we were keen to do what we could to stock up our ruck department.
"We're really excited to get Cam, but Cam is not a replacement for Tommy Smith.
"We think we are going to be able to play Cam and get him some form over the next couple of weeks.
"Then when Tommy Smith comes back in about a month's time hopefully we are going to be playing with two really high quality ruckman in the same side."
Foley said the club was a bit fortunate to land the signing of Bokenham and revealed he was put in touch with the ruckman through some of his contacts in Canberra.
"I'm very lucky to still have some good contacts back in Canberra that we mutually look after each other with our footballing journeys," he said.
"With the news of Tommy being out for a couple of weeks and having only a week or two until the June 30 deadline, I threw out a few Hail Mary's to see if anyone would be available that might fit the mould of what we are looking for.
"I was lucky to have some good people recommend Cam and the way that Cam's life outside of football has unfolded over the last month or two has made him readily available to come down and play."
