GROWING up in Sydney, Lenny Hayes often felt isolated in his passion for Australian football.

Australia’s biggest city has long been known as a rugby league and rugby union town, but Hayes says the sport is growing in popularity.

“It’s grown a lot. I never thought there’d be two teams in Sydney to start with. I thought that would be unheard of but every time we go up and even speaking to my niece who goes to school in north-west Sydney, there are St Kilda fans at her school,” Hayes told saints.com.au.

“When I was going to school there were only one or two people in the whole school who knew about the AFL. You’d never see an AFL ball in the school yard but I think it has come a long way and hopefully it continues to grow.”

Along with Wayne Carey, James Hird and Paul Kelly, Hayes is one of the most successful products of the NSW-ACT program.

But unlike that celebrated trio, Hayes grew up in suburban Sydney rather than country New South Wales.

His original club was Pennant Hills, a club that has also provided Jarrad and Mark McVeigh, Kieren and Brandon Jack and others.

“Pennant Hills has got a really strong history of producing AFL players. Both the McVeighs, the Jacks, Ray Hall from Richmond and Stefan Carey who was at the Swans and Brisbane,” he said.

“Out of all the clubs in Sydney it has got the strongest history and it has always been a good breeding ground for AFL in the north-west of Sydney. I still follow those guys and their careers and it has been great for the club. Hopefully one day we can put a bit back into Pennant Hills.”

Hayes took up the sport when he followed a friend to Pennant Hills at seven years of age after originally playing soccer.

He soon developed a love for the game, attending Sydney Swans games with his Victorian-raised father to whom he credits his passion for the game.

Hayes soon graduated to the short-lived but relatively successful NSW/ACT Rams team in the TAC Cup, winning the Morrish Medal for the competition’s best and fairest in 1998.

Among his teammates in that team were Pennant Hills teammates Hall and Mark McVeigh as well as Nick Davis and Craig Bolton who both forged successful careers. Former North Melbourne and Geelong player Cameron Mooney was in the age group above Hayes.

The Rams joined the league in 1995 but ceased to be a full-time team at the end of 2002.

But Hayes says he owes his career to the brief time they were part of the league.

“It was a great experience and I think I was a bit lucky in terms of the timing. The Rams came in when I was 16 so I was a perfect age to come through. Being able to play against the best kids from Victoria was really good for our development,” he said.

“I was pretty lucky that it came in around that time. If it came in four or five years later I may never have had the opportunity to play in the AFL so I’m pretty thankful for that.”