Lisle resident on air in Australia

When you're in bed at 3 a.m., Jim Sheahan is finishing up his 15- minutes of fame halfway around the world.

Every Friday morning at 2:45 a.m., the Lisle resident picks up the telephone and goes live on the radio in Melbourne, Australia. He offers his predictions in the sport of "footy" on the popular Lindy Burns afternoon drive-time show.

"We found Jim a couple of years ago when there was a picture of him in one of the local morning papers," Burns said in an e-mail from Australia. "He was described as a mad Bulldogs supporter from Chicago and we were looking for an unusual component to our footy tipping segment and thought that he'd fit the bill."

Now in his third season, Sheahan joins Alan Attwood, a journalist and long-standing analyst, and Gerard Whateley, a leading sportscaster. Together with Burns, the foursome has a friendly rivalry each week on the pros and cons of their selections to win the eight weekend games of footy played in Australia.

"Jim has built up a following here because of his personality and the fact that he regularly out-tips even our local football commentator," Burns wrote.

Footy is Australian Rules Football. The league has 16 teams and all play one match every weekend beginning in late March. The game consists of four quarters, 18 players from each team and four players on the exchange bench who can go in and out of play. The ball resembles our elongated football but with rounded ends.

"The first time I saw the game I was mesmerized," Sheahan said. "It is amazing to see a player jump up in the air - almost 6 feet high - to catch a ball. It is absolutely spectacular."

Footy is played on a grassy oval field with boundary lines and four goal posts at each end. A player scores the most points by kicking the ball between the middle two posts.

As players roam the entire field, they can tackle with their hands and use any part of their body to advance the ball. Pushing will draw a penalty.

Running with the ball requires a player to bounce it roughly every 15 meters or 49 feet. If he fails to do so, the ball is given to his closest opponent. Throwing the ball is not allowed, but punching the ball is permitted.

"Footy is an extremely physical and tiring game," Sheahan said. "In American football once you get the ball you can run as far as you want, but in footy you can only go about 20 meters, or 65 feet."

The game requires players to have considerable running stamina and skills to control the ball. Players wear shorts and a sleeveless jersey with no protective padding or helmets.

Sheahan does not hide the fact that his favorite team is the Bulldogs with its red, white and blue colors.

"The Bulldogs, who have been in the competition since 1925, have won only one Premiership in their history and that was in 1954," he said. "Among all the teams, they have the longest drought of winning the championship in Australia."

With an 18-year career in radio, Burns said her audience for the drive show reaches about 300,000 people and is focused on current affairs and sports. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Australian Rules Football.

"Apparently, the AFL started when a group of 40 or more people started kicking a football around the local park in some sort of random way and was still going two days later with no winner," Burns said. "This weekend is, in fact, the main celebration round, called the Tom Willis Round, after the man who allegedly came up with the idea."

In September, the league's Grand Final will be played in a venue that holds 100,000 people. The weather will be chilly since Australia is now in its winter months.

Sheahan hopes his Western Bulldogs go all the way. He has been a registered member of the organization for more than 30 years. It began when he moved to Australia for a teaching position and fell in love with the country and its sports. He taught in Perth one year and in Melbourne 24 years.

"A lot of my former students have heard me on the radio and got in touch with me," Sheahan said. "One from Jakarta called from Indonesia to say he just heard the radio program."

To be a "tipster" Sheahan needs to know all he can about the teams, players' health and strategy.

"There are many new players I haven't seen play live since I now live 10,000 miles away," the Lisle native said.

Sheahan readily admits he would never have been able to do the radio show without the Internet. He reads everything he can in regard to footy within the week of making his predictions. He reads Australia's two major newspapers, checks out his favorite sport Web sites and watches the games online.

Sheahan is as passionate about the Western Bulldogs as he is about his other favorite team - the Chicago Cubs. He goes to as many baseball games in Chicago as he can. He wears his Cub hat when in Australia cheering on the Bulldogs and he wears his Bulldog scarf when at Wrigley Field cheering on the Cubs.

The winning seasons that both his Aussie team and his Chicago team are having leaves Sheahan almost speechless - except when he is live on the radio.

To hear Jim Sheahan on the Australian radio show, check out www.abc.net.au/melbourne/, then click "radio guide" and "streaming now." For details on footy, check out www.footy.com.au/dags/FAQ1v1-5.html.