Who knows if it will work out? But it reminds me a little of when European players first started showing up in the NBA in the late 1980s. At first, they were big men like Arvydas Sabonis from Lithiuania. Not terribly mobile. But a fundamentally solid low post player. They you had Rik Smits, Dikembe Mutombo, and Hakim Olajuwon. All big men.
After that is was forwards and swing men (stern look ). Tony Kukoc, Detlef Schrempf, Vlade Divac, Dirk Nowitzki (centre actually). Then they got smaller more skilled, Drazen Petrovic, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli. Last year there were 92 foreign-born players in the NBA from 39 countries. The game is global and those players market it back where they're from, just by being in the league.
Can AFL go global? Well, you need more than just a ball and a hoop. But it has to be good that you're starting to get athletes from other countries who love the game. It's such a great game (saying that as an American who grew up on gridiron and baseball and Michael Jordan). You've got speed, skill, strength, and a bit of violence...all the elements of great sport. Just because Cox hasn't played it his whole life doesn't mean he can't get good at it.
I reckon the biggest difference, to be fair, is that non-US born NBA players have probably been playing basketball their whole life. It's just that the rest of the world, in terms of skill and size, finally caught up with the US. The best players in Europe are the equal of the best players in the US (although the average US players are probably still much better than the average players elsewhere).
Anyway, I reckon AFL has a better chance of catching on in America, with it's huge talent pool, that it does in Western Sydney. The more players like Wallace and Cox try and succeed, the more will come. There are probably a lot of young American men willing to come to Australia to have a go, given the state of the US economy (it's how I ended up here).
Insert gratuitous Cox joke.