How Australian kickers and punters have found their footing in Canada's game

CBC News

· Posted: Jun 01, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Kickers and punters successful shot are often seen arsenic a chiseled radical of players. This twelvemonth connected the Montreal Alouettes, the unsocial dynamic betwixt the kicking portion and the remainder of the squad is peculiarly pronounced.

That's due to the fact that the Alouettes person 3 Australians booting the shot this season. 

"We spell from French to the Aussie presumption rather a bit, truthful I drawback myself saying 'mate' rather a fewer times," says Alouettes peculiar teams manager Byron Archambault.

Joseph Zema, 30, is successful his 5th play with the Alouettes, portion Joshua Hutley, 29, and Joshua Sloan, 25, are rookies.

"It's awesome, it's honestly a dream. My dream's conscionable to beryllium playing nonrecreational sport," Sloan says.

WATCH | Australian Alouettes players connected breaking into Canadian football: 

He and his compatriot Hutley some accidental that increasing up successful Australia, neither of them ever dreamed of playing nonrecreational shot successful Canada.

"It's thing that I would person planned oregon thought astir 15 years ago," Hutley says.

"I conscionable wanted to larn a caller accomplishment and springiness it a spell and I deliberation arsenic I developed arsenic a punter and kicker, I benignant of realized that I'm not atrocious astatine it."

Global draught broke doorway wide unfastened for Australians

Prior to 2019, it would person been comparatively analyzable for an Australian to onshore a spot successful the Canadian Football League owed to the league's strategy of roster quotas.

Roughly fractional of each the players connected a CFL gameday roster are required to beryllium "national players" oregon Canadians. The different half, oregon "import players" mostly came from the United States wherever shot is king and determination is an abundance of talented players looking for paycheques to play the sport.

So immoderate Australian aiming to onshore a spot successful the CFL would person qualified arsenic an "import player"and been competing straight with Americans.

But starting successful 2019, successful an effort to globalize the crippled of football, the league enactment successful caller rules to let for caller roster spots for players from extracurricular of Canada and the U.S. It besides began holding a yearly planetary draught to enlistee these players.

Since then, Australian kickers and punters person dilatory been gaining much and much of a stock of those planetary picks. In 2021, Australian kickers accounted for conscionable 16.7 per cent of each players drafted. Last year, they represented 44.4 per cent.

The Alouettes look to beryllium a squad that has a peculiar affinity for Australian legs. Since 2021, they've drafted six Australian kickers and punters. Only Hamilton, with seven, has drafted much Australian peculiar teamers than Montreal.

The Alouettes accidental this was not by design.

"It conscionable worked retired that way," says Montreal Alouettes wide manager Danny Maciocia.

"It's not similar we said we're going to people conscionable players that are from Australia."

'In Australia, we turn up learning to footwear first'

All 3 Australians connected the Alouettes constituent to their inheritance successful Australian rules shot arsenic the instauration for their occurrence successful Canada.

The crippled is simply a nationalist athletics successful Australia. It's played with a shot called a footy and, arsenic the sanction implies, it involves a batch of kicking.

"In Australia, we turn up learning to footwear archetypal truthful that's the archetypal happening my dada taught me," Sloan says.

Zema says helium besides grew up kicking the shot and "it's beauteous easy translated into punting for American and Canadian football."

But portion much and much Australian footballers are ending up successful Canada, typically they don't travel straight to the large achromatic northbound from down under. Most are archetypal recruited to U.S. assemblage shot programs successful the NCAA.

Sloan, for example, played for the University of Memphis Tigers successful 2024 and with the University of Texas astatine El Paso Miners for 4 seasons earlier that. Hutley, meanwhile, kicked for the Concord University Mountain Lions for 2 seasons earlier being drafted.

Zema, who played assemblage shot astatine the University of the Incarnate Word successful Texas, says determination is simply a learning curve from the American to the Canadian game, but it's not that dramatic.

"Slight differences, but it's inactive a ball," Zema says.

CFL teams often place kicking prospects successful a yearly showcase successful San Diego.

"It's huge, it's huge," Maciocia said of selecting planetary players done the planetary draft.

"You could either person 1 oregon 2 connected your roster. So you person to origin that successful the creation of a roster and it's highly important that you're picking the close guy."

It's unclear if the league's volition of implementing the planetary draught was to absorption truthful heavy connected the kicking game, but it's surely becoming an facet of the Canadian athletics that Australians are blessed to assertion arsenic their own.

"We conscionable turn up doing it," Hutley says.

"Everyone [in North America] astir apt wants to turn up and beryllium a backmost oregon a receiver oregon 1 of the glory positions. But backmost home, we privation to beryllium footy players."