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

Kickers and punters in football are often seen as a distinct group of players. This year on the Montreal Alouettes, the unique dynamic between the kicking unit and the rest of the team is particularly pronounced.

That's because the Alouettes have three Australians booting the ball this season. 

"We go from French to the Aussie terms quite a bit, so I catch myself saying 'mate' quite a few times," says Alouettes special teams coach Byron Archambault.

Joseph Zema, 30, is in his fifth season with the Alouettes, while Joshua Hutley, 29, and Joshua Sloan, 25, are rookies.

"It's awesome, it's honestly a dream. My dream's just to be playing professional sport," Sloan says.

Why more Australian kickers and punters are booting their way into the CFL

He and his compatriot Hutley both say that growing up in Australia, neither of them ever dreamed of playing professional football in Canada.

"It's nothing that I would have planned or thought about 15 years ago," Hutley says.

"I just wanted to learn a new skill and give it a go and I think as I developed as a punter and kicker, I sort of realized that I'm not awful at it."

Prior to 2019, it would have been relatively complicated for an Australian to land a spot in the Canadian Football League due to the league's system of roster quotas.

Roughly half of all the players on a CFL gameday roster are required to be "national players" or Canadians. The other half, or "import players" generally came from the United States where football is king and there is an abundance of talented players looking for paycheques to play the sport.

So any Australian aiming to land a spot in the CFL would have qualified as an "import player"and been competing directly with Americans.

But starting in 2019, in an