Latest news with #Footscray
News.com.au
30-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
How newest Gold Coast Sun Caleb Lewis leapt onto an AFL list
Caleb Lewis thought he was the victim of a classic prank. When Gold Coast rang the key forward from Melbourne suburban club Dingley and expressed its interest ahead of the mid-season draft, he was initially wary, thinking it was a mate on the line. But he soon realised there was no punchline coming and an AFL career suddenly 'got real'. 'They touched base around Round 1, just a brief phone call with a bit of a chat and it just went from there,' Lewis said. 'I thought someone was having me on, to be honest, I thought someone was taking the mickey out of me a bit and pretending to be someone else. 'Then it just got real after that, I knew it was real and I guess I put my best foot forward every step of the way and, yeah, here we are.' The 'here we are' for Lewis is sitting at a Gold Coast cafe after completing his first captain's run as a Sun. Plucked by the Suns in Wednesday night's mid-season draft, he will play VFL on Saturday morning. Lewis was on Casey Demons' books last year and Footscray's the year before – but he leapt onto an AFL list after a 66-goal campaign for Dingley in local football. In the space of 19 games, Lewis evolved from a raw kid with potential to a turnstile-ticking forward capable of taking a spectacular mark. Lewis credits to Dingley for allowing him to showcase his strengths. 'I think Dingley facilitated that massively for me, especially, the culture there is insane, it's unreal,' he said. 'I love to be a part of it, everyone really brings me up and allows me to be myself and everyone just backs me in, no matter what. 'Dingley has really facilitated me to back myself in, fly for everything and play to my strengths. 'It's pretty crazy obviously not playing too much VFL, playing four games over two years at Casey and then the four games at the Dogs as 23rd man. 'You can kind of catch yourself in the mindset of 'why aren't I playing?' and getting a bit down on yourself but I think that's where Dingley and the boys, the coaches, just the support from them to continue to play my game. 'Continue to fly, continue to do everything that makes me a footballer led me to this, since then it's been pretty overwhelming but it's been unreal.' While his ascension appears out of the blue, the Suns have tracked Lewis for some time. Gold Coast recruiter Kall Burns first saw Lewis in under-16s but said his strong finals and pre-season prompted the Suns to take the punt on the high-flyer from the 'burbs. 'There was obviously a lot of fanfare about his finals series for Dingley, in particular his grand final against Cheltenham was really strong,' Burns said. 'He just hit pre-season running, we thought his pre-season form at Casey was really strong and then when we started to really hone in on him again. 'We were there (Round 1) absolutely, what we like about Caleb is his attributes, he's got massive hands so he's a great overhead mark. 'He's really clean at ground level for someone of his size, he's 198cm so for a player like him to be good at ground level is quite appealing. 'He's got excellent movement, covers the ground really nicely, really good footy IQ – there's a lot of attributes about Caleb we like. 'He's still quite raw in terms of his AFL development but we see a lot of potential there.' Lewis has won his spot on the Suns' list as a key forward. But Burns said Lewis had the potential to play a variety of roles under three-time premiership mentor Damien Hardwick. 'He's quite a competitive kid and we particularly saw that through his finals series with Dingley,' he said. 'He was thrown into the ruck at times, he was able to crash packs forward too – but we go right back to his 18th year where he showed his traits as a key back too. 'We're really open-minded with Caleb, we feel like he can play bookends of the ground, back and forward. 'And as a forward he can pinch hit in the ruck as well if that's what Damien needs in the system – he ticks a lot of boxes.'
The Age
29-05-2025
- Sport
- The Age
An ancestry test would show Maynard is 100 per cent Magpie. Who embodies the spirit of your club?
Having your DNA tested to give you accurate data about where you come from is pretty common these days and I joined the trend by exploring my ancestry recently. Eighty-three per cent Irish felt like unders, to be honest. On my first trip to Ireland in 2002, a group of schoolboys from the local area started launching rocks at our team bus, and I was struck. Not by the rocks, but by the resemblance. Each one of these mousey brown-haired, freckly, red-nosed kids could have been me. We were connected. Curiously, when I received my DNA data in the post a few weeks back, there was no mention of Footscray or the Bulldogs, but they're in my blood, too. A few years ago, whilst chatting footy with a mate of mine, he commented that Brayden Maynard was a 'proper, old school Magpie'. I pushed him to elaborate and got the sense he had thought about it quite a bit. 'Maynard is a direct link to the old tribe from Victoria Park, I reckon. He's tough, industrious, likes a good time off the field, plays for the jumper on a Saturday and probably skips the cryptic crossword on a Sunday,' he said. It was all in jest, but it stayed with me. Now, when I watch Collingwood, I do find myself watching No.4 more closely. Maynard, one could argue, is the offspring of a spliced gene pool of Tony Shaw and Darren Millane, both heroes of the 1990 flag. Versatile, robust ... and loyal? We'll see. It begs the question, does your club have that one player who epitomises the spirit, lineage and physicality of your club's history? I kicked it around for a few days and found that some clubs were easy to allocate that symbolic individual, while others were more difficult. It raised a couple of questions for me. What does it say about a club that doesn't have a player who captures the ancestral links of their history? Does it matter? The Bulldogs have 'Libba', the Giants have Toby Greene. Carlton were tougher, but Jacob Weitering's quiet demeanour and classy output reminds me somewhat of Bruce Doull's presence amidst all the egos and drama. He's ike a giant boulder in the middle of the Howqua River, still and smooth, waters surging past and all around him. But at other clubs, such as Essendon, St Kilda and the Swans, I couldn't find one. Again, is that a problem? Is it the problem?
Sydney Morning Herald
29-05-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
An ancestry test would show Maynard is 100% Magpie. Who embodies the spirit of your club?
Having your DNA tested to give you accurate data about where you come from is pretty common these days and I joined the trend by exploring my ancestry recently. Eighty-three per cent Irish felt like unders, to be honest. On my first trip to Ireland in 2002, a group of schoolboys from the local area started launching rocks at our team bus, and I was struck. Not by the rocks, but by the resemblance. Each one of these mousey brown-haired, freckly, red-nosed kids could have been me. We were connected. Curiously, when I received my DNA data in the post a few weeks back, there was no mention of Footscray or the Bulldogs, but they're in my blood, too. A few years ago, whilst chatting footy with a mate of mine, he commented that Brayden Maynard was a 'proper, old school Magpie'. I pushed him to elaborate and got the sense he had thought about it quite a bit. 'Maynard is a direct link to the old tribe from Victoria Park, I reckon. He's tough, industrious, likes a good time off the field, plays for the jumper on a Saturday and probably skips the cryptic crossword on a Sunday,' he said. It was all in jest, but it stayed with me. Now, when I watch Collingwood, I do find myself watching No.4 more closely. Maynard, one could argue, is the offspring of a spliced gene pool of Tony Shaw and Darren Millane, both heroes of the 1990 flag. Versatile, robust ... and loyal? We'll see. It begs the question, does your club have that one player who epitomises the spirit, lineage and physicality of your club's history? I kicked it around for a few days and found that some clubs were easy to allocate that symbolic individual, while others were more difficult. It raised a couple of questions for me. What does it say about a club that doesn't have a player who captures the ancestral links of their history? Does it matter? The Bulldogs have 'Libba', the Giants have Toby Greene. Carlton were tougher, but Jacob Weitering's quiet demeanour and classy output reminds me somewhat of Bruce Doull's presence amidst all the egos and drama. He's ike a giant boulder in the middle of the Howqua River, still and smooth, waters surging past and all around him. But at other clubs, such as Essendon, St Kilda and the Swans, I couldn't find one. Again, is that a problem? Is it the problem?
The Age
29-05-2025
- Sport
- The Age
An ancestry test would show Maynard is 100% Magpie. Who embodies the spirit of your club?
Having your DNA tested to give you accurate data about where you come from is pretty common these days and I joined the trend by exploring my ancestry recently. Eighty-three per cent Irish felt like unders, to be honest. On my first trip to Ireland in 2002, a group of schoolboys from the local area started launching rocks at our team bus, and I was struck. Not by the rocks, but by the resemblance. Each one of these mousey brown-haired, freckly, red-nosed kids could have been me. We were connected. Curiously, when I received my DNA data in the post a few weeks back, there was no mention of Footscray or the Bulldogs, but they're in my blood, too. A few years ago, whilst chatting footy with a mate of mine, he commented that Brayden Maynard was a 'proper, old school Magpie'. I pushed him to elaborate and got the sense he had thought about it quite a bit. 'Maynard is a direct link to the old tribe from Victoria Park, I reckon. He's tough, industrious, likes a good time off the field, plays for the jumper on a Saturday and probably skips the cryptic crossword on a Sunday,' he said. It was all in jest, but it stayed with me. Now, when I watch Collingwood, I do find myself watching No.4 more closely. Maynard, one could argue, is the offspring of a spliced gene pool of Tony Shaw and Darren Millane, both heroes of the 1990 flag. Versatile, robust ... and loyal? We'll see. It begs the question, does your club have that one player who epitomises the spirit, lineage and physicality of your club's history? I kicked it around for a few days and found that some clubs were easy to allocate that symbolic individual, while others were more difficult. It raised a couple of questions for me. What does it say about a club that doesn't have a player who captures the ancestral links of their history? Does it matter? The Bulldogs have 'Libba', the Giants have Toby Greene. Carlton were tougher, but Jacob Weitering's quiet demeanour and classy output reminds me somewhat of Bruce Doull's presence amidst all the egos and drama. He's ike a giant boulder in the middle of the Howqua River, still and smooth, waters surging past and all around him. But at other clubs, such as Essendon, St Kilda and the Swans, I couldn't find one. Again, is that a problem? Is it the problem?
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Daily Mail
I was minding my own business at a store when a rude customer confronted me... I will never forget the shocking interaction
A dentist has shared his shocking brush with racism after he was targeted by a random shopper in a gift store. Peter Nguyen visited the Footscray store in Melbourne at the end of last week, searching for picture frames to match his recent home renovations. The young Australian said he had never experienced blatant racism in the country until that day. He said the saga began when he was squeezing down a tight aisle and saw an older man standing in his way. The man did not appear to have noticed Mr Nguyen approaching with five picture frames under his arms. 'I had to go past him to pay for my frames. As I'm walking towards him, I see that he hasn't moved,' he said in a TikTok video. The dentist thought maybe the man had not noticed him approaching in his peripheral vision, or was vision impaired – but when he said 'excuse me', he was still ignored. Mr Nguyen squeezed himself and his items behind the man, making sure not to touch him. 'I got to the cashier, and suddenly he walks behind me. 'He was like 30, 40 metres from the cashier, and now as I'm at the cashier, he walks behind me, then he goes, "Are you really going to push in front of me?" 'I didn't know he was in line, and he wasn't there before me and, I'd been waiting, but this is an old dude, so I was like, "Alright, go ahead please".' But Mr Nguyen said the interaction did not end there as he had hoped it would. 'He looks at me, and he goes, "What do you even do for a living? Wasting taxpayers money, you immigrants?"' Mr Nguyen said. 'Then he hears the cashiers talking to each other in Vietnamese and he goes, "Speak English, we're in Australia".' 'So I kind of, I get what's going on here now ... and just try and stay classy, you know.' But despite Mr Nguyen's efforts to de-escalate the situation, the man kept asking what he did for a living. 'He keeps going, keeps badgering me like, "What do you do for a living? I bet it's nothing smart",' Mr Nguyen said. The Melbourne dentist refrained from answering the man. But when he greeted the Vietnamese cashier in their shared language, the man asked what he was speaking. 'I'm like, "Vietnamese", and then he goes, "Vietnam! Communist country",' Mr Nguyen said in disbelief. 'That was my first proper interaction with blatant racism, especially in a very multicultural area. I want to end by saying I've felt very welcome in Australia. 'Most people I've met have been so lovely, but this is definitely something that was a bit of a shock to me.' Social media users apologised for the man's 'disgraceful' behaviour, with many arguing 'blatant racism' was on the rise. 'I'm sorry you experienced this. Australia likes to pretend we're so much better than other places, but the racism here runs deep, and when people refuse to acknowledge that, it only gets worse,' one woman wrote. 'Individuals like this don't even deserve a minute of your time. I'm an Aussie mum with an adopted daughter from Vanuatu. Racism towards her from others is horrid. I'm so sorry you've experienced this,' another said. 'Sorry to hear, Peter. I feel like it's getting worse. I'm of Indian heritage and have lived in Australia for 40 years,' a third said. 'The last five years have been horrendous. It used to be present but not blatant – now people can't even be bothered hiding it.' Others said they were surprised the man had been in the highly diverse suburb of Footscray in the first place. 'As a Footscray resident, why the hell would he come to Footscray if he has a problem with immigrants? Sorry this happened to you,' one wrote. 'Good on you for not biting and giving him a reaction.'
