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The variety panel of WA football luminaries (Tony Micale, Ron Alexander, George Michalczyk, legendary commentator Dennis Cometti, as well as historians Sean Cowan, John Townsend and Greg Wardell-Johnson) will bring 18 players (including the captain) into positions, five trades. and a coach from a 50-person team, which has already been whittled down to 152 nominees.
The variety is open to first- or second-generation Italians who have played at least 35 senior WAFL or VFL/AFL matches. That’s the simple component. The hardest part is shaking the olive tree and discovering the lineage.
WA ITITC President Peter Gangemi said this is a long-awaited recognition.
“Over the past hundred years, the contribution of WA Italians to the elite of Australian football has been extraordinary,” he said.
“When you dig, you find.
“Like Michael Mitchell, whose last callout is Bellotti and his first cousin is Laurie Bellotti. Michael Mitchell won Goal and Score of the Year in 1990 and only two players have done so in AFL and VFL history. By the way, they were both Westerners. Australians (the other Peter Bosustow (1981). “
Among the 50 shortlisted are Peter Matera, Alan Johnson, Mark Zanotti, Dom Cassisi and Peter Sartori, who will travel from the road for the event. Peter’s brothers, Phil and Wally, also reached their 50s, as did Wally’s son, Brandon.
The Materas have Italian heritage and Noongar. Su mother comes from the Noongar lineage, her father is from Grassano in southern Italy, a town in the province of Matera and the region of Basilicata, which was featured in the James Bond film No Time to Die. The first car chase scene filmed in Matera.
The mother of West Perth veteran Aaron Black, a Franceschini, her family emigrated from a small village on the outskirts of Lucca in Tuscany. He had grandparents on the Diletti side who owned and farmed vineyards at the top of Amelia Street in Balcatta and other parts of Stirling. His cousins from the Franceschini area own and still live in a beautiful boarding house in the Tuscan hills.
“Alan Johnson, you wouldn’t think he’s Italian, but he’s on his mother’s side,” Gangemi said.
Then there are those who have Italian surnames but no ancestry.
Cyril, Daniel, Dean, Maurice, and Willie Rioli are all descended from the Tipakalippa clan, a surname taken from them when their patriarch Cyril became a member of the Stolen Generation and was placed in a Catholic project and raised through nuns.
Two of those nuns were Sisters Rioli and Vigona, Italians who had been sent to the Australian interior for their vocation.
They innocently gave their calls to two orphans from whom football royalty emerged. Rioli’s call-up is one of the most recognisable in football, while Benny Vigona is a legendary player for South Fremantle and WA.
Cyril Rioli Sr. partly reverted to his surname, becoming Cyril Kalippa, a decade before his death in 2016.
Current GWS midfielder Stephen Coniglio and West Perth, Subiaco, Collingwood and Essendon champions Bill Valli are others with arguments in favour of inclusion.
The event, which will be co-hosted by Carlton legend Brendan Fevola, is supported by the WA Government, Deputy First Minister and Treasurer Rita Saffioti, the sponsor and the Western Australian Football Commission, and is supported by all WAFL clubs.
Nominees include 4 Sandover medalists (Sonny Maffina, Mick Grasso, Aidan Tropiano and Black), five Australians (Peter and Phil Matera, Gary Malarkey, Mitchell and Brian Ciccotosto), five WA Football Hall of Famers (Darrell Panizza, Johnson, Malarkey, Peter Matera and Mitchell) and more than 20 players who have reached the 200-game mark.
The West Coast Eagles have 10 nominees, South Fremantle and West Perth each.
There are still tables to be secured for the event, which will be held at Optus Stadium starting at 7 p. m. on Thursday, May 16.
Tickets can be purchased at the “What’s New” link on the WA Italian Club website. Please refer to the QR code for more details.
Proceeds from the night will be donated to the Telethon.
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