CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact

Aussie junior football coaches from both codes of rugby were left rather embarrassed over the weekend, after a bizarre, almost supernatural, phenomena took place during an under 12s football match between the Bedourie Bullants and the Windorah Wild Cats.

It was just after half-time in the mid-north Channel Country derby, when Bedourie Bullants U12s Blue fullback, Charlie Schifcofske, broke the line and scored a 40 metre runaway, despite having no legs.

It is believed that you could have heard a pin drop as players, coaches, parents, administrators and referees tried to reconcile what they had just seen.

The 11-year-old, who has previously only been able to hover at the same speed as a light jog, was very much running.

“I had no choice but to award the try” says referee, Bernard Hutton (17).

“It wasn’t like he was flying over the other players. He was still running at their height”

The news of Charlie’s hover-try has rattled junior coaches around the nation, as grassroots football clubs are now forced to remodel their coaching manuals to remove the age-old claim that ‘they can’t run without legs.

“I don’t know what to tell my boys” says Wildcats coach, Vicky ‘Sticky Vicky’ Hewitt (55).

“Maybe instead I should go back to saying they can’t run without heads?”