It took six years, but the movie about our 2019 Tiwi Bombers is finally out!
Directors Sal Balharrie and Danielle MacLean along with subjects Freda Puruntatameri, Jessica Stassi and Arthurina Moreen are guests of the festival and will be in attendance at both sessions of the film.
Literal handful of tickets left; I will have a mad rush from bloody Wheelers Hill from the AFLW practice match to make this on time.
Nope. Booooooooooo.
I think there is no footage past 2022, which is a shame as this was such a nice loopback.
The movie doesnât tell you where the three players now are, which is weird given itâs mainly talking about 5 years ago.
And clearly a large proportion of the attendees today were film festival types rather than footy types; LOL at people tittering nervously at womenâs tackles and bumps.
They do get a bit more of Stassi in than the promotion suggests (note that she was a late inclusion after another player pulled out, so they didnât have the footage for her narrative)⌠not enough of her highlights though; at the time she was THE star, then Moreen*, then Puruntatameri. Freda is best placed now, though.
*if sheâd kicked straighter Rina would have been level; that 1.4 versus in the narrow loss against the Cats (while Kate Darby kicked 4.0 for them) still has me scarred!
Moreen still painfully shy!
A bit more than the middle third of the movie is all VFLW.
Major cops it more than a few times 
Just saw a five minute piece on the movie on ABC News. Havenât found a link for that.
Below is a previous interview with Rina:
And coverage generally picking up as it goes through various film festivals, including in NT this week:
Cinema Nova has an âearlyâ screening this Sunday, with one of the directors in attendance.
https://www.cinemanova.com.au/films/like-my-brother
Village have it from Tuesday 15th, two days before the official release.
It may be a short run, so if you want to see it donât wait.
Movie is still showing in some cinemas.
by Sarah Black
The Superstars players celebrate their win in the Tiwi Islands Grand Final in 2024. Picture: Celina Whan
IN 2019, a group of talented young women from the Tiwi Islands made the move south, to play with Essendonâs VFLW side.
The Tiwi Bombers had yet to create their now-highly successful senior womenâs side (having only junior girlsâ teams at the time), while Arthurina âRinaâ Moreen, Freda Puruntatameri, Jess Stassi and Julianna Kerinaiua were aiming to take their footy as far as possible.
The Tiwi Islands sit 80km off the coast of Darwin, the two main bodies of land being Bathurst and Melville Islands. They can be accessed by a 20-minute flight, or a 2.5-hour boat trip.
The population sits at around 2300, but the Tiwi football talent is immense.
Both the Rioli and Long families â multi-generational football royalty â hail from the Tiwis, as does Geelong favourite Ronnie Burns, Austin Wonaeamirri and most recently, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.
But now, itâs the womenâs turn.
Jess STASSI kicks the ball during Essendonâs clash against the Southern Saints in round 13 of the 2019 VFLW season. Picture: AFL Photos
The islands have their own league of an astonishing eight menâs football teams, with the relatively new womenâs league â established in 2023 â already sits at seven sides.
Nearly a third of the population play in the Tiwi Islands Football League, played over the winter months.
The Tiwi Bombers field representative sides in the Northern Territory Football League in both the menâs and womenâs competitions through summer.
Moreen and Puruntatameri were part of the national talent pathway prior to 2019, representing the Northern Territory and in the case of ruck/forward Moreen, the Central Allies.
Freda Puruntameri [sic] celebrates for Team Hewett. Picture: AFL Photos
But with the TIFL and Tiwi Bombers still a future dream in 2019, the quartet of women moved south for the 2019 season, staying in Sunbury, not far from the Bombersâ headquarters in Tullamarine.
Itâs safe to say the semi-suburban Sunbury is about as far removed from the idyllic Tiwi Islands as you can get, at least 45km inland from the closest beach at Altona, and far, far colder.
The 2019 Essendon VFLW side â prior to the clubâs introduction to AFLW â was a squad captained by Courtney Ugle, and included Georgia Nanscawen, Alex Morcom, Ruby Svarc, Hayley Bullas, Maddy Collier, Simone Nalder, Marianna Anthony, Alana Barba, Federica Frew and then-under-18s Georgia Patrikios and Krstel Petrevski.
âIt was cold down there. We had to catch a bus every morning to Essendon Football Club from where we lived. We did that every day,â Puruntatameri said.
âThe air was cold, but we got better and fitter down there as well. Theyâre faster and tougher in Melbourne, you need to keep your feet. The hits are not small,â Moreen said.
"It was more structure. You had to learn basic structure, how to play the game properly. And just, most of all, enjoy it. I love footy and enjoy it the way you want to enjoy.â
Now back home, Moreen and Puruntatameri play for the Bombers side in the NTFL, while Stassi can balance other parts of her life with the Tiwi footy league.
âWe started with the under-15s, then under-18s, and then we didnât have a womenâs Bombers side in the NTFL, so we moved to Palmerston for two or three years and played there,â Moreen said.
âNow weâve [also] got a league back home, Iâm forever grateful, and thereâs not much travelling,â Stassi said.
"Iâm a young mother, and itâs much easier for me to just travel from one community to another, instead of catching what, nearly a three-hour ferry to Darwin.â
Superstars captain Kimberley Cunningham embraces her family members after the Tiwi Islands Grand Final in 2024. Picture: Celina Whan
A growing number of the womenâs friends and sisters are now picking up a footy in earnest, progressing from a kick around with friends to an organised competition.
âItâs pretty awesome to see the development growing, and leave the legacy down to our younger generation and far beyond. Itâs going to go a long way,â Moreen said.
The Tiwi Bombers faced off against the Darwin Buffaloes in a curtain-raiser to Saturdayâs AFLW Dreamtime Game at TIO Stadium in Darwin.
Moreen kicked two goals from the ruck, while forward Puruntatameri â who also played for Essendonâs VFLW side in a practice match at the start of the year, when the Bombers came north â was a strong presence with a great sidestep.
Freda Puruntameri [sic] gathers the ball during the 2020 AFLW NAB All-Stars match in September. Picture: AFL Photos
Itâs a team coached by former Essendon player Dean Rioli, and on Saturday also included the likes of Ugle, former AFLW players Sarah DâArcy (who played as a top-up with Melbourne earlier this year), Alana Barba and Mia-Rae Clifford, while 19-year-old Maria Rioli â the daughter of Maurice snr â also starred.
The game style is a mix of open play in space, pushing hard from the stoppages controlled by Moreen (who isnât adverse to tapping the ball clear and running onto it herself), combined with the usual Melbourne switch kicks and lane changes.
With a comfortable 30-point win over Darwin Buffaloes, the Bombers now sit in fourth after the opening month of the season, having finished seventh out of nine teams last year.
âWeâve learned development and the growth of bringing Melbourne style up to our local style. They (teammates) look out for us, whenever theyâre not comfortable,â Puruntatameri said.
"We develop them into what weâve learned from Melbourne.â
To learn more about Arthurina, Freda, Jess and Julianaâs story, watch the new documentary Like My Brother: https://www.likemybrother.com/
Just saw the movie last night, such a good insight into life on the Tiwi islands and the natural talent that the players develop up there. Must have been such a culture shock with the shift to Melbourne, you can see how hard it would have been to adjust. The vision of them stuck out in Sunbury was stark.
Such a shame they couldnât take it any further than the few games they managed. A lot more support obviously needed but you can see how that effort could easily go down the drain when the homesickness is such a strong pull to go back home.
They (or some of them) WERE coming back in 2020⌠fark COVID.
