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Speaker 1: At the twenty twenty three FIFA Women's World Cup, goalkeeper

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Speaker 1: Lydia Williams, alongside teammate Claire Polkinghorn, became the first Australian

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Speaker 1: footballer man or woman to play at five FIFA World Cups.

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Speaker 1: Lydia is a proud Nungar woman who was born in

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Speaker 1: Catanning in Western Australia, but lived most of her childhood

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Speaker 1: years in Kalgouli, a small town northeast of Perth, before

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Speaker 1: a move with her family to Canberra. In twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: she became the first female goalkeeper to register one hundred

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Speaker 1: caps for Australia, and just the second indigenous player to

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Speaker 1: do so after Caya Simon a few months earlier. On

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Speaker 1: top of an incredible Matilda's resume, she's had an extensive

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Speaker 1: career overseas with clubs including Arsenal and Paris Saint Jermain.

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Speaker 1: I absolutely loved the chance to sit down and chat

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Speaker 1: with Lydia. She's really calm and composed and has a

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Speaker 1: real warmth about her and she reflects not only on

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Speaker 1: her career to date, but on the legacy she hopes

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Speaker 1: to leave, in particular for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids.

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.

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Speaker 1: Lydia Williams, Welcome to the Female Athlete Project.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you for having me. This is exciting, This

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Speaker 2: is exciting.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually really glad we've been able to line this

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Speaker 1: up and in person as well is always really nice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you've recently had ankle surgery. How is it tracking and

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Speaker 1: how are you feeling mentally as well about the rehab?

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Speaker 2: It's so far, so good. I mean, I think when

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Speaker 2: you get a little bit older, joints tend to not

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Speaker 2: be as happy with you, with you know, the kind

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Speaker 2: of abuse that you put through through them. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: it was a little bit of a treasure hunt got

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Speaker 2: some good floating pieces of bone and bits out, so

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Speaker 2: kind of like a good six to eight week turnaround

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Speaker 2: and just making sure. I think it's given me some

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Speaker 2: time to focus on other things outside of just performing,

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Speaker 2: which is nice. You don't really get too much of

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Speaker 2: that when you're in season.

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Speaker 1: I think, what are we talking other things?

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Speaker 2: Oh, just like you know a lot more like upper

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Speaker 2: body like tendon strength and your shows or real heavy

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Speaker 2: lifting in the gym. We don't really do that too

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Speaker 2: much during season because you don't want to be fatigued

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Speaker 2: on the pitch. So yeah, I've been able to start

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Speaker 2: doing a little bit more heavier stuff to actually feel

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Speaker 2: sore the next day.

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Speaker 1: And I imagine for you guys, because I think like,

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Speaker 1: if I compare it to where we're at with AFLW,

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Speaker 1: we played ten weeks of the year and we almost

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Speaker 1: have like a nine month preseason, lovely, which I feel

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Speaker 1: like there's benefits, there's pros and cons to each scenario.

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Speaker 1: But you guys seem to play a lot, right, and

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Speaker 1: a lot is back to back, and then you've got

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Speaker 1: your international windows. Like there's not a lot of time

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Speaker 1: I imagine to get on top of things like that.

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Speaker 2: No, not absolutely not, and especially like we do balancing.

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Speaker 2: I guess you know European football, if you're over there

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Speaker 2: and national team, you really only get maybe one month

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Speaker 2: before the season starts, and usually that's tactical. You're coming

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Speaker 2: during tactical time and how the team is feeling a

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Speaker 2: little bit of pre season testing, running gym, but you

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Speaker 2: really don't get like a bulk of you know, three

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Speaker 2: three months of let's lift, let's just go heavy with

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Speaker 2: strength stuff and really hard on fitness aspects. So it's

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Speaker 2: really almost like a balancing act throughout your whole career, really,

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Speaker 2: unless you either aren't a part of a national team

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Speaker 2: or decide to go to a different club and their

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Speaker 2: season is a little bit different than most of Europe.

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Speaker 1: So are you're saying when you come back, we're going

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Speaker 1: to see you looking swall.

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Speaker 2: Guns? I like, I've been doing something for two weeks.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my, my five steps are growing a

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Speaker 2: little bit exciting.

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Speaker 1: You've got a big hoodie on, so I can't see

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Speaker 1: I'm backing you in here.

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to flex or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting this discussion around the injury piece. And I've

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Speaker 1: had a bit of a rough run. I'm in a

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Speaker 1: good patch now I'm touching wood. But it is this

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Speaker 1: like mentally, it's quite interesting, and even the fact that

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Speaker 1: that was one of the first things you went to right, Like,

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Speaker 1: I feel like as an elite athlete, there's this element

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Speaker 1: of always having to find this sucks, I'm missing out

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Speaker 1: on X y Z, But what am I going to

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Speaker 1: do to get better and to create more longevity in

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Speaker 1: my body or be perform better overall?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's always like your professional like what

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Speaker 2: you were meant to do is perform on the pitch

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Speaker 2: and play games. But it's almost like blessing in disguise

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Speaker 2: when you do get hurt that the things that maybe

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Speaker 2: you neglect or don't spend as much time on you

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Speaker 2: actually get to do a little bit more of that,

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Speaker 2: whether that's on the pitch in the gym, or like

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Speaker 2: off the pitch doing you know, an extra study course

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Speaker 2: or you know, doing more like mental resilience training and that.

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Speaker 2: So even though it sucks, I'm quite bored at the moment,

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Speaker 2: but it's given me time to like do things that

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Speaker 2: like maybe I haven't I wouldn't have had time for

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Speaker 2: which I'm kind of grateful that. It's almost like you

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Speaker 2: can shift your focus to have a high performance in

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Speaker 2: a different area.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I really like that. I always ask ask our

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Speaker 1: guests to take me back to their childhood. Tell me

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Speaker 1: about Lydia as a little kid, and what are kind

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Speaker 1: of some core memories that stick out to you.

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Speaker 2: Lydia's little I grew up in the desert, so Calgary

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Speaker 2: for nobody that knows, is like red dirt gold mining

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Speaker 2: capital of Australia, just pure people flying in and out

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Speaker 2: for mines or people that live there. So yeah, it

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Speaker 2: was just growing up with a lot of family. My

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Speaker 2: dad's family is from there, so learning about indigenous I

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Speaker 2: guess traditions and being out traveling in the desert, then

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Speaker 2: also meeting a lot of friends and being at school,

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Speaker 2: and it was really kind of a nice foundation that

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Speaker 2: it was quite multicultural. My friend group and what my

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Speaker 2: dad taught me was really immense and indigenous culture and

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal traditions that we've had, and I remembered to these

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Speaker 2: days where we'd go out and learn about how to

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Speaker 2: start a fire, yeah, how to camp, you know which

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Speaker 2: berries you can eat and which you can't. So really

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Speaker 2: kind of my my childhood was desert life and being

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Speaker 2: indigenous in the bush.

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Speaker 1: Am I right in saying that you had two pet kangaroos?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Tell us about that.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was usually like we had a huge four

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Speaker 2: wheel dry with bullbar, so like when we travel in

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Speaker 2: the desert, obviously there's no street lights. It's just the stars,

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Speaker 2: the moon, blackness, and then your car with like its

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Speaker 2: high beams or whatever. So you'd be driving around and

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Speaker 2: you know, kangaroos would just get attracted to the high

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Speaker 2: beam and you know, as they do, they just jump

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Speaker 2: out of the middle of nowhere, and so we'd hit them,

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Speaker 2: but we'd always check their pouches to see if they

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Speaker 2: had Joey's and two times they did. So we're out

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Speaker 2: in the middle of the desert, so there's no vets around,

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Speaker 2: there's no wires that you can call. So yeah, Dad

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Speaker 2: knew what to do. Just take a pillow case, put

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Speaker 2: some like extra blankets in there, and hold the pillow

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Speaker 2: case and they do the whole dive into it as

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Speaker 2: if it was a mother's pouch.

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Speaker 1: And wow, that's.

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Speaker 2: Kind of like their home. And back then there was

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Speaker 2: actually I don't even know if it was vets, but

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Speaker 2: pet stores that carried kangaroo formula or wild animal formula.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, So we got to have that and kind

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Speaker 2: of rear it up and give it the formula and

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Speaker 2: it just hop around our backyard.

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Speaker 1: That's very cool. And then what happened once they were

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Speaker 1: fully grown.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was more when we moved to Canberra when

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Speaker 2: I was eleven, so Mum and Dad found a kangaroo

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Speaker 2: wildlif park that could be looked after and they kind

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Speaker 2: of went in there and got looked after in wa

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Speaker 2: So yeah, that they were thriving the last time we heard.

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Speaker 2: I don't know now that's a long time ago, but.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. What were their names?

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Speaker 2: I was very creative as a young child. It was

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Speaker 2: a big eastern gray. We called her Chambie nice and

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Speaker 2: then we had a little rock wallaby which I named Rocky.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I like it, Yeah, I like it. Where

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Speaker 1: did you first find your love for football or sport?

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Speaker 2: More broadly, It was probably sport, and it was probably

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Speaker 2: in Cow on weekends. It was basically a small country town,

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Speaker 2: so all you do on weekends is play sport with

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Speaker 2: your school friends. So it was all school teams and

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Speaker 2: playing t ball. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: T ball was the best I played. Its great, it's underrated.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so fun and you just get so mad when

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Speaker 2: you hit the stand instead of it's like you'd swing

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Speaker 2: so hard and the stand would flip and the ball

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Speaker 2: would just drop the game. Yeah. So it was t ball, athletics, basketball,

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Speaker 2: then football AFL with like desert kids and stuff. So cool.

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Speaker 2: I just played everything and I just really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 2: But it wasn't until I moved to Canberra with the

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Speaker 2: family at eleven that most of those sports were non existent. Right,

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Speaker 2: except basketball and football in a team kind of sense

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Speaker 2: of a registration and something that was on the weekend.

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Speaker 2: So I joined both those sports and then realized I

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Speaker 2: like being outside and set it inside.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough, And yeah, what was that the main

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Speaker 1: thing that drew you to football or was there something

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Speaker 1: else about the game that you loved?

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Speaker 2: I think it was. If anyone's watched me run, everyone's like,

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Speaker 2: good thing, You're a goalkeeper and not like a runner,

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Speaker 2: So it would think it was like because I guess

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Speaker 2: I'm always just kind of falling over a bit, a

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Speaker 2: bit clumsy when I was younger. Now I'm more coordinated now,

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Speaker 2: it's like you're pretty calling over. Yeah, but it was

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Speaker 2: just kind of I fell over a few times in

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Speaker 2: basketball and get you know the court burns or you know,

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Speaker 2: falling on wooden floors, and I just was ended up

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Speaker 2: being too short as well well for a basketball player.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, football it was.

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Speaker 1: And when did you start to realize that you might

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Speaker 1: have had a bit of talent and you might have

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Speaker 1: been able to take it Somewhere?

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Speaker 2: I think it was my mum really, because it was

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Speaker 2: I started playing for fun and I didn't know who

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Speaker 2: the Matildas were. There was like nothing like that back

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Speaker 2: in two thousand in any kind of broad media unless

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Speaker 2: you search for it. And obviously was the beginning of

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, Facebook was coming in, but no

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Speaker 2: real Internet searchers or fan pages or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I just started enjoying playing. And then I

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Speaker 2: got invited to a goalkeeper camp ended up being about

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Speaker 2: thirty different goalkeepers, male and female young players, and the

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Speaker 2: goalkeeper coach used to coach for the Soccer US and

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Speaker 2: after it, he actually came up to my mom after

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Speaker 2: the whole weekend of it and was like, out of

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Speaker 2: everyone here, Lydia is going to be has the most

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Speaker 2: potential to kind of make it. So I think it

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Speaker 2: was actually her getting that feedback that she realized, Okay,

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Speaker 2: we need to start investing in her and keep pushing her,

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Speaker 2: because I remember the first time I went to I

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Speaker 2: used to train at the AS with some of the

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Speaker 2: men's players or the boys back then. Now a few

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Speaker 2: of them have played in the A League and actually

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Speaker 2: Andrew Redmain was one of my close little goalkeeper colleagues

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Speaker 2: back then, and you know soccer Room Matilda. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: kind of full circle. But I remember when I first

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Speaker 2: started training with the boys. Oh, I'd go home crying

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Speaker 2: because it was just you didn't get treated like a female,

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Speaker 2: you were treated like a goalkeeper. So their high standards

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Speaker 2: were my high standards. But then my mum would be like, no,

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Speaker 2: it's okay, Like stop crying, Like you have to go

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Speaker 2: again tomorrow, Like we're investing in this, We're pushing you,

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Speaker 2: like it's hard now, but you're going to keep going

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Speaker 2: because they believe in you. They wouldn't do that otherwise.

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Speaker 2: So it was kind of like a little bit of

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Speaker 2: tough love, But I think it paid off in the end.

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Speaker 1: Where do you sit reflecting on that, because it's it's

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Speaker 1: sometimes this really interesting balance, like when there's a combination

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Speaker 1: of male and female coming together in that environment, which

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Speaker 1: obviously doesn't happen at the elite level in terms of

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Speaker 1: competing against each other, but this balance of you want

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Speaker 1: these female athletes to be given the same opportunities and

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Speaker 1: held to the same standards. But yeah, where did that

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Speaker 1: sit with you as a young person where you'd go

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Speaker 1: home and perhaps feel quite emotional and maybe a bit

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Speaker 1: out of your depth in the early days.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was. It's kind of hard to

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Speaker 2: take in at the time, but for me, it was

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Speaker 2: no other female was kind of getting that opportunity to

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Speaker 2: play and be a part of, you know, these male

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Speaker 2: footballers who mind you, they were very very respectful and

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Speaker 2: awesome like guys that you know, they if it was

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Speaker 2: a hard shot, they'd take a little bit off, they

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Speaker 2: wouldn't whack it at me, but it would still be

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Speaker 2: the same dynamic movement or exercise that we would go through.

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Speaker 2: So they were really respectful with understanding kind of the

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Speaker 2: power aspect that we're never going to have the same

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Speaker 2: powers as men. But it was kind of no one

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Speaker 2: else was having that opportunity, so I kind of reached

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Speaker 2: the pinnacle of what was offered for me as a female,

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Speaker 2: young female goalkeeper, and then I was like, okay, what's next,

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Speaker 2: Like I don't really know. And then it was you

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Speaker 2: can train with the boys and these boys might go

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Speaker 2: on to be you know, soccer rows and a league

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Speaker 2: and you know, make all this money and you know

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Speaker 2: all this kind of thing. And I was like okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I was always there. They're equal in that training session,

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Speaker 2: so it was never never felt difficult for me. It

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Speaker 2: was probably at the beginning of you know, the yelling

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Speaker 2: and high demand, and that you know what men do

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Speaker 2: and men say versus like how a female might react

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Speaker 2: to that. So I had learned very quickly to take

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Speaker 2: the emotional side out of feedback and in the moment

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Speaker 2: reactions and kind of adjust to that.

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Speaker 1: Do you notice that there's a specific type of person

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Speaker 1: that becomes a goalkeeper or is it more the skill set?

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Speaker 2: I mean they're crazy, I say it.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you the question.

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Speaker 2: I think it has to be. I think you have

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Speaker 2: to be a little bit crazy in terms of resilience.

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Speaker 2: It's a very it's a very lonely position. No one

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Speaker 2: really knows exactly what you're going through unless you're a goalkeeper,

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Speaker 2: even though you are a part of a team and

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Speaker 2: you have a team structure and how you want to play,

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Speaker 2: but when it comes to the actual foundation of being

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Speaker 2: a goalkeeper, it's you are alone in that and you

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Speaker 2: can see a lot of they call it the union.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of other sports have that with

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Speaker 2: specific positions, but it's the goalkeeper union where only goalkeepers

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Speaker 2: actually understand what another is going through in that time.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I think you have to be really comfortable

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Speaker 2: with being uncomfortable at times. And be okay with I

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Speaker 2: guess accepting the criticism that comes with it, but also

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Speaker 2: the high praise that can come with it as well.

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Speaker 2: So there's never really a happy medium for a goalkeeper.

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Speaker 2: It's really high or it's really low.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is quite interesting, isn't it. You don't often

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Speaker 1: get to sit in that, in that place of just

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Speaker 1: being content or being mediocre, Like there's this real expectation

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Speaker 1: on you there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's brutal, but you know with that, it's

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Speaker 2: the success is amazing when the team does really well.

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Speaker 2: But you know, also there's like a big spotlight on

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Speaker 2: you if you make a mistake or something goes wrong.

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Speaker 2: But that's why you have to I guess, have a

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Speaker 2: good team dynamic throughout with your goalkeeper union and also

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Speaker 2: with your teammates to make sure that it's you know,

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Speaker 2: you're winning and losing together and you have that support. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 1: Take me back to seventeen year old Lydia, who I

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Speaker 1: believe debuted on the twenty ninth of July in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and five against Korea Republic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a we lost that game.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, yep, yep.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: No, I'm comment on that part. What was what was

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Speaker 1: it like for you? Like even do you even remember

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Speaker 1: like the preparation and the build up and getting your

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Speaker 1: first jersey, Like what was it Like?

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Speaker 2: I was thinking, what the heck? I was like I

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Speaker 2: was in the team for about six months before that,

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Speaker 2: I think when I was sixteen, I made the squad

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Speaker 2: and just all these like real hard working women that

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Speaker 2: I was like really intimidated by because you could see

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Speaker 2: how hard they work to get where they are and

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Speaker 2: just how much it meant to them where I was like, oh, yeah, cool,

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Speaker 2: Like I get to travel the world.

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Speaker 1: This is.

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Speaker 2: And then it was almost like the expectation of like hey,

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Speaker 2: like you're actually being here to like playing, Like it's

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Speaker 2: not just you're here for the ride, it's you're here

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Speaker 2: to play, learn from these women and develop into the

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Speaker 2: player that you meant to be, and like you're actually

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Speaker 2: learning to play. So we played a friendly game against

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Speaker 2: a Chinese team earlier that tournament. We think it was

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Speaker 2: like I ended up being like a month and a

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Speaker 2: half trip that we went to all the Asian countries.

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Speaker 2: I think it was China, Japan, ended in South Korea

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Speaker 2: and it was just a friendly and like China were

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Speaker 2: the World champions the year before, I'm pretty sure. So

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Speaker 2: they just for the friendly of a club team. They

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Speaker 2: just packed out the stadium, which was, you know, like

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Speaker 2: five thousand people. But I was like, this is why

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00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:01,000
Speaker 2: this is Oh my gosh, just for a club team

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Speaker 2: and so we I think we ended up losing that game,

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Speaker 2: and that was my first time in goal with these

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Speaker 2: women and just the encouragement that I felt from them

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Speaker 2: of like, we have to give this kid an actual go,

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Speaker 2: like there's a reason why she's here. She's been around,

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Speaker 2: like its development, Like let's support her through that. And

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Speaker 2: so I was like, okay, we've got through the end.

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Speaker 2: And then the last game, we're all over it. It's

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Speaker 2: like been in Asia for too long. Everyone wanted to

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Speaker 2: go home the time when there was no Wi Fi

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Speaker 2: and you know, we didn't have phones that connected to

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Speaker 2: the internet, so you're calling your parents from hotel phones

350
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Speaker 2: like it was just you know nothing, and here I am,

351
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Speaker 2: here go, here's your debut against the Korean team, who

352
00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:51,080
Speaker 2: were really good. Yeah, and it was pouring down rain

353
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Speaker 2: and we're in like kind of this like change room

354
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Speaker 2: that didn't really have chairs or kind of put all

355
00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,639
Speaker 2: our stuff on the side. And you're sitting around or

356
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:04,080
Speaker 2: standing and we lost three free nil. But I remember,

357
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Speaker 2: you know, coming in and everyone just congratulating me, and

358
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,399
Speaker 2: I was like, but we're like we lost. Like you know,

359
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:12,639
Speaker 2: I was excited I got my first cap, but I'm like,

360
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:16,520
Speaker 2: we lost. But like no, it's really like welcome, Like

361
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Speaker 2: now it's time to like actually work. You're like you're

362
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:22,600
Speaker 2: a part of the team now, Like it's no longer

363
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Speaker 2: your little you know, grace period of Oh this is fun.

364
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:29,679
Speaker 2: It's like, hey, now you're a part of This is

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00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,639
Speaker 2: the taste of what it is at international football. Welcome

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Speaker 2: to the team. Get ready to start working. So yeah,

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00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,359
Speaker 2: a little bit same like of tough love, like Okay,

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Speaker 2: well done, Lydia, you got your first cap. Awesome, let's

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Speaker 2: go home. But guess what, like now you're going to

370
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:49,440
Speaker 2: have to start like digging your heels in and let's

371
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Speaker 2: start like going and really kind of pushing yourself.

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Speaker 1: And what does digging your heels in for you look like?

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Speaker 1: What did that journey look like for you to have

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Speaker 1: an incredible career that you've had to date.

375
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:04,880
Speaker 2: Oh, to be honest, I had to be knocked down

376
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 2: a few runs throughout my career. A little bit. I mean,

377
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Speaker 2: the first club I went to was overseas ended up

378
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Speaker 2: being Chicago, and I was like, this is sick. I'm

379
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,600
Speaker 2: a twenty years old going overseas for the first time.

380
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,520
Speaker 2: Not many people were going overseas. I was going as

381
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Speaker 2: a number two to learn mostly, and yeah, I just

382
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Speaker 2: kind of I just thought that, like, oh, yeah, I've

383
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,640
Speaker 2: made it. Like I'm going overseas. That's like the end goal.

384
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Speaker 2: And I got a big reality check when I was

385
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Speaker 2: over in the States with the players that we had

386
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Speaker 2: playing around and just how far I had to go

387
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,080
Speaker 2: to even get a sniff at that level. Like the

388
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 2: goalkeeper that was with me in front of me as

389
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,960
Speaker 2: a number one played at two Olympics want I think

390
00:20:54,960 --> 00:21:00,400
Speaker 2: a silver medal, an amazing person Swedish goalkeeper. Like I

391
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:04,120
Speaker 2: was just like, okay, like here I am young and sprightly,

392
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,439
Speaker 2: like being able to do all these things, and you

393
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 2: know she's having like more massages and rest days. Now

394
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Speaker 2: I know what that's like and why you need it.

395
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Speaker 2: But I was like, oh, like I'm ready to go.

396
00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:16,600
Speaker 1: Yeah.

397
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:20,760
Speaker 2: Then when it came to performance, I was miles off it. Yeah,

398
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 2: So it was really kind of a big reality check

399
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,280
Speaker 2: of like, you know, you're doing really well and you

400
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 2: have all these opportunities, but yeah, you're not as good

401
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 2: as like what you need to be to be at

402
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 2: the next level. So that that really being in America

403
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 2: really kind of made me realize like I need to

404
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 2: do extra gym, I need to do extra running, I

405
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:42,880
Speaker 2: need to make sure that I'm doing my eye spars,

406
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 2: and I need to get input from the fitness coach

407
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,360
Speaker 2: and the SNC, not just the goalkeeper coach asked questions

408
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 2: to the coach of like how we want to play,

409
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,960
Speaker 2: and so it was really kind of like you're not

410
00:21:57,720 --> 00:21:59,560
Speaker 2: even though you're in a team and you just have

411
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 2: you know, maybe one coach. You have to utilize everything

412
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 2: and everyone.

413
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,679
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, were there certain moments in Chicago or for

414
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 1: any of the clubs that you've played with in those

415
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 1: early days where where there was something on field where

416
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:16,879
Speaker 1: you felt like you had a moment of like, okay,

417
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 1: we're making a step here, like that stuff is starting

418
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:22,960
Speaker 1: to pay off and you could feel your confidence build

419
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:23,880
Speaker 1: from that. Yeah.

420
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:28,360
Speaker 2: It's actually when in Chicago the team was quite young

421
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 2: out on paper, we were like it was like Meghan Rappino,

422
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:39,879
Speaker 2: Christian Karen Khni Ela Maasa, all these young players that

423
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:40,440
Speaker 2: were there.

424
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,160
Speaker 1: It's pretty it's a pretty cool line up we had,

425
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,600
Speaker 1: like Carlie Lloyd, like it was insane.

426
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 2: Tops we had. Gosh, we had so many people in

427
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 2: this team, it was amazing and just how much we

428
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 2: kind of the vibe was so good of taking on

429
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 2: the young ones as well as the old ones, and

430
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,480
Speaker 2: it was a real nice mesh of people and team.

431
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 2: And it was when we would play, it was like

432
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,240
Speaker 2: young players against everyone else, and it was just like

433
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,439
Speaker 2: like you can kind of see it then, like the

434
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 2: change of dynamic of like what the younger players were

435
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,399
Speaker 2: bringing into what the next ended up being the next

436
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 2: generation of superstars or football and culture of what that

437
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 2: looked like. You can just see the flare of it

438
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 2: versus the hard working you know, the older ones. I've

439
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,160
Speaker 2: already established of what they've done to get where they are.

440
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,760
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was like around then when I started

441
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 2: to at the end of it, when I started to understand,

442
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,879
Speaker 2: you know, how the differences were, and it's not necessarily

443
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,239
Speaker 2: a bad thing, but how you kind of mesh and

444
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 2: get information from older players but also learn and develop

445
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 2: through you know, your own journey. And young players now

446
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 2: that you're the player that gets extra massages. I hope

447
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 2: I feel like you learn that.

448
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,719
Speaker 1: How has your experience over those years shaped how you

449
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 1: now treat the younger players that come in.

450
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's intimidating. Now now it's you have social media,

451
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 2: you have you know, more pressure from the outside. There's

452
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,679
Speaker 2: almost like more of an expectation as a young player.

453
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,480
Speaker 2: We honestly, we were kind of lucky coming in the

454
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 2: majority of us came in when maybe social media was

455
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 2: just starting. So, you know, the likes of myself, Emily

456
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 2: ven Egmond, Sam Caitlin Steph like, we all came in

457
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 2: and this era where like social media just started beginning

458
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 2: and the matildaers were just starting to you know, have

459
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 2: this this run. Uh where now, gosh, I'd like, you're

460
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 2: coming into a high profile, high performance environment where really

461
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 2: it's all eyes on you if whoever you are when

462
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 2: you come on, eyes on you, like media wise, eyes

463
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 2: on you on the pitch, performance, eyes on you at

464
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 2: training at meetings. So for me, it's like, how do

465
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,239
Speaker 2: I help people that come in to feel comfortable and

466
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 2: to kind of ease them into what the pressure might be.

467
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,679
Speaker 2: And I guess, you know, just talking has such powerful.

468
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,400
Speaker 2: Is such a powerful tool for anybody. You don't think

469
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:33,160
Speaker 2: that you need to give information, but just talking and

470
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 2: making people feel comfortable that's almost more and more than

471
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 2: enough to help them in that journey.

472
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the social media element, and you kind of

473
00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: touched on that for your debut to change room standards

474
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 1: and things like that. What do you reflect on now

475
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 1: and when we caught up recently the World Players Association

476
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 1: conference to kind of reflect on the history of women's

477
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,600
Speaker 1: sport and looking ahead to the future, what are some

478
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: of the stark differences between the recent World Cup and

479
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 1: your your debut and your first World Cup.

480
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:07,679
Speaker 2: Oh, first of all, it's like, you know, the amount

481
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,879
Speaker 2: of support you have from federation, the backing of which

482
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 2: is equates money, which then gets distributed into like player payments, professionalism,

483
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 2: high performance standards, staff coaching. So obviously that's a major

484
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,479
Speaker 2: difference where we're on you know, basically equal terms with

485
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 2: what the men are, which is incredible for us, but obviously,

486
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 2: like it's only small in the spectrum of like how

487
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 2: long it's taken to get to that point and where

488
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 2: we need to go as well. But yeah, you know,

489
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 2: it's just everything from having you know, the little what

490
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,120
Speaker 2: even call them like barbecue chairs that you plastic want

491
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 2: to get from like or Bunning's that you know that

492
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 2: you have them in the change room versus now we

493
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 2: have these like seats that like Ferrari has like endorsed

494
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 2: and like their proper letters, these seats that you can

495
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 2: like you know, you change it. Some of them in

496
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 2: Europe they're heated because the wrong sport like literally like

497
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 2: everyone else is out in the rain, and like stadiums

498
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 2: in Europe will have a stand over the subs bench

499
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,239
Speaker 2: and heated seats. Wow, and like even cup holders you

500
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 2: put you know, your drink bottle there or like whenever

501
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 2: you're having like it's and they're padded later.

502
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: So you might prefer to sit on the bench.

503
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 2: Literally you go from like you know, Bunning seats to

504
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 2: like Ferrari endorse like seats.

505
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: It's like crazy, Yeah, that's cool.

506
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 2: So like even just from that, you're like, wow, like

507
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,439
Speaker 2: just being a part of what men's stadiums and culture

508
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 2: has already had is like it's new, but it's not

509
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 2: new to football.

510
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: When we caught up at that PA event, you're also

511
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 1: involved with the Football Players Association as well. Can you

512
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about your role and why it

513
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: is important for you to have a voice in that space.

514
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, it started off as me just being a part

515
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 2: of you know, I guess, the PFA Players Union just

516
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 2: as a representative, and then went into like a leadership group,

517
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 2: and then went into the exect role which I've had

518
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 2: for a long time. And then now with I guess

519
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 2: the changing of the guard with the new CBA and everything,

520
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 2: we've decided to have a president and vice president, one

521
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 2: being a male which is Jackson, and me being vice

522
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 2: president to represent the whole game. And it was really important,

523
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 2: I think for the PFA to show the solidarity with

524
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 2: both equal male and female representation. So yeah, really it's

525
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 2: kind of the a bit more of a stronger voice.

526
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 2: I think that, you know, having someone who's directly involved

527
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 2: in what the high performance Male Footballing Team is and

528
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 2: then the high performance Female Footballing Team is, have direct

529
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 2: lines to you know, the CEOs and how we want

530
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 2: to shape the sport on what it needs, and so

531
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 2: it's really high detailed, I guess things that need to

532
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 2: be in discussion and have decisions on. That's kind of

533
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 2: where both Jackson and I will come involved in kind

534
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,040
Speaker 2: of making these really I guess, big decisions, but it's

535
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 2: been endorsed by the players and been endorsed by the

536
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 2: representation from you know, both the Matilda's and Soccer US.

537
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's been some incredible ground made in those cbas.

538
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: What were some of the key things you were pushing

539
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: for as a playing group from the women's side of things.

540
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 2: Oh, it's always been you know, having support staff, like

541
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 2: to when you see a head coach, and especially head

542
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 2: coach in the male game at a club, they'll have

543
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 2: maybe three different assistants and you just need you need that.

544
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 2: I mean sometimes that that coach might not have expertise

545
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 2: in you know, some other kind of area and so

546
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 2: you need to have another coach there where before it

547
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 2: was only we only had one one or two. So

548
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 2: it was really making sure that whatever the men decide

549
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 2: that they need, we have the opportunity to have that

550
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 2: same decision made for us. Obviously, it's you know, money

551
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 2: and about I think the biggest thing we did was

552
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:32,040
Speaker 2: changing our CBA from contracts which were year round to

553
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,040
Speaker 2: now having player payments, which we wanted to make it

554
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 2: a reward based system because the thing with football is

555
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 2: that you know, basically you spend. I think I said

556
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 2: it was like seventy or eighty percent of your time

557
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 2: is spent with club. Right, as a footballing career, actual

558
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 2: bulk of our time is spent with club. They're the

559
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 2: ones that pay you per month, per year. You have

560
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 2: your gym access there. It's everything that you do away

561
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: from football is or from national team is with your club.

562
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 2: So we really wanted to make the national team be

563
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 2: high performance. So you come in, you're not injured, you're

564
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 2: ready to go if you need to be called upon.

565
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 2: And it's also cutthroat. You have to perform now you

566
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 2: have to leave a lasting impression to get called back in.

567
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 2: So you know, that's where it's like you have more

568
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 2: pressure on you to perform and do what you need

569
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 2: to do outside of national team. But when you come in,

570
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 2: here's your reward. We're getting the same payment as what

571
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 2: the men do. This is what basically how most national

572
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:41,800
Speaker 2: teams actually function now.

573
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, was there a bit of back and forth

574
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: making that decision about which route to go down because

575
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: it does definitely add another level of pressure.

576
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was a majority of everyone felt

577
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 2: it was the right decision. It was I think just

578
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 2: more the timing of when and I think, you know,

579
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 2: doing the numbers and doing brainstorming as a group and

580
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 2: having our leadership really leadership group really knuckled down issues

581
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 2: and what they want the lasting impression of the Matildas

582
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 2: to be. Doing those kind of workshops really kind of

583
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 2: said it's either now or ever, really yeah, and so

584
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 2: at first it was really scary, but you know, at

585
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it is we want it

586
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 2: to be high performance and that's you know, you get

587
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 2: caught in great keep your spot then so that's kind

588
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 2: of where we want that expectation to be of you

589
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 2: do all your work that you need to do at

590
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 2: clubland and then when you come in to national team,

591
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 2: it's always we have to win. That's literally what it is. Yeah,

592
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:52,800
Speaker 2: let's go time, It's how you get things.

593
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love watching the way that goalkeepers run

594
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 1: the show, Like the amount that you guys are just

595
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: like obviously got the vision of the amount that you

596
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: guys are talking and telling people where to go, and

597
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: like it's it's quite amazing to see. Do you feel

598
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: like you always had those natural leadership qualities or do

599
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: you feel like that's something you developed throughout your career.

600
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely not. I can No one believes me when

601
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 2: I say this, But like my eye was so shy.

602
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: Wow.

603
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:24,960
Speaker 2: I was so shy as a kid, and especially when

604
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 2: I started actually taking the goalkeeping role. It was when

605
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 2: I moved from Kagary to Canberra, so I didn't know anyone.

606
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 2: I was a shy kid. I was meeting people at

607
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 2: a new school, I was joining up a new team.

608
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 2: I was being a goalkeeper and I was like, okay, cool.

609
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,239
Speaker 2: I thought we're rotating, but don't worry, like I'm just

610
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 2: gonna stay here. So it was all these new things

611
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 2: that was happening that I was like, okay, well I'm terrified.

612
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 2: And then it wasn't until I started having a goalkeeper

613
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 2: coach that would just tell me just just talk. I

614
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 2: don't care what you talk about, Like I don't care

615
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 2: if you just yell out like left right, like and

616
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,279
Speaker 2: it's the wrong thing. He's like, we just need to

617
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,719
Speaker 2: get you to talk in games. So he's literally like

618
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 2: pass can like up like it was ridiculous, Like but

619
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:19,839
Speaker 2: you did it, like you brought into it.

620
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 1: Yeah.

621
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 2: It's just like he's I just need you to talk,

622
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:23,879
Speaker 2: and I'm like I don't. He's like, I don't care

623
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 2: how stupid you sound. I know you might, but like

624
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,720
Speaker 2: I'm letting you know, you just have to start talking

625
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 2: about just anything. And then when you're comfortable with just

626
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:37,280
Speaker 2: talking now, we're going to refine it to specific actions

627
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 2: and specific words and higher up the pitch and what

628
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 2: you see. And so it really just started out with lydally,

629
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 2: you just need to chat, just say something something, I

630
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 2: don't care what it is, Just yell louder, like you know,

631
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 2: it would be like louder okay less. And so it

632
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 2: really was kind of a like training like how to

633
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 2: speak properly.

634
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 1: M It's interesting because I think even with us, like

635
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: in footy, when we sometimes have the young kids come in,

636
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:07,839
Speaker 1: who are they have just been drafted, they don't feel

637
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:09,759
Speaker 1: like they've really earned their spot yet, and they can

638
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: often be really quiet and sometimes you say to them

639
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 1: like just say whatever. But the fact that it sounded

640
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 1: like that coach was really invested and genuinely kind of

641
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: followed along each of those steps to make it happen,

642
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: rather than just being like just say something and then

643
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: walking away and focusing on something else.

644
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's that's kind of the the quality

645
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:31,839
Speaker 2: and kind of the good thing that we have with

646
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,319
Speaker 2: footballers that as a goalkeeper, you literally only have one

647
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 2: coach with you and maybe like two other players. Yeah,

648
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 2: so really you you are all that focus is that

649
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,439
Speaker 2: coach is on you, so really is specific. They can

650
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:51,359
Speaker 2: really narrow it down and really refine what they need

651
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 2: from you because they don't have to watch the rest

652
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:55,360
Speaker 2: of the game. They can literally stand there and like

653
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 2: watch you and then like somebody's happening up there and

654
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,879
Speaker 2: they can just be like higher, you need to stand higher, yeah, right,

655
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:04,320
Speaker 2: start talking, come to the left like you're not in line.

656
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 2: So whether they can do all that stuff.

657
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: Have you always been good at taking on feedback, because

658
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 1: I feel like you'd get you'd been getting a lot

659
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: of feedback. If that's yes, I know.

660
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 2: I had to learn, I think again, like I think

661
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 2: it was, I had to have like my rungs hit

662
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 2: down a little bit for me to kind of understand,

663
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 2: like this person's helping me. I've always been pretty stubborn,

664
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 2: so it's taken me a while to know that you

665
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 2: can learn a bit of feedback from everything that someone says,

666
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 2: even if it's really negative. Maybe they're having a bad day,

667
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 2: so maybe it's how you approach them, Like maybe it's

668
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 2: like you don't actually agree with what they're saying or

669
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 2: they're wrong, but maybe that's just they're frustrated. So how

670
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 2: can you help them in their frustration of what they're

671
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 2: saying and then maybe having a conversation after At the

672
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 2: amount of conversations that actually happen at halftime or when

673
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 2: a ball goes out, like you just you don't really

674
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:13,880
Speaker 2: see it if you're not on the pitch, but you

675
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,719
Speaker 2: know it might be you know that was the wrong

676
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 2: call you needed to come for that, Yeah, and I

677
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 2: know next time, I'll make sure. Can we just make

678
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:21,920
Speaker 2: sure that that I know that player and you can

679
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:26,359
Speaker 2: shuffle around? Yeah, and then it's done. So Yeah, there's

680
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,840
Speaker 2: so many conversations that are happening outside of like what's

681
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,280
Speaker 2: being seen on the pitch. But yeah, I think it's

682
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:35,839
Speaker 2: you can learn something from everyone, even if it is

683
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 2: positive or negative.

684
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that. Can we take a look at

685
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three fee for Women's World Cup?

686
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 2: Sure?

687
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 1: What was the Sure?

688
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:44,200
Speaker 2: Sure?

689
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: Are you sick? You're talking about it? Yet?

690
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 2: It's still pretty cool.

691
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: It's still pretty cool. What was the lead up to

692
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:50,280
Speaker 1: that tournament?

693
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 2: Like, for you, to be honest, the amount of like,

694
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 2: I think we've always had such a tight Nick group

695
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 2: from the get go. Everyone's just been so tight in

696
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 2: the group of protecting what we're building, protecting the outside noise,

697
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 2: and just kind of making sure that the focus was

698
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 2: like internal, never external, never anything but the team. And

699
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 2: I think a couple of our results leading into the

700
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 2: year up to twenty three, the media was not nice sometimes. Yeah,

701
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 2: with a couple of our results, like we were obviously

702
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 2: like still developing a style, still developing players, and I think,

703
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:43,399
Speaker 2: you know, if everyone's expecting consistency or just like yeah,

704
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 2: like look at all this, but we were really developing

705
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 2: and still understanding. Like it takes a long journey for

706
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 2: when a new coach comes in and a style of

707
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 2: play and leading into a tournament of different teams you're

708
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 2: going to play how to like understand especially when you're

709
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 2: only together twenty percent of the time. So it's a

710
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 2: lot of hard work when you go into camp of

711
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 2: like how quickly can you adjust to what this load

712
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 2: and these information is versus like when you're away, So

713
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,879
Speaker 2: leading into it, we're all very like, Okay, we need

714
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 2: to stick together, Like there's no doubt about it. All

715
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 2: this outside noise or whatever, it doesn't mean anything. Let's

716
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 2: stay stick together. And then we got obviously to the

717
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:29,879
Speaker 2: tournament and the build up to it, everyone felt really good,

718
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 2: really sharp, like the amount of sports science and tactical

719
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:41,920
Speaker 2: technical information that went into it, like I like you

720
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,839
Speaker 2: could you could tell it was a lot, Like there

721
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:45,759
Speaker 2: was a lot of information. We had to do a

722
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 2: lot of different tactics, we had to learn, gym, double days, recovery,

723
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:54,360
Speaker 2: like we were just basically at the Gold Coast for

724
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 2: a month leading into when we went into camp for

725
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,880
Speaker 2: the World Cup, and the amount of work that we

726
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 2: did was for the finals, so we knew that we

727
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:11,400
Speaker 2: weren't going to peak until probably around quarters or like

728
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:13,919
Speaker 2: the round of sixteen into quarters that's when our peak

729
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 2: would be hopefully peaking, like continuing with that form. And

730
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 2: then yeah, we got to the first game and it

731
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 2: was I think we're all nervous because of what it meant.

732
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 2: So you could kind of see that on everyone's face

733
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,320
Speaker 2: when Steph scored the pen, just like you could almost

734
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 2: feel like the weight drop off like everything, because it

735
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 2: was just like, Okay, here we go, this is the

736
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 2: first game, Like we need to we need to win.

737
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:44,280
Speaker 2: It's not the end of the world if we don't,

738
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 2: because then we'll go one game at a time. But

739
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 2: like the significance of the first game, it was, yeah,

740
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 2: we need to win this, and after that it just

741
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 2: felt like there was just no doubt, if that makes sense.

742
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 2: Like eve, when we got to the penalty shootout, now

743
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:06,240
Speaker 2: everyone else was like looking away, but everyone just felt

744
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,360
Speaker 2: it is weird. Everyone felt calm, like on the sideline.

745
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 2: I'm sure the girls felt calm when they were lining

746
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 2: up at the halfway line, but it was just like

747
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 2: this sense of like it's going to be okay, which

748
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 2: is weird.

749
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you think contributed to that sense of calm.

750
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 2: I think we just all believed in each other. The

751
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 2: amount of like, honestly, the amount of penalties we ended

752
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,359
Speaker 2: up practicing. I think my shoulder was like dead by

753
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 2: the end of it, like practicing with the girls, but

754
00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 2: like they practice it until they were confident. So it

755
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 2: was literally like got to the point when we're in

756
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 2: you know, match day minus ones. Whatever anyone needed to

757
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 2: do to be confident, do it, don't care what it

758
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,760
Speaker 2: is like, do a small warm up, ten minutes, whatever

759
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 2: you need. Then do whatever you need to do to

760
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 2: feel confident going into that game.

761
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 1: Yeah.

762
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,400
Speaker 2: No, so a lot of it was self responsibility and

763
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:04,200
Speaker 2: self I guess, like how do you prepare the best

764
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 2: as a team or the best by yourself? And a

765
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 2: lot of it as we went on was make sure

766
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:12,280
Speaker 2: you are that, like, we can't do any more tactics,

767
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 2: we have no time. So whatever you need as an individual,

768
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 2: do it.

769
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 1: And that World Cup, I'd love to know how you

770
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,840
Speaker 1: felt when you're actually selected in that group, because you

771
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 1: and Claire Polkinghorn were you the first Ossies to hit

772
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:26,760
Speaker 1: the five World Cup.

773
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,840
Speaker 2: Mins like men and women. It's crazy.

774
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that feel? I mean it felt.

775
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,680
Speaker 2: It always feels good to be selected an inter national team.

776
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,399
Speaker 2: I think me and Polks have learned to be very

777
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 2: humble that we are very lucky and very blessed in

778
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 2: the position that we have been. And yeah, I think

779
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:51,879
Speaker 2: we got to a point. I think when Polks ended

780
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 2: up getting what was it, like the highest capped Australian

781
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,399
Speaker 2: football And she's like, I'm sick of my parents getting

782
00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 2: flown here. I'm sick of my family seeing them all

783
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 2: the time, like to celebrate something else. She's like, I

784
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 2: don't have to celebrate anything else. I got the oh

785
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 2: my gosh, what does she get? The highest cap, the

786
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 2: longest something else. I'm like, case, all the miles, yeah,

787
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,360
Speaker 2: all the milestone Tug's got, and she's just like yeah,

788
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 2: it's it's over, and we're still excited for her. So yeah,

789
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 2: it felt it felt great, but also it felt like

790
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 2: if we can It was more if if anything was

791
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 2: gonna happen, it was going to be this World Cup.

792
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 2: And for that that for me was probably even bigger

793
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 2: than any of the other ones that I've been selected

794
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 2: in because it was like home World Cup. Who would

795
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 2: have thought everyone's going to watch football? Who would have thought,

796
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 2: like I get to be here with these girls that

797
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:48,839
Speaker 2: I've known for ten plus years? Like he who would

798
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 2: have thought? So for me, it was like, oh, I

799
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 2: was just really thankful, And I guess it was just

800
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 2: just kind of validating all like a cherry on the

801
00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 2: top of like just what my career has been.

802
00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 1: What did it feel like for you in terms of contributing,

803
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:07,960
Speaker 1: because you obviously didn't get to contribute how I imagine you

804
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:09,840
Speaker 1: would have liked to as much on the field, but

805
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: I have no doubt that you would have contributed a

806
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:14,759
Speaker 1: huge amount in a leadership capacity off field. What was

807
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 1: that like for you?

808
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 2: That process? Yeah, I think when you kind of get

809
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 2: at the end of your career, like Twilight Years, you

810
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 2: just you know what your limitations and capabilities are, and

811
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:32,239
Speaker 2: leading into the tournament, I was very well aware of

812
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 2: kind of where I was sitting in the fold, and

813
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:42,920
Speaker 2: then it turned to Maca's been, you know, my goalkeeper

814
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 2: understudy for gosh ten years now eight ten years, and

815
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:54,360
Speaker 2: to kind of see that journey of hers for me

816
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 2: it was like cool, like, let's I need to throw

817
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 2: everything I can into like this and making sure that

818
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 2: this is not me wanting to play, this is us

819
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 2: wanting to win. And so it was kind of like

820
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 2: humbling in a way of like understanding my role. But

821
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 2: I've had like a few years to kind of process

822
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:18,920
Speaker 2: it and not be upset if I don't play, but

823
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:22,719
Speaker 2: then now cherishing every time that I do play. Yeah,

824
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,400
Speaker 2: because I don't really know how long's left. So it

825
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 2: kind of goes from like it's almost like you start

826
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,319
Speaker 2: and you're like, I'm so happy to be playing, and

827
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: then it goes I need to play, And then as

828
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 2: you get to the end, it has to change to

829
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 2: I'm so happy to be playing again, because if it

830
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 2: says stays there, then you get bitter.

831
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, it's almost like comes full circle. That's really

832
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: it's really quite interesting. There was a photo captured of you,

833
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: I think by some fans at the end of that

834
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 1: last game in Brisbane, of you sitting against the goalpost.

835
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 1: Do you remember what was going through your head at

836
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:57,239
Speaker 1: that time?

837
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 2: I was crying my eyes out. It was just it

838
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 2: was just the full circle. It was. Being there in

839
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,400
Speaker 2: COVID when we won the bid was like insane and

840
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:12,120
Speaker 2: the stuff like of COVID, like just how it disrupted

841
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 2: the whole world, but whole sporting world, and like just

842
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 2: knowing that we we actually did it, we got that

843
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:24,840
Speaker 2: far as we did, and the heartbreak of not leaving

844
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:30,800
Speaker 2: with anything, but just knowing what we've done for the

845
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:34,239
Speaker 2: country and what the team has achieved, and it was just,

846
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,000
Speaker 2: you know, it was the last time I'd probably be

847
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 2: on the pitch of a World Cup as a player,

848
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,400
Speaker 2: so it was really kind of just like taking it

849
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 2: all in of like, you know, this is my last

850
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 2: World Cup, like last one with these girls. We didn't

851
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:51,880
Speaker 2: win anything, but what we've done is incredible. So it

852
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 2: was kind of like a mix of like every emotion,

853
00:46:54,719 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to kind of sit with that

854
00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 2: for a bit, just to you know that you don't

855
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,760
Speaker 2: don't really get the many moments, I think in your career,

856
00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 2: especially as you get close to retirement, where you really

857
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,879
Speaker 2: get to sit with feelings. A lot of like an

858
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 2: athlete's career is dusted off, we have the next thing, yes,

859
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 2: and you actually don't actually have much time to sit

860
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 2: with the feeling. And I decided just wanted to sit

861
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 2: with it for a little bit because it was so

862
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 2: incredible and I didn't know am I ever going to

863
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 2: get something like that again? So yeah, it was it

864
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:31,800
Speaker 2: was heartbreaking, but then yeah, I think Macca was the

865
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,920
Speaker 2: first one that came running over to me and what's happening?

866
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:37,280
Speaker 1: Why are you here? Why are you're crying?

867
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 2: But no, it was just I just wanted to sit

868
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:41,759
Speaker 2: with it.

869
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: What was it like as a playing group, because obviously

870
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 1: the whole country, for those who weren't already in love

871
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 1: with you, the whole country then fell in love with you.

872
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 1: I felt like so much of the attention was you guys,

873
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 1: breaking barriers and changing attitudes and doing all of these

874
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 1: incredible things, but not as much focus on the fact

875
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: that you guys like the elite of the elite and

876
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: you performed to the highest level under immense pressure and scrutiny,

877
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 1: Like I don't feel like that was appreciated enough. Yeah,

878
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,239
Speaker 1: did it feel like that? As players?

879
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 2: I think, well, for like, we just think of each

880
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 2: other as friends and teammates. And I think the way

881
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 2: that we've been portrayed, which is amazing, is that we're

882
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 2: so accessible and anyone can dream to be Matilda. Like

883
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 2: it's not like we have all these bodyguards around us,

884
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:36,280
Speaker 2: or you know, we were not going out and meeting

885
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 2: you know, communities and the public or spending time to

886
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 2: sign things like where we're making deliberate decisions to be

887
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 2: accessible and be people can dream to be a Matilda.

888
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:54,319
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's the stuff that you don't see. I

889
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:57,919
Speaker 2: think the documentary explained it really well with Ellie and

890
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 2: her ACO injury, just how much hard work she put

891
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 2: into then being where she is, and a lot of

892
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:09,879
Speaker 2: it actually doesn't get shown, like the amount of work

893
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 2: that Sam did to get back to playing in those

894
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,560
Speaker 2: games at the World Cup. But I think that's something

895
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:22,120
Speaker 2: that we as a group it's celebrated within the group,

896
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 2: but I think sometimes we just want to keep it there.

897
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:29,959
Speaker 2: You know, it would be nice to kind of show

898
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 2: just how hard we really work. But a lot of

899
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:36,319
Speaker 2: it is, you know, it is our bubble, it's our

900
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 2: personal thing, that's like our hard work. We can joke

901
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 2: and relax when we're in front of a camera or

902
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:45,279
Speaker 2: meeting people, but when it comes to hard work, like

903
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 2: we don't care if the cameras are there, We don't

904
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 2: actually doesn't bother us. So I think a lot of

905
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:53,399
Speaker 2: what has been captured and what has people seen has

906
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 2: been what we allow, where the hard work is like

907
00:49:58,840 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 2: sacred to what we do.

908
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:04,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, yeah, it's really interesting looking ahead, You've

909
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,759
Speaker 1: still got time left. But what do you hope your

910
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:09,880
Speaker 1: legacy will be that you leave on the game, and

911
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 1: just touching on the two kids books that you've released,

912
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 1: which is epic, and even the fact that you've been

913
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:19,920
Speaker 1: inducted into the Aboriginal Islander Sports Hall of Fame, Like,

914
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 1: what what do you hope when you leave the game,

915
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:26,520
Speaker 1: hopefully in the new year's time. What's the legacy you

916
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 1: hope to leave. Oh?

917
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 2: I think, to be honest, I think AFL do it

918
00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 2: really well with Indigenous kids and you know, bringing indigenous

919
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:39,280
Speaker 2: athletes into the mainframe and the big the big leagues,

920
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 2: and I would love to see football do that. I

921
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 2: was really lucky that, you know, to be honest, Unless

922
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:50,279
Speaker 2: we move from Calculi to Canberra, I probably would have

923
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:55,480
Speaker 2: had a different path in life. But I think inspiring

924
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,319
Speaker 2: Indigenous kids to dream to be a Matilda, like you

925
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 2: can see there's you know, Ellie from Cara, Mary from

926
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:07,920
Speaker 2: cans Me and Cow. Then you get you know, like

927
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:12,560
Speaker 2: steps from here in Melbourne, SAMs from well, from everywhere,

928
00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:17,720
Speaker 2: from big town, small towns, cities, playing overseas, playing at home,

929
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 2: and it I would love to see, you know, just

930
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 2: so many. It is the world game like it needs

931
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:29,359
Speaker 2: to be shared with everyone. And I think going out

932
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 2: into indigenous communities and really promoting football, I think is

933
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:35,040
Speaker 2: the next step that I would like to be involved with.

934
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:39,719
Speaker 2: But I want, you know, I want every World Cup

935
00:51:39,719 --> 00:51:43,919
Speaker 2: to be the Matilda's are in top four. And that's

936
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 2: a work in progress. That's hard work, both on and

937
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:50,399
Speaker 2: off the field and behind the scenes. And yeah, that's

938
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 2: more investment, that's more players going overseas, more players doing

939
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:57,200
Speaker 2: you know, whatever they can to get in the right

940
00:51:57,280 --> 00:51:59,880
Speaker 2: environment that they need to be. So I think that

941
00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:03,680
Speaker 2: still has a while to go because we have the

942
00:52:03,719 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 2: rest of the world to that are playing catch up

943
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:10,600
Speaker 2: and chasing or leading the way. Like it's not just

944
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,399
Speaker 2: you know in Australia, it's like you have to see

945
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 2: what Spain are doing, you have to see what Japan

946
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 2: are doing, what America are doing, and how do you

947
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:22,319
Speaker 2: get that and replicate it to an Australian standard. And

948
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:27,520
Speaker 2: it's what Australians their DNA, how they produce the same

949
00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:32,560
Speaker 2: results as what an American would do or you know,

950
00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:35,480
Speaker 2: a French player would do. And yeah, it's kind of

951
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,280
Speaker 2: it's weird. It's like how you how do you morph

952
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:43,080
Speaker 2: to your own culture and country, your own identity, but

953
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 2: also taking bits and pieces from different countries and what they're.

954
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:49,400
Speaker 1: Doing, Yeah, to keep striving to be that in that

955
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:51,640
Speaker 1: top four. Yeah, the challenge yew.

956
00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:55,719
Speaker 2: They see bolters like Columbia, I had no idea like

957
00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:57,399
Speaker 2: they were going to be that good.

958
00:52:57,600 --> 00:52:58,040
Speaker 1: Yeah.

959
00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,879
Speaker 2: And then you know Germany's usual up there all the time,

960
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:03,520
Speaker 2: so it's like, oh man, what are they doing? Yeah,

961
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 2: and you're like, okay, well that's something that I came

962
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:09,399
Speaker 2: out of nowhere. So what are they doing to then

963
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 2: us needing to do this to make sure that we

964
00:53:11,719 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 2: stay ahead of them?

965
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:13,320
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure.

966
00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:15,880
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's really interesting.

967
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that. Thank you so much

968
00:53:18,719 --> 00:53:21,759
Speaker 1: for your time today. I've loved chatting to you and

969
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:24,680
Speaker 1: just even learning from you. Can like you've just got

970
00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:27,239
Speaker 1: a very gentle presence and I can see the way

971
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:30,000
Speaker 1: that you've really reflected on a whole range of different

972
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: things that you've learned throughout your career, and it's been

973
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 1: a real privilege to sit down and chat with you.

974
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. I'll be more than welcome to come

975
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:37,400
Speaker 2: back whenever.

976
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:42,960
Speaker 1: Amazing, Thank you, thank you, Thanks so much for listening.

977
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:45,319
Speaker 1: If you got something out of this episode, I would

978
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 1: absolutely love it if you could send it on to

979
00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:51,480
Speaker 1: one person who you think might enjoy it. Otherwise, subscribe,

980
00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:53,640
Speaker 1: give us a review, and make sure you follow us

981
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,480
Speaker 1: on Instagram at the Female Athlete Project to stay up

982
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:59,640
Speaker 1: to date with podcast episodes, merch drops, and of course

983
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:02,800
Speaker 1: news and stories about epic female athletes.