Doctor in Dog house
SPECIAL K might be a new sponsor of the AFLW, but Western Bulldogs ruck Tiarna Ernst, 30, clearly eats plutonium for breakfast, such is her indestructibility.
The Geelong hospital obstetrics and gynaecology registrar has been studying for more than 12 years, including three years in a competitive specialty program.
“I have had two of the biggest exams of my career in the last 12 months; it’s been a pretty long road and a hard slog,” she said.
Ernst is one of a crew of police officers, teachers, nurses and naturopaths who combine their professions with life as an AFLW footballer.
Ernst, who has delivered more than 600 babies, admits her other life as a footballer often comes up in delivery room conversation.
“Most midwives gossip when I leave the room, usually to the husbands if they are mad Bulldogs supporters,” she said. “It’s exciting that people still want to talk about it in those situations, and special for them to say I was a part of that moment.”
But Ernst admits navigating the inaugural AFLW season without a map or blueprint was almost impossible.
“I don’t know how I did it, looking back now, but you just make it work, I think, and go in with the idea that, ‘Well I’m just going to have to try and balance it’,” she said.
“It means shuffling rosters so I can make training in the evenings, and days when I’m not training I’m doing a nightshift. Then I sleep the next day and go to training.
“It’s tough, but I don’t think I would have my life any other way.
“I’m proud of this amazing story and I know when I look back in 20 or 30 years, I probably won’t be able to believe I did all that.”
While the AFLW’s new head of football Nicole Livingstone says the league will evolve, she is wary of losing the unique nature of the game that allows these elite athletes to have their metaphorical cake and eat it too, while creating a new generation of role models.
“We will, in time, get to the point where the league is commercially viable and there are sponsorship deals in place, but at the heart of it, the girls are doing it because they love it,” Livingstone said.
“The window of opportunity is small as an athlete, and particularly for athletes in contact sport, so to put all your eggs in one basket is really dangerous.
“I really like the fact that our players come from such an eclectic mix of backgrounds.
“I was in the car with my 15-year-old daughter and her friend and they were talking about one of the teachers at school and how she is playing AFLW.
“The girls were saying how amazing it was — like she is putting on this superwoman cape at the weekend.”