Another Vik in the Wall
Meath star has settled in quickly Down Under
WHEN Vikki Wall hit her first goal for North Melbourne earlier this month, the Australian co-commentator left viewers in no doubt this was no ordinary rookie they were watching.
‘I saw her play in a pre-season game anđ she is an absolute athletic beast. Make no mistake, she is going to be a huge weapon for North,’ she gushed.
Four goals in five games, the two-time Meath All-Ireland winner is proving to be just that, with the club currently in seventh place in the AFLW table, on track for a place in the November play-offs.
While her ability was never in question, making the adjustment look this easy – especially after insisting on missing the preseason to help Meath defend their All-Ireland crown – has staggered observers Down Under.
While she admits the biggest challenge has been to curb her instinct to drop deep – as a forward in the AFLW, the game-plan demands she stays upfield even when the ball isn’t – her athletic power is perfectly suited in a way that it has not always been facilitated in the LGFA.
While excelling in July’s AllIreland final win against Kerry, where she scored 0-3, she was at the wrong end of a number of questionable calls by referee Maggie Farrelly, with the Cavan official sin-binning the former player of the year for serial fouling at the death.
In that context, it will hardly come as a surprise that Wall would like to see the physicality and tackling integrity of the AFLW imported into the LGFA.
‘Over here, you look at the time and effort we put into the training which is not too dissimilar from back home.
‘We are doing the same amount of gym sessions that we would be doing back home but you are able to use your physicality a lot more, so maybe there is a bit of room for that to be brought in.
‘I am not the only player who gets those calls against them. I think, even from the referee’s perspective, there is a bit of ambiguity in what a tackle is and what a tackle isn’t.
‘I can understand from their perspective that they are trying to make the right calls because no referee goes out to make the wrong calls, but I do think there is a bit of scope for change in that sense,’ said Wall.
That ambiguity does not exist in the AFLW, where players are allowed to tackle an opponent in possession from below the shoulder and above the knee, and Wall argues that the LGFA game needs to better represent the preparation that players undertake.
‘I don’t think I have all the answers to that one, but I think a bit of work could be done on it, allowing people to use what they put in all that additional work in the gym – outside of those pitch sessions – and maybe tackling and physicality is something that there is more room to do,’ she pointed out.
Off the pitch, the Dunboyne woman has also settled into her new life in Melbourne, where she shares an apartment with the Kangaroos’ other Irish recruit, Cork’s Erika O’Shea.
And despite playing in a semiprofessional game, she is being kept busy.
‘It varies, depending on whether you have a home game or away, you would probably have a bit more spare time at the weekends but we train three nights a week.
‘We are over there from 4pm, but you are preparing all day for that schedule, getting up and getting ready for it.
‘I am working in the marketing department in the club for two days as well, so that is something I am doing to keep a career going outside of football as well.
‘Other than that, you are doing additional sessions, recovery sessions which could be outside of training. There is definitely a bit of time to meet up with the other Irish girls for coffee or lunch, so it is nice to have that community over here as well.
‘When you come over to Australia, the sense of pride in being Irish definitely comes to the forefront. Not that you would ever take it for granted, but you do start to reflect on being back home, the culture and community you have, it just makes you value it all the more.’
And her heart will be very much at home on the weekend after next, when Dunboyne take on Dunshaughlin in the Meath LGFA final.
‘It will be a tough one to watch when I could have been involved in that but, more than missing it, it makes you proud to be from there.
‘There are a few jokes flying around about me flying over for the final, and there is nothing I would love to do more, but unfortunately it does not tie in with our schedule over here so I will be absolutely watching it no matter what time of the night it is on.’
“You’re able to use your physicality a lot more here”
*Vikki Wall was speaking as an ambassador for the National Dairy Council’s ‘From the Ground Up’ campaign which highlights the hard work and commitment required by top athletes and dairy farmers to be at the top of their game.