Southern loyalties spur Brown’s longdistance commuting

National women’s league

Southern United v Auckland McLennan Park, Auckland Tomorrow, 2pm

GOING the extra mile is something Georgia Brown has done a lot of lately — or perhaps extra miles in the plural would be more accurate.

The 25yearold lives and works in Auckland, but flies south every week to link with the Southern United women.

This week she will make a return trip — arriving in Dunedin yesterday and flying back to play Auckland in Auckland tomorrow.

Unbelievably, that fits better with her work than playing for a team in her own city.

Originally from Queenstown, Brown spent four years at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Since returning she has lived in Auckland to train with the Football Ferns in the Future Football Development Programme (FFDP).

She played for Auckland last year and the team had made her an offer to play for it again.

However, having given up her job in architecture and starting as a personal trainer in Takapuna, her circumstances have changed. The majority of

her work comes in early mornings, or afternoons and evenings.

But Auckland’s training venue was a twohour trip in the traffic, meaning she would have to finish work about 3pm.

Because she gets paid by the session, she would lose too

much financially.

The offer from Auckland made her offlimits to Northern — which is just 10 minutes from her home on the North Shore.

However, she was told by the national team she had to play national league when another idea came.

‘‘I was driving along and I thought ‘Football South is where my roots are from, that’s where I started playing until I moved away. I wonder if they’ll have me to play for them?’

‘‘I wasn’t able to get as much work off as I needed if I was to play for Auckland.’’

She does not regret the decision. She trains with Northern on Tuesdays and is kept busy with FFDP trainings, too.

Every Friday lunchtime she flies to Dunedin to train with the Southern team and stays on for its game.

She knows a lot of the players from school — she was a boarder at St Hilda’s Collegiate — and feels it has helped her enjoy the sport again.

‘‘[Football] was stressing me out a bit, but with the Southern team it’s just a different vibe and I love it. It’s made me

love football again.

‘‘I grew up down south. It is just a slightly different environment, I guess. I really like it.

‘‘It’s still really competitive and organised and everything — I don’t know how to explain it. I’m just from the South.’’

The worksport balance also proved difficult when it came to the FFDP.

Training was held in the evenings to accommodate workers, although that did not fit with her job. It left her trying to fit as many sessions as she could into the mornings, although financially it was a struggle.

She is yet to play for the Ferns — injuries and an untimely drug ban have so far curtailed her prospects.

For the most recent squad she has been named as the first standby player.

IT has been a tricky leadup but Southern United is ready for the next round of the national futsal league.

The side travels to Christchurch tonight, where it will play Central and Capital twice each in the Southern Travelling Series.

A win and a draw in its opening games against Canterbury United has left it in a handy position early on.

Coach Darren Hart said the team was tracking well, although he admitted it had been a difficult period in between tournaments.

Many of the players had exams and therefore stress levels were up and players had to miss the occasional training session.

Alongside that, the drive to Christchurch, as opposed to a flight to the North Island, made the travel tougher, too.

Both things typically made it something of a ‘‘bogey tournament’’ for Southern.

However, Hart said the team was taking a new approach to try to ease the travel effects this year.

It would travel north tonight, arriving late, but would be ready to go on game day.

That was opposed to being up early to travel to Christchurch, play a game, check in to the hotel and then play another game that night.

The change might be good in breaking another trend — Capital won both games against Southern last year.

Indeed, Capital was the form team throughout last year before losing in the semifinals.

It retained the majority of its players from that side and Hart expected it would be tough.

Central, an amalgamation of the Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay teams from previous years, tended to be a more physical side and a bit less structured, given the large geographical area made it difficult for its players to travel as much.

Hart said Southern was capable of winning all four games, although he would be happy to return with three wins.

Southern brings good form into the weekend. After a 44 draw in the first game against Canterbury, it ran away with a comfortable 62 win a day later.

That yielded four points, the same number the team got from the matches last year when it went on to become champion.

However, Hart felt the players had been disappointed to not claim two wins.

Southern had led 41 in the first game, before some mistakes cost it.

It had bounced back well and impressed in the second game, however.

Today’s first game is against Central at 1.30pm, followed by one against Capital at 7pm.

Tomorrow it plays Capital at 9am and Central at 1.30pm.