CLINICS TO HELP GIRLS

Q You are behind the Talk With Your Feet girls-only football clinic that is headed to Cairns next month. How did little old Cairns land on your radar?

A I hosted a clinic in a reigonal area around Sydney and one of the girls there came from Cairns. She had flown all the way down for a two-day camp I had. I was honestly shocked. I said I would make sure to get a clinic up to Cairns. I don’t think her and her mum believed me at first, but I was like ‘no, seriously – if you guys came all the way here for two days, I will get a clinic to Cairns’.

Q Getting female football clinics to regional areas is something you are putting a lot of energy into. Why is is something you feel so passionate about?

A It started as just myself, but I soon realised I couldn’t do it on my own, as I have too much on my plate in regard to football, so I got a business partner and we started thinking about how we could change the path of women’s football – how can we alter it to see what we want to see – and it was really cool to think and talk about that stuff. I was given every opportunity to succeed in my footballing career, and I was fortunate enough to have those opportunities. But I feel, with the growth of women’s football right now, we’re missing out on so many talented females who just don’t have the access to the things that others have in the bigger cities. There isn’t a dedicated program, I believe, for young females in those areas. I don’t think there’s anyone scouring the regional communities. To start this and maybe find a hidden, young, female talent that could potentially stand next to me in the Matildas kit, it genuinely excites me. With the way women’s football is going I think it’s something that’s been needed for some time.