HARD ROAD TO THE TOP

What is the situation with WLeague footballers at the minute, how close are most of the players to being full-time professionals?

AMost still work in the W-League, that being part-time or full-time. Most girls are still even at school and studying at university. There is a mix. There are some internationals that come to Australia just for football. And our national team players are generally just full-time footballers as they have contracts with FFA and their club. Myself, I am an operations manager and manage 12 people in an office in the city in Perth. It is Monday to Friday 9-5 unfortunately for me at the minute. Sometimes we get a day or two off when we need to travel for games.

There are not many Matildas from the Far North outside of yourself and 15-year-old striker Mary Fowler (right). You have been away from the national team for the last couple of years but what are your impressions of the emerging youngster?

ATo be honest, I have not seen a lot of her play. But, the potential to go anywhere in our game is about creating your own path with the support behind you. If she is getting identified now, there is a lot of hard work for her to get where she wants to get to. If the potential is there, there is a long road ahead but a good pathway. There is more of a set-up with Young Matildas teams than what I had coming through and more identification for players. My pathway was playing against boys and older people. I was 10 or 11 training against Michael Thwaite, who was five years older than me. I was training with physical people and nowadays they are playing in women-specific teams, with underage national teams. It helped me along my pathway playing against men that were eager and strong.