RISE TO THE TOP

Q

You spent seven years on the senior committee and won the club administrator of the year award in 2016. Tell us a bit about the move to president?

A

I was sort of doing the job anyway by default. Not because of any bad reason other than the current president at the time, Glenn Spencer, was working away so I sort of took on the role. I enjoyed it and thought I was a good administrator and I was accepted as a woman into the president’s group and the boys club. I felt comfortable with it. Glenn eventually decided it was all too much and his son Max (Spencer, pictured) got rookie listed by the Suns so he wanted to follow him around. I thought then was my time. A few years before Glenn resigned, he’d offered to because he’d had enough and had been a volunteer for many years at Palm Beach. But all I could think was ‘I’m not sure they’re ready for a female president here’ and it appeared to come across as a bit of a boys club. It took me doing it by default to realise that that wasn’t the case.

Q

You’ve become a mother to interstate recruits, putting up several players in your home over the years. What did you get out of that experience?

A

Just the passion for the game and the love of helping boys out. A lot of the time they come from a family environment and to move up here knowing no one is quite scary so we try make the move a bit easier. If

I do lose them, I usually lose them to girlfriends, not to living with mates. Quite a few of the boys I’ve had for three or four years. Up until recently, there was seven of us, so my family and three billeted boys.