Entries may not necessarily be timely but you get a flavour of what's happening inside the academy as something players can aspire to.
Day 1 – In Melbourne
For those of you who don’t know I am in Melbourne this week as part
of the AFL Women’s High Performance Academy, and, as per a request from
SWAFL’s webmaster extradionaire/roving reporter Lance Yu, I’m writing
about the experience in this blog.
At the National Championships in Perth last year 3 of us SWAFL
players were lucky to be chosen for the Academy (Newtown player’s Nat
Redford and Roxy McGee being the other 2) and so found ourselves
checking onto an early flight Thursday to Melbourne on Thursday morning.
With this being the first academy for women’s AFL players at a national
level it was fair to say I had very little expectation of what it would
be like.
After being welcomed by the head of Female Football Development, Jan
Cooper, and introduced to the various coaches and managers that we will
be working with over the next few days, we launched into the program
visiting the home of the Melbourne Demons Football Club. We picked up
some drills, advice and a behind-the-scenes look at a professional
football club from their own coaches, players, nutritionist, and head
scout. The Demons have an affiliation with the Victorian Women’s League
and their commitment to developing women’s football in Victoria is both
refreshing and progressive in a way that is all too rarely seen. Could
the Swans or GWS play a similar role in New South Wales in the future?
After that we got stuck into medical testing and, later on, role
model and leadership workshops with the AIS AFL High Performance coach
Jason McCartney. Above all I was surprised by the friendliness and
professionalism of everyone involved in the Academy. You can really see
how states like Victoria and Western Australia have raised the standard
of women’s Aussie Rules and it bodes well for the future. They are stars
on obviously, but also off the field, with their preparation, drive and
focus on team and teammates, and to be honest I’m a little scared about
having to play against some of them on Monday!
Day 2
Day 2 started at ‘early o’clock’ with a boot camp at St. Kilda beach
before a ten minute recovery session in the sea. I think its fair to say
I’ve NEVER been as cold in my life, although my muscles are thanking
me! We had another training session in Visy Oval No. 1 (Visy Park next
door being Carlton’s home) with Scott Lucas and Jason McCartney that
focused on goal kicking and kicking in general. After my 13 behinds last
weekend this session was listened to very carefully and all tips duly
noted!
The evening concluded with a talk and lively discussion with The Age
journalist, ABC reporter and Friday Night Footy presenter Sam Lane. Sam
gave us an overview of her career and the ensuing discussion provided
some interesting views on how female sport is represented in the media
and where women’s AFL is heading. It also gave us what must be the
‘funny moment’ of the camp so far, with our own Nat giving Sam an
impromptu hug mid-talk in what can only be described as a ‘you’d have to
have been there’ moment!
Day 3
Saturday started in a fair bit of pain with muscles aching from the
boot camp on the previous day. Attempting to get out of bed was quite a
challenge! After breakfast I joined a few of the girls trying the
hot/cold therapy in the hotel pool (which was about -20 degrees!) and
spa. I joked about only being there for the hot bit but eventually got
into the pool and felt a million times better for having endured it.
After a core strength workshop and a stoppages training session in
the morning we had the afternoon off and a welcomed opportunity to catch
up with my grandaunt Betty in Melbourne city. She, being 70 +, racing
around for the tram to get to the museum and me lagging after her, ahem,
like a 70 year old! We wanted to see the Titanic exhibition but it was
sold out, probably for the best as I think I need a little better mental
imagery getting into anymore cold water!
We also learnt today which team we are going to be on for the
All-Stars v Gold Stars match on the MCG on Monday. Roxy and myself will
be on the team coached by Leanne Gill (current Victorian women’s coach
amongst others) and Nat with Nicole Graves (current Western Australia
and former Victorian coach). After getting some advice from Leanne (or
LG) at the training session earlier and being inspired from chatting
with her later on I think we’re going to win, but then again I could be
biased! Nothing like a bit of friendly rivalry though! Bring on Day 4!
Day 4
After breakfast my abs was still fairly sore so I got into the pool
again, this time going a bit further into the deep end, it seemed to
work and following a stretching session we hit the oval for another
training session. This time it was small players and tall players and we
picked up some drills to do with vision, timing, protecting players and
disposals. We then split into our separate teams and had a team
training session, doing as much as we could without exerting ourselves
too much before tomorrow.
Another pool session and team meeting were the final activities
before we had to get ready for the jumper presentation function at the
San Remo Ballroom. Our room inevitably got turned into a
hair-straightening saloon, and, similar to home, I was sat on the bed
watching TV while everyone else was running around in a mini-panic
getting ready!
The function gave everyone a chance to catch up with their family and
friends, have a lovely meal and get presented with our playing jerseys
for tomorrow. We got the yellow tops, white shorts and yellow socks so
I’m wishing I brought a bottle of fake tan so I won’t look too pasty in
the gear!
The last part of the evening was to hand in our votes for the Shannon
McFerran Medal. Shannon, who is our ‘Gold Stars’ manager, was picked as
the All-Australian captain at the Nationals last year. She actually
played the Nationals with a brain tumour and so the award for the person
we thought was the best (i.e. best leadership qualities, etc..) over
the various days of the camp is quite rightly dedicated to her. Will be
interesting to see if any of my votes win, as obviously I didn’t know
anyone, apart from the NSW girls, before the camp and so I wonder if the
people I voted for will be recognized by others too. Will find out
tomorrow!
Day 5
So day 5 D-Day arrived and everyone
was up early no doubt battling the nerves before the big game. I spent
breakfast discussing which was better pancakes and scrambled eggs or
toast, vegemite and cheese. (obviously a pancake and cheese girl
myself!) Shouts of ‘g-up’ were heard throughout the morning from my gold
team members as we attempted to out-psyche the opposition and a running
joke about our ruck-woman, a Chinese delivery man and “playing on the
‘G’” helped keep the mood light!
Before long we arrived at the ground itself and I was equally
surprised by the huge dressing rooms and relatively small MCG pitch. The
warm up went pretty well, and everyone looked pretty focused. A few
words of wisdom from LG and we were ready to go. I started the game on
the bench (or as Shannon referred to it the ‘rest area’!) but soon got
on and, though I was in absolute awe of the standard, got a few kicks in
and started to feel a bit more comfortable being out there. I have to
say I was also a little inspired at how animated physio Kerry and
strength and conditioning coach Di were getting on the sideline so maybe
that helped!
I did at one stage run over the big Toyota writing on the ground
thinking ‘ya this definitely must be the MCG, I don’t remember this at
Mahoney Park’! Anyway we got off at half-time down by a goal or two and
it wasn’t looking good, but what ever psychology there is in having to
fight back out of defeat, we switched on in the second half.
My roomie for the camp, Chiocci, took a mark inside 50 and had no
problem kicking it through. I got a run then in my preferred
full-forward spot and ended up kicking to our captain Webbo for another
goal. We got a third from South Australian Kirsty and then had to endure
a nerve-wrecking last few minutes with the ball in our defensive 50
before the siren went and we had snuck over the line winning by 3
points! Whew, winning on the MCG feels pretty good! But playing with,
and against, that bunch of players was the best experience of the entire
week, you really get to see where the standard of women’s footie is at,
and its pretty high. Now instead of putting down Nick Riewoldt as my
favourite AFL player I’d have to say Chelsea Randall. What a footballer!
Melbourne FC gave us a function room for after the game and we had
some of their injured players there sharing their experience of playing
footy with the girls, before some presentations to the staff for the
week, who were all absolutely brilliant. Finally the Shannon McFerran
medalist was announced and the honours went to, dum, da dum, NSW’s
Natalie Redford! Nat, a well-deserving, and obviously popular choice.
Well done Nat!
My housemates picked me up from the airport then tonight, they asked
me how I got on and I chatted a for a few minutes about it. Then one of
them asked me again did I have a good time? To which I replied ‘Ya’. She
said ‘good, now your making the tea when we get home’ Back down to
earth and over and out!
Last Modified on 29/06/2010 16:16