I saw a note up at my kids swimming February last year advertising for players for Sunbury Women’s Football Club. Last year they played Premier Reserves in the VWFL competition. Playing footy was something I always wanted to do as a kid but Mum would never let me. So I thought I’d go down and have a look.
Michelle Ryan fighting for the football
The first training session was a light run, so they said, as it was pissing down. When we got back to the club they figured out it was over a 5km run. Now for someone who had not done anything for years 5km is a bloody long way.
I advised the coach that I had already made a commitment to my nine-year old son’s junior football team to be the trainer for the year. He told me that that wouldn’t be a drama and just play when I could.
So my first real game was their round 2 clash against Melbourne Uni. I started playing half forward flank and kicked a point with one of my few kicks for the day and didn’t do too bad. In the second half I was put on the wing but got carved up by my much younger and faster opponent. But all in all it wasn’t too bad.
What surprised me the most was just how hard the girls go in for the ball and the skill levels of some of them. I’m not kidding, some of them would put guys to shame.
At season’s end we finished 4th after being on top of the ladder for most of year. A mid season slump in form started the downward slide. The last game was do or die. We had to win to ensure we made the finals. I started on the bench which was fine by me. I knew the importance of this game. I said to the coach at half time that I didn’t care if I didn’t get on. I knew the bigger picture and that we had to win. He never put me on but we won by 10 points.
We were in the finals.
On our last training session the coach announced the side. I was to start on the bench again. No big deal. I was going to be a part of it.
Before I left the club, things had changed. One of our players, a 20-year-old sometimes came across as being selfish and a spoiled brat with her little tantrums at training when she didn’t want to do something. She got the coach’s board and put herself on the bench and had me starting on the ground. She was unaware of what I had said to the coach at the previous week’s game.
She stuck up for me and was going to fake being injured so I would be in the starting line up. Her reasoning was that I turned up to most of the training sessions and slogged my guts out and deserved to be there.
I was really taken back by her actions. Someone who I never thought would do such a thing. The following Sunday we played East Burwood at Coburg City Oval. Now you would remember what the centre square looked like at Coburg. Sticky smelly Merri Creek mud. We weren’t disappointed, that’s exactly what we got. Three games of football had been played on the ground the day before so it was carved up pretty bad.
East Burwood made the best of their opportunities in the first quarter but we kept fighting on. It was an arm wrestle of a game with East Burwood always being 2 kicks ahead. I kicked a goal in the last quarter to inch us closer but in the end the clock beat us. Our slow first quarter had costs us the game. We lost by 10 points.
We were the better team last year and should have played off in the grand final. We were the only team to beat the eventual premiers twice throughout the year. At seasons end I had played 8 games and kicked 1.1. Of the games we lost the biggest margin was 23 points and the rest were by less than 2 kicks.
All in all, I was glad I showed up to training that miserable February night. It was worth all the pain and knocks throughout the year. I just wish I had have started at least five years earlier. I had a ball.
I wasn’t the oldest player either. One of our girls was 45 when she started playing in the 2011 season. She has an advantage over me as she is super fit (a pt trainer) and has good foot speed.
Playing football & training for it is like a addiction. Sometimes I think, no I don’t feel like training, but once I’m there I can’t wait to get out and have a kick and feel awesome once we’ve finished.
This year I won’t be able to play as many games as we have dropped down a division to Nth West Div 1 and all our games bar one are on Sundays. I’m still committed to the junior football and have this year been roped into coaching the Under 10’s which my 7 year old daughter is a part of.
To help me get a bit more exposure to different styles of coaching, I’m going to help out Sunbury’s Youth Girls team on Saturday mornings. So this year I’ll be doing some form of footy six out of seven days.
Last year, I played one of my games on a Sunday as we were short on numbers and missed out on one of my son’s games. As it turned out, it was the first game that his team had won in the two years he had been playing U10’s.
I felt really bad because he had no one to share it with when he finished as my hubby was the coach of the U12’s and was with his team. I promised my son that I would never miss another of his games even if my team were in finals. As it turned out he had a week off when we did.
I will never regret playing footy. That click of the boots on the concrete as the team runs out is something that is entrenched in memory. It is just something that even if you had a broken leg, you’d be wishing you were running out with the team. I have made some awesome friends that I know I will have for life as we share the bond of the love of the game and will always be team mates.
Footy. You’ve got to love it!
Postscript:
Michelle Ryan was a talented athlete throughout high school. She was a standout cricketer, accurate and quick with the ball and technically correct and solid with the bat. I’d never seen a girl with ability like that. During games of indoor cricket she took a few wickets against the boys and scored a few runs.
Imagine the courage it took for Michelle to commit to senior footy when she’d never played before. She’s fronting up again and she’s also heavily involved in junior footy.
Her desire is amazing.
