One of the most fundamental skills a footballer learns in the very early stages of their career is how to juggle a ball, and it appears the ladies of the Western Sydney Wanderers W-League squad have truly mastered the art of juggling in more ways than one.
One of the most fundamental skills a footballer learns in the very early stages of their career is how to juggle a ball, and it appears the ladies of the Western Sydney Wanderers W-League squad have truly mastered the art of juggling in more ways than one.
A full-time physiotherapy student and part-time greenkeeper; a bank teller; a recent high school graduate; an owner of a tanning salon, and a panel beater – these are just some of the young women that comprise the newly established Western Sydney Wanderers side that has taken the league by surprise; an eclectic mix of young and old; from high school students to University graduates, tradeswomen to business owners.
They may come from varied backgrounds and devote their time each day to vastly different pursuits, but each training session and each weekend they unite on the pitch as football players, driven by a common goal to produce a high standard and quality of football in the W-League competition.
These young women lead a dichotomous existence; many of them return to the monotony of full-time or part-time jobs and study in the day and their footballing prowess remains relatively unknown by many of their peers.
Western Sydney Wanderers dynamic striker and Matilda squad member, Catherine Cannuli, owns her own tanning salon and says that some of her clients have no idea that she plays football for the Wanderers.
“Some customers know that I play football, but do not know the level at which I play,” she said. “Other customers just would not have a clue.”
Cannuli says that many of the players in the Western Sydney W-League squad are drawn from the NSW Premier League, a testament the developing strength of women-s football in NSW.
Unlike the vast majority of professional male footballers, the ladies of the Wanderers squad do not have the privilege of making football a full time profession; they are required to effectively balance their study, work and football commitments in order to achieve their ambitions of playing in the National League.
It is no small feat – and those who question the level of commitment of women-s football need look no further than the number of sacrifices that the Wanderers players and coaching staff make on a daily basis. Training is usually in the evenings to accommodate their work and study commitments, which means that a hard day of school, University or work is followed by a tedious journey in the heavy Sydney traffic to attend training.
Western Sydney Wanderers Coach Stephen Roche says that he admires the girls for their ability to effectively juggle study, school work and their training commitments with the Wanderers.
“That is singularly the hardest thing they have to do,” he says. “Even if they have had a bad day they are still able to put it behind them, focus on training and maintain a positive attitude.”
Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of the story.
