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Month: September 2017

Football Heros: Marta

On Saturday international football will be brought to the western suburbs of Sydney. It’s a big one. The Matildas take on Brazil. Yes it is a friendly, but this excited 23 year old has tickets and is super stoked to go to her first international game of football. Not only do I get to see…

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It’s always the fans who draw me in. Today it’s Port Adelaide who are getting a lesson by the Hawks in the first half but the fans still celebrate their second goal of the game.

HEGERBERG: GET UNCOMFORTABLE When one of the best players in the world refuses to play for her nation, it’s not meant to make people comfortable. When arguably the best player in the world refuses to play at a World Cup it’s not meant to taste like a nice sweet cuppa hot chocolate. You say: “The world’s best need to play on the biggest stage” Yes. That’s why when the world’s best makes a stand to no do so, we should listen up. Look to history, boycotts motivate change. The biggest? Apartheid in South Africa. To quickly summarise a very complicated situation, the world essentially boycotted the nation in the early nineties. Change happened that saw an end to massive injustice that was the discriminatory regime of apartheid in that country. In sport you ask? The best I’ve seen is the USA women’s hockey side. My ice hockey friends are better off speaking on this, but before last year’s Winter Olympics, the side were planning to boycott a pre-Olympic tournament in a demand for better conditions. It went so deep, that to field a side, the selecters were looking to high school kids because literally everyone in that community was on board. (Side note, there’s more player action happening here, with players demanding better conditions, so keep an ear out for this) Closer to home? The Matildas boycott a tour of the USA just after the 2015 World Cup for a better pay deal. It worked. We saw significant change in conditions and better pay for our national side that has motivated further improvements in the conditions of our domestic league. This action is a foundation on where this side now sits, heading into a World Cup in the top 6 and with a majority of the squad playing full time. So Hegerberg refusing to play because she’s fighting for equality? I’m on board. It’s not meant to be a comfortable situation. Sport is bigger than entertainment. It’s a vehicle for change.

I love the phrase “football is a funny game”. It means to expect the unexpected where a game isn’t won on paper but on the pitch. I’m lucky that when I head South I generally get to cover the match I want. Usually I try aim for the most entertaining on paper. This week I purely aimed for convenience, which lead me to Darcy street. On paper this game was already won. Although I do love a bit of cockiness from the underdog and got asked when I arrived at the ground by a coach “are you here to see Olympia’s first loss of the season”. It was a gritty display by the South Hobart, while Olympia tried to make something happen down the flanks only to be denied by a goalkeeper having an absolute day of it, determined to let nothing past her. It was brilliant. I love how good the quality of goalkeepers are in this league. We’ve got another contender here this season at South with their young keeper McMullen. How’d the match finish? In the end the expected winner got the final result of a victory. But gee it was fun to watch as the home crowd believed all the way they could snatch a point from the match.

The top gong going to the master of unlocking defences. An absolute pleasure watching Nairn carve up the pitch like a roast this W-League season

As we all know, this weekend was Mother’s Day. I love the mums I get to meet around the game. They’re amongst my all time favourite people. They’re especially brilliant to chat with about how their daughter is playing on the pitch and how they’re going off it. But I’ve got to put a shout out to my mum. This weekend the intention was to hit the road again, and go down to Hobart to both celebrate Mother’s Day and watch a football game. But after a mini-tired break down on the phone to my mum Thursday, the decision to remain home and regroup a bit, without the travel or going to a game, was made. The influence my mum has had on how I go about football is huge. She doesn’t go to many matches by choice, but she was there and took this photo of me at my first game back playing after about six years off. She’s since banned me for playing, fairly I might add given my tendency for concussions. Mum remains my biggest cheerleader, despite her favourite comment being “will you just write that down so I don’t need to listen to you talk about football”. Honestly that comment is the reason I’m on this wild ride of Molly’s Footy Rants and everything that has come with it. So thanks for everything Mum, including all the eye rolls of having to listen to me talk more about the game since I’ve taken up writing.

GROUP B: SOUTH AFRICA A bit like soft drink, an absolute winner but can they mix it when the adult drinks come out? The potential is there, but they might also get left behind by that next level of competition. Not only will defence be important for the side to combat the quality of forwards in this competition, but their defence is where the heart and metronome of the side is. When they have a spell of possession no doubt it will be because of the composure to play it around the back. A side who can adapt to controlling play as well as being up against it, seeing very little of the ball. Essentially South Africa will be looking to not get exposed in behind their defence. If they can limit the damage of quick attackers getting into these spaces they’ll stand a chance, if they don’t it could be a long day in the office. In attack they’ll be relying on their wingers to be darting down the flank off quick transitions.

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