 I'm Dean Hefner and I'm joined by Kaffir and Kanuli with White Ribbon just around the corner on the 23rd of November and the importance of the day we thought we'd get together and chat all things football. So Kaffir, why do we play football? Okay, we play. For me I think I didn't have much of a choice. I grew up in an Italian family. I used to get working up at all hours in the morning to watch Italy play in World Carps and Euros. I had two older brothers. I used to be out in the backyard playing and kicking the ball around and there was no PlayStation or Fortnite back then so I had no choice but to kick a ball around and it's been been a massive part of my life and it still is and whether I'm playing, I'm watching it and I'm a big fan as well as the game. Yeah, brilliant. Much the same for me. My family, my older brother, younger brother, we always used to play football. We backed on to a soccer field at our local club so we were there every afternoon playing in the backyard playing, waking up early to watch the soccerers play, you know, watching that hour highlight show of the Premier League on SBS on a Monday. Yeah, just whatever we could do to watch football and to play, yeah, just lived it and breathed it. I used to love watching, I think it was called on the ball, wasn't it, with Les Murray and Andy and Johnny Warren and I remember they used to have the highlights of the Premier League goals and it was like, I gotta admit this, that when I was young and I was playing for Marconi under eleven boys, I think it was back then, I used to be so excited for my games that I would actually sleep in my full kit the night before. That's how excited I was and sometimes my mum would have, I'd actually put my boots on and I would be that excited about playing the next day and watching that show was definitely a massive pump up before my big under elevens game back then. It feels like such a long time ago now. Good memories though, right. Some of the greats of the game, you'll never forget those guys in that show and yeah, and just what it meant to watch the soccerers and to watch so many get up early and watch, you know, so many times where we'd go away to Uruguay and something would go wrong, qualifying for the World Cup or against Iran, 97 and all these different games that you would just live and breathe for even back then when there wasn't so much broadcasting of it, you just wanted more as a kid, you just wanted to see more football just because you loved it so much. Well I grew up, majority of my time was spent in the back car park of Marconi, so playing in the backfields there, so Marconi for me was what sparked my passion, obviously from an Italian background and living out west, Marconi was the pinnacle of football back then, so good old Joe, used to be the soccerer's kit man also, he was the Marconi kit man and good old Joe, our manager here now that looks after all the kid, used to see me as a young kid running around Marconi and hanging out with the likes of Gary Van Egmon and JP. It's funny how it goes full circle now, working in the game and working alongside and seeing what JP actually does in our game and Gary Van Egmon is assistant coach of the Matildas, Alan Staggi used to play for my brother, obviously head coach of the Matildas and you know I was such a young kid back then having all these dreams and I'm one of the lucky ones I got to play and I also get to now work in the game which is something that a lot of people dream to do but they can you know work in football and for me you know I don't I don't classify it as a job because it's something that I love I wake up every morning doing something that I love and that I'm passionate about. So with your football I know you were saying you played with the boys in the under 11s and I don't know for you yourself have you ever experienced any kind of gender inequality? Yeah back then there was no girls football team so it was either I played with the boys or I didn't play or I had to go play all age women there was no under 12s or under 13s when I got to under 13s unfortunately the association had said that now I was obviously getting older and that I couldn't play with the boys anymore and there were some barriers that I had to jump over back then you know I had to it was a hurdle for me and with my family you know I wanted to play football I knew already at the young age that I wanted to play for Australia you know I knew what my goals were I knew what I knew what I wanted to do and then as a family we discussed it and obviously growing up in Marconi and being a big part of that club at 13 years old I went and played for Marconi first grade women so now a lot of people look at that and say oh no these kids are too young no one would think about think twice about putting a 13 year old girl in in first grade in a first grade squad or 13 year old boy but back then there was no other pathways so that was that was the only pathway that I could keep playing so I did I played it under 13s I went and played first grade women I'd done I think it was two seasons there and then eventually I went over to the Institute of Sport you know which was up at Parkley and the programs were running out of there but you know in terms of as a young girl the opportunities now for young females are just endless you know there's so many teams that you can play for there's so many different levels you can play park you can play social you can play a summer soccer competition but yeah back then it was a massive challenge for a young girl and there was also a massive hurdle for myself coming from an Italian background for many years my mother didn't want me to play football you know I was told that it wasn't for females you know where my dad didn't care he just wanted all these kids to play he was passionate about the game and then eventually at 10 years old I actually trained for the first year didn't play and at 10 we finally went behind her back and went and signed up myself up for for Marconi and the boys team so yeah there was obviously a lot of hurdles back then and you know these days for young females the opportunities are endless and it's really really good to see so many different cultures and people aspiring to be footballers yeah it's good and I think you only have to look now at the the crowds and the broadcasting for the w league there's a game every week now I think I think it's the 11th season of the w league isn't it which is great as well and yeah big crowds for the Matilda's but I did see something where I thought it was a little bit um not a little bit but a massive gap and something that needs to be addressed um with FIFA I think for the for the men's World Cup it was something like 400 million for the winning team and um for the women it's 30 million and that's that's a massive gap and even for funding um for the Matilda's to go and prepare for their World Cup um it's a lot less um than what what the men get so does that mean that it's easier for women to prepare or you know what I mean like it's not it's not right it's against what FIFA and everyone speak about yet the numbers don't show up yeah look the whole world speaks about equality now you know and we need major organizations like FIFA to start um leading the way um in in these situations and in these uh it's it's a problem obviously all over the world whether it's a gender paid gap um whether it's a footballing issue it's it's a whole world issue at the moment that we're we're struggling with at the moment um but we need to be really really um mindful that you know we need the younger generation to start aspiring towards wanting to be an elite footballer or an elite athlete and it's really important for people like FIFA to start showing equality in the game and you know showing the equal the equal pay rides um equal uh money for if you win a World Cup you know what's the difference between a female and a male we all prepare we all train the same we all do the exact same things to be an elite footballer you know I'm sure there's just as many girls out there that do what Cristiano Ronaldo does you know so we need to um you know as a sport need to be able to give young aspiring children whether it's boys or girls the opportunity to become uh full-time athletes or full-time footballers I think it's really really important um these days you see a lot of young kids they get lost along the way um obviously the the big hype around social media and online games there's so many kids that aren't getting out and being active so we are the role models and as um elite athletes we need to give young kids something to aspire towards because there's definitely an opportunity there for so many young Australian um children yeah I've just picked up on something you said in there about how girls have to prepare just like the boys do um for major tournaments things like that and then there's another side of it like what you need to sacrifice to achieve anything to be a professional to be a CEO whatever it might be everyone has to sacrifice as well I know for me it was probably more of a social social life um to to be able to play football and and play for Australia yeah I had to give up weddings and um 21st we're at the younger age and as I got older they turned into weddings and 30th and everything else but to be honest I was happy happy to miss that anyway but um I don't know for someone like yourself what kind of things did you have to sacrifice yeah look um my sacrifices are the same you know I used to have my friends always write me messages saying oh yeah don't even reply we know I can't you have soccer um and when I actually retired from the game everybody was really happy like yes we've got our weekends back we can start organising weekends away you're not going to miss things and I think it lasted about six months that I wasn't involved in football and I just got so bored at home you know growing up playing and training you know pretty much every night of the week I knew that I wanted to be back in involved in some in some way um and lucky for me I went and spoke to our local association Southern Districts and they gave me an opportunity to work within the women's program but the sacrifices are the same you know weddings birthdays um so many family functions that I've that I've missed nieces and nephews birthdays you know things that that mean the world to me but I wouldn't be the person that I am without football um football has taught me so many um life life um experiences of I've learned uh a lot of different things that I don't think I would have learned if I wasn't in football you know who knows where my life could have went also you know we put it straight to different ways um but with football it just kept me grounded it keeps you humble um gives you discipline you know and you make lifelong friends that in the long run you know their memories that you're going to have forever yeah for sure that's probably the main one isn't it the the nieces the nephews and missing out on the you know the closer family kind of moments but I guess the the other side of what you get with your your teammates and the ones that you remember for your life and that your friends with for life it's really good but I guess I don't know the last thing would be um around team sport and just a from a personal perspective because I know myself if I look back on my career if I could give myself some kind of advice one thing I've learned as I've got older is probably just to to be the bigger person and sometimes just to walk away from certain things or and not react um on the pitch or off it um which is something I've learned a lot um is there anything for yourself where where you'd look back on your career and um think uh what what kind of um advice because I give to my younger self yeah of course I always um you know it's something that I think about all the time you know I always replay my career and I didn't have a very um you know colorful career in terms of I got to play for Australia but it was the second time around where I played for Matilda's and actually capped properly um I went through a generation where Australian football for the women's um you know we're wearing jerseys that are four times too big for us you know we're now if I look back at what we had compared to where they're at now it's just an unbelievable spot where the game's going but you know I think back to what I could have done better you know could I have done things differently um and now I think that I held myself as as a mentor to all the girls not only within our Wanderers team but I'm out there to help any kid whether it's from grassroots all the way through to professional um Matilda where they can learn from the mistakes that I made you know um you know there's some small regret in terms of I should have played a lot more for Australia I know I had the talent to do it but in terms of um where my head was at in terms of having the balance of you know being still being a child and still being a kid um and being involved in a in a senior environment um and not knowing how lucky you actually have it and how lucky you are every time you put on that green and gold jersey or whether you put on a Wanderers jersey and playing in the a league or the w league you know we don't realise how lucky we actually are because there's so many people out there that would die to be an a league a w league player or a Matilda or a soccer group that's not until you get older they actually realise how lucky you were that you actually got to achieve that goal