 Now, questions are tough ones. Why do we play? I'm asking you, you're asking me. I'm asking you. Ah look, it's obviously for me, it was something to... My parents kept me off the streets, myself, my brothers, put us in a football team to mix him with different races, different religions and cultures. So I was a young boy, always listened to my coach. My fondest memory was, one of my first ones was with my coach. He told me to go out on the pitch, stand there and don't move. So I was always a listener, I stood there, I didn't move, not even to kick the ball. So even though my brothers and sisters were yelling at me to kick the ball, I was definitely listening. So yeah, look, for me it was more, you know, to stay off the street, get to know different people, different races and religion. I think that was the most important thing. How about you? Mine's quite similar. My older brother played before me, so I was just the youngest sibling running around the field and my mum and dad thought it would be a great idea to sign me up and obviously there was kids from schools at local clubs so I joined in with the boys straight away and was the only girl on the team so I used to run around with the boys and just grew up playing and loving it and then eventually made my way into the youth rep set up and played with Manly United through my whole youth league and then eventually just made my way through to first grade and then got picked up for W League squad. I think for women's football there's always been a bit of a gap between the men's football and women's football but we're obviously heading in the right direction, getting the support from the PFA and obviously helping the women's game get more exposure even on TV broadcasting and stuff like that. So we're definitely moving in the right direction and there's still a long way to go. Obviously the pay gaps quite large and the men can usually make a living off just playing football and a lot of the girls in our team, especially our mothers or come straight from work and come straight to training so it is a large gap and I think that if we just keep working towards and obviously getting the men behind us and supporting us and also the women supporting women we can eventually bridge the gap between both of that. To add to that, I've made a lot of friends in the W League and I've seen it go from where it was to where it is and I totally agree with you, we're totally off the pace when it comes to women's football and especially what you girls are achieving on the international stage with the W League. The Matilda's, what they're doing is amazing and one of the favourites we'll walk up, us men, we're probably never the favourites but look, I totally agree. It's good to see what Sam Kerr is doing and what she's earning but hopefully that can rub off on to the rest of you guys so yeah, look, I totally agree. I've kind of seen it go from girls not getting paid at all and as you mentioned, some finished school, some finished work straight to training and then they expect the maximum from you guys. So trust me, we're with you guys, I'm with the PFA as well, I'm one of the delegates and it's a topic we really take very serious and look, I totally agree with you. The good thing is now there's, I remember as you mentioned before when you were junior you were the only girl playing amongst the boys where now there's actual girls teams happening, a lot of people encouraging the young girls to play and even for the young boys, they got a lot to aspire to. We were speaking about PFA before, for me the wages we're earning at the moment I'm going to be in 20 years probably sitting on the couch and oh man, it's not been able to walk because my knees are busted but you know, there'll be a kid that's just started now earning probably what I was earning at the top of my career so we're trying to build the game for the future of these kids. So look, hard work, determination and Australian football is just heading in the right direction and as we spoke to now there's a lot more opportunity for the women, at least we've got a women's league, I think the W league's probably the first or correct me if I'm wrong, one of the first leagues actually made for women on a professional level it's good to see that it's on free to wear TV and hopefully we can get all the games on TV and you know, these kids aspire to be like us there's no secret about that so look, just keep working hard, listen to your parents as the best advice I can give because it's got me to where I am today how about you, what's some advice you can give the kids? I completely agree with you, I think that now there's a huge pathway for women's football and like obviously we have a lot more role models to look at especially with the success of the Matildas and the W league doing so well and also us getting some pretty great international players coming into the league, it's just making the league even more special and I think it just allows younger girls to come and support women's sport and women's football and just come and cheer them on and aspire to be like one of the female footballers in today's society because they really are great role models women's football is just building and building and like what you said you just need to grow up and work extremely hard and be determined and stick at it because it is going in the right direction and the girls that are in the Matildas now are building a foundation for Australian women's football How much have you sacrificed to get to where you are today? You touched on it a little bit earlier Yeah, I think I've sacrificed a lot to get where I am I know that a lot of the female footballers and male footballers have sacrificed a lot to become a professional footballer I've done things like sat my HSC in China and wasn't at school much was at a lot of football under 20's camps and I wouldn't have changed it for the world but you do miss out on a lot I had to fly back for my own graduation then fly straight back to an under 20's camp so I couldn't even really celebrate my graduation with my family but I wouldn't have changed it I want to be a professional footballer and you've got to do what you have to do so those sacrifices do help you along the way and I think that has helped me get to where I am Look, for me I feel a lot of the people outside look at the glitz and glamour of football they look at the clothes you wear the car you drive, the jewellery you're wearing but they don't see the sacrifices for example growing up I missed out on a lot of events with my mates for example parties and stuff like that because I had a soccer game or training then the professional career started I moved away from home so I missed a lot of weddings I missed my own brother's engagement because I got called into the national team I even missed my own brother's funeral because I was actually in Dubai with the soccer ruse so talking about sacrifices sometimes there's not much you can do about it I remember when my brother passed away I found out in the morning in Dubai but it already happened they'd already buried him here because they knew the cause of death because he was sick weddings, I've missed a lot of weddings and then as you mentioned you missed your graduation party you couldn't really enjoy it as much as you would have liked to for us we know what it took to sacrifice a lot of my friends didn't sacrifice these things and didn't get to the level we were at so there's a lot that goes to it it's the unseen, no one ever sees that stuff and then you have a bad game and no one knows what's going on in your life but we do and that's the beauty of football every team I've been at you become a family for me I wouldn't change that for the world every decision I've made I don't regret I was grateful that we had an NSL which was the old national league then that folded but then there was an A league that they put a lot of money into to start up so I remember when we started the salary cap was 1.6 or 1.8 million across 20 players there was no reserve grade at the time so you had to have 3 under 20 plays or 4, can't remember so we kind of had a platform where I feel where we started with the W league it's not my decision to make but I feel that you guys had to start from here where we kind of started up here a little bit and that's where I don't necessarily agree I'm not sitting there saying that it should have been started at the same sort of money but for what I'm speaking about now at the Wanderers it's good to see what they're doing not only for women's football but junior football the facilities we're going to have here are going to be second to none and I think that's where a lot of Australian clubs should aspire to shouldn't just be that one team, the men's team yes it generates a lot of money through memberships and jersey sales and everything else but you've got to make a fair for everyone I remember in the A league because we don't have these junior teams kids don't really aspire to play for example for an Adelaide United or a Newcastle Jets because they're playing at their local club all their life and then all the sudden they get picked up by our club so there's no passion I feel when I was younger I played for Sydney Olympic so I only wanted to play for my club and I feel that's what needs to be done in the A league have a junior system where all the junior kids aspire to play for us have that love for the club and for the W League women's football in general I feel it's the same too they should have the same pathway for the girls as well I think respect is huge especially being a younger player obviously heading into the W League I was 16 when I debuted and I had a lot more experience than older players around me and obviously heading into that kind of environment respect needs to be there you need to respect the older girls and the team who have been there and actually paved the way for you for the opportunity and who have really helped you as leaders on the field too feel comfortable and be a part of a team so I think that respect is a huge thing and obviously the involvement of the men's club with the women's club now and you can see the respect that you boys have for us as the W League it definitely goes a long way it just shows that there's no male club there's no female club it's just one club so it's just great to see that the involvement of both men's and women's can just be an even stronger unit and more as one unit so it's great to see the advice I'd give to my younger self is to always just be humble and respect everyone around you no matter who they are, what they play they're there for a reason they've made their own way they've had their own path and they deserve to be there so just respect everyone that's around you I totally agree with that one respect is the biggest thing in my profession so I kind of learnt a lot of the respectful traits even if you were in the right and one of the older players told you otherwise you'd always agree and just never backchat and I feel I wouldn't say it's lost but we're slowly losing that but for me I'm glad the way I was brought up in the football world to always respect and appreciate what I do we didn't have much opportunity when we were younger so when I first started the A-League there was no reserve grade system so I had to play good for my State League team at the time to get picked up for an A-League team where now we do have a youth system so you do see me good in that you get pushed into us it should be an honour to be involved in a football team there's so many people that want to do what we're doing and I look at it in a pyramid form we all start down here as you mentioned before some of us make those State teams or go on to a better level and then we all go to A-League for example, professional league and then we all aspire to be that great player that's played for our country or whatever it is or overseas in the big league but only so little of us make it and I feel that when you're playing football just make the most of it but the biggest thing is respect and I feel the way you carry yourself is that you are offered as well so for us as players we have bad days we make mistakes and also the respect around the outside now social media and everything that's going on I feel a lot of people have kind of lost that respect where there's comments being made on social media even at stadiums that are a bit disrespectful or racist or stuff like that and I feel it's a good place when it comes to that I don't feel we're doing so bad when it comes to that but to have it at zero is the goal