In 1987, gridiron touched down in an Australia where football meant VFL for Victorians and NRL for New South Welshmen.
AFL hadn’t yet taken off and soccer’s glory years were still decades away.
Needless to say, gridiron wasn’t an instant smash hit.
Fast forward 20 years and an Australian gridiron team is preparing for the first ever Women’s World Championships.
“Guys who say girls can’t play football, come down… we’ll see if we can break some fingers,” says one very enthusiastic player – one of nearly 3,000 amateurs playing in 70 teams across seven states.
Ethan Herridge is 18, lives in Toowoomba, Queensland, and plays for the Toowoomba Valley Vultures.
The team with the ball is on offense and the opponent is on defense. The offense's goal is to get the ball to the opponent's endzone. Source: SBS
Today, he’s a tower of muscle. But before he picked up a footy a couple of years ago, he was, by his own admission, “large to say the least.”
He was pretty down on himself, too.
“Self-confidence is definitely a massive thing that I lacked. I didn’t really talk to anyone. I wouldn’t lash out in public, but I’d lash out at home… I was in a dark place.”
Then he laced up a pair of boots, donned a helmet, and the transformation began.
“I don’t know what it was, I just felt invincible in the armour, like I could do anything.”
“Look, the technology of the helmets has come a long way. We’re adopting some of the principles that rugby union players use to keep their head out of the tackle and it’s going really well.”
At first, Ethan’s mum, Julie, was nervous about her son taking up such a heavy contact sport.
“It’s a bit scary to see them play and hear the noises on the field; to hear the padding colliding.”
But coach, Kelvin Howsan, says the bark is worse than the bite.
“Look, the technology of the helmets has come a long way. We’re adopting some of the principles that rugby union players use to keep their head out of the tackle and it’s going really well.”
Ethan’s dream is to play for an American college team.
Samantha Harris has been playing gridiron for three years and will soon play for Australia.
When she’s on the field, Samantha says, “I just turn into a really fiery person and all I'm thinking about is making that tackle." Source: SBS
She got her start playing in the LFL, which stands for Legend's Football League, but it better known as 'Lingerie Football League' because the women compete in very revealing attire.
“I got a lot of funny reactions from family and friends,” she says.
“They’d second guess me. Their reaction was, ‘hang on, you’re a woman playing football?’”
Samantha’s boyfriend describes her as, “the most gentle and harmless person.”
But when she’s on the field, Samantha says, “I just turn into a really fiery person and all I'm thinking about is making that tackle or making that first down and just getting that hit; I just want to knock them and hit them.”
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