Former Young Matildas captain and Adelaide United player Jessica Waterhouse sets her sights on AFLW after joining Glenelg
JESSICA Waterhouse captained the Young Matildas at 15 and played three seasons with Adelaide United. Now she’s set to play for Glenelg in the SANFLW.
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JESSICA Waterhouse was captaining the Young Matildas at just 15 and played three seasons of soccer with Adelaide United in the W-League.
Now, the talented athlete is the latest to switch codes and will line up with Glenelg in next year’s SANFLW competition.
Waterhouse, 20, heads to the Bay after one season of Australian rules.
She played for Christies Beach’s division two side this season and helped the Saints claim their inaugural Adelaide Footy League women’s premiership.
“I had been playing soccer since I was four, so it was all I had ever known,” Waterhouse, of Noarlunga, says.
“I represented the state and the country and I feel like I got what I wanted out of the sport.
“Over the past few years I wasn’t enjoying soccer any more and I saw that a lot of the girls were switching to footy, so I thought I’d give it a crack.”
The former midfielder was the youngest United player to make her W-League debut in 2012 before she skippered the Young Matildas at the AFC under-16 qualifiers in the Philippines.
She then lined up for Metro United in the women’s Premier League before hanging up her soccer boots at the end of last year.
Waterhouse, who is the niece of former Fremantle and Port Adelaide SANFL player Clive Waterhouse, hopes to use the SANFLW as a springboard to the national women’s league.
“I was pretty bad at the start and I didn’t even know how to use my hands to catch,” the half-forward says.
“But I’ve picked it up and it’s been a pretty easy transition because the girls are super- supportive.
“I am definitely looking at getting into the AFLW.
“It’s happened so fast, so I just want to make the most of it at Glenelg and I’ll be trying to learn as much as possible.”
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