How far we’ve come: Chelsea Randall and Courtney Cramey chat about their memories of women’s footy before AFLW was around

The Advertiser’s AFLW writer Liz Walsh listens in as Crows footballers Chelsea Randall and Courtney Cramey reminisce about their early days in football.

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Crows AFLW co-captain Chelsea Randall (CR): When did you first start playing footy?

Crows joint vice-captain Courtney Cramey (CC): Primary school against the boys. I grew up in a footy family, my dad coached and played and my brother played, so I grew up around footy clubs — the Glenunga Footy Club has my fondest memories — running around every Saturday night we’d be there after games. And then the Sturt footy club. When dad was coaching of a weeknight, I remember having the wheelie bin out where all the footys were and I’d be kicking balls into it one after the other.

CR: So, dad was supportive of you playing?

CC: Yeah, loved it.

CR: And mum?

CC: Yep, she was involved in footy and worked behind the canteen, team manager, did anything a woman could do back then in football. It was a part of my family and when we weren’t at a footy club, we’d be watching the Footy Show at home, we’d have the AFL on TV over the weekend. It was just part of life.

CR: Isn’t it funny that your story was pretty much the same as mine, but we were just in two different states. I was over in Western Australia doing the exact same thing, thinking: OK, I’m the only girl playing primary school football, junior boys football, and same thing: Mum’s in the canteen or a team manager and Dad’s a boundary umpire, brother’s playing, always kicking the ball around in the street. I don’t know whether you had the same thing, but I was always thinking: ‘I’m the only one, I must be really different’. But I always thought: ‘There must be other girls out there doing the same thing’. And there you are doing the exact same thing, just in South Australia. And then there was women’s footy, wasn’t there?

CC: In Year 8 I was told that I couldn’t play with the boys any more and so I started boundary umpiring. When you worked out that you couldn’t be involved in footy any more as a player and there weren’t any women’s teams around and you still wanted something to do with the game. What about you?

Courtney Cramey and Chelsea Randall chat about the good old days of women’s football. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

CR: I played boys footy in under-11s and 13s, and then when I was 14, I got a special permit to play in the open women’s team for the Safety Bay Stingers and it was just full of the girlfriends of the men’s senior team, or full of the girls who were roped in. And then there was me, all arms and legs running around.

CC: Your arms and legs are still the same.

CR: Good one! But we got smashed every week for three years by 150-odd points. And my gran would be out cheering us on and every time I got the ball, she’d be like: ‘Yeah!’ and I remember when we kicked our first goal. It was Mother’s Day and we were playing with a pink ball, and the whole team just ran to the other end; they’d kicked 11 goals for the game, but we finally got our first ever goal and we were like: “YEAH — it was the first time we’d ever scored’. That was how bad it was.

Chelsea Randall and Courtney Cramey pictured at the Adelaide Football Club’s West Lakes headquarters before a Crows training session. PHOTO: Naomi Jellicoe

CC: I remember games like that. Back in those days, you had to let the other team score at least a point so that the percentage counted. There were a lot of floggings back in the days. but we still had fun. It didn’t matter if you were getting pumped, you were tackling, you were kicking, you were having the best fun ever.

CR: The Safety Bay Stingers — we had the Richmond theme as our song — hadn’t been around that long and the coach hadn’t been around for that long and there were eight of us at training and he put the call out to everyone: ‘If you don’t train, you don’t play’. And then we’d rock up on game day and be like: ‘Why are there only 12 of us here?’ … then we’d embarrassed-call everyone: ‘He was just joking, you can play. Come down please’. And they’d say: ‘Oh, but I had a few drinks last night, I’m a bit hungover’ and we’d say: ‘Doesn’t matter, just come down, otherwise we have to forfeit’. That was quite amusing. I also remember we’d struggle for boundary umpires or water runners, first aiders. Didn’t you do a strapping and coaching course just to keep your team going?

CC: Yeah, in clubland, everyone became everything and all the players made up the committee, and we filled all the positions of president, treasurer, secretary. We ran ourselves and if we didn’t have a trainer, one of us would go off and do our trainer’s certificate just as a back up. So you could be strapping girls before you play, but also you’re the president who has to organise the scoreboard and the water runners.

LW: How did you find people to fill those spots?

CR: We just roped people in.

CC: It used to get to the point if we were struggling for numbers, that we’d say to each girl: ‘Bring a friend’.

Courtney Cramey and Chelsea Randall chat about the good old days of football. PHOTO: Naomi Jellicoe

CR: We were more forceful: ‘Chelsea, it’s your week, it’s your turn to find someone to run the boundary this weekend’. But you’d always end up with one passionate mum or dad who was always there. It was like junior footy. But that’s one thing we need to think about now for our young girls at the grassroots, is that it’s grown from 16 teams before AFLW to now over 120, that are we moving fast enough for the amount of team that are coming in. Our parents need support in coaching, and enough facilities for them, all of those flow-on effects. but how exciting that there’s this pathway now. I just went with the flow as a 14-year-old who was invited to the state academy and then as a 15-year-old I was playing open.

CC: These were the days when you had to pay your own way to play for your state.

CR: My grandmother actually sponsored me, for the $800 I needed to play in the states. And remember we’d play two games a day, one in the morning and then in the afternoon and then the next day we’d play another two games.

CC: A week of a footy … it was good for the bodies.

LW: So when did you two meet?

CR: In 2011, we had the nationals here in Adelaide, and Jan Cooper the AFL female manager came to me and said: ‘Chels, we’re thinking for the nationals, trying to get people down to support female football, we want to do something different, we’re thinking of a flash mob dance.’ Do you remember that?

CC: Yes! In Rundle Mall!

CR: We all got together in our different gear and we all did this flash mob dance and handing out flyers promoting ourselves.

CC: Could you imagine doing that now?
CR: Yes, I can!

CC: And then from those nationals, one person from every state got selected to go to an AFL camp in 2012, and I got to see my first ever AFL grand final.

CR: One memory I have from that, is we were in a room full of 60 boys or something like that,

CC: Players like Brodie Grundy were there that year.

They’ve known each other a long time and have many similar memories of growing up playing grassroots girls footy. Chelsea Randall, left, and Courtney Cramey now play together at the Crows. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

CR: And they were like, righto, everyone’s going to get their boots and stuff. And I was just: ‘Oh my god, I’m about to get my first ever free pair of boots, my grandma doesn’t have to pay for them, this is going to be amazing, I’m so excited’. And everyone was getting boots handed out being sized up and the eight girls sitting up the back just got bypassed.

CC: Actually, I think we got a little showbag with some stickers and paper in it.

CR: It was funny, because I didn’t think much of it … we were just appreciative and grateful that we got to be there.

LW: Were you two friends?

CR: We were after that.

CC: The year after, it all really ramped up and female football was in the eyes of the AFL and the exhibition series started after that in 2013.

LW: And then of course, the AFLW was born and suddenly you were teammates. So, what’s it like for you both now watching the growth in the game?

CC: I have a two-year-old niece and for me, it’s knowing that she won’t see anything different, and it will be an opportunity she can take if she wants it. There won’t be all those barriers and challenges along the way. That’s the beauty of how far it’s come.

CR: I think it’s impressive how far we have come. It probably seems like a long journey, but I’ve had 16 years in footy and it’s still pretty surreal to be in this elite environment. It’s very cool, how far we’ve come.