AFLW: Players reveal struggle of juggling full-time work and sport

COVID has thrown AFLW players a series of curveballs already this season — none moreso than those also juggling full-time work. Liz Walsh found out how they’re coping.

It’s early on Wednesday. The sun is yet to properly rise, but Steph Chiocci is already awake and out of bed.

The Collingwood co-captain knows she has a big day ahead of her: first stop is Parkdale Secondary College, and her day job where she is a secondary PE and health teacher, Year 10 coordinator and coach in their Elite Sports Pathway program.

As soon as the school bell finishes the working day, she’s off her to her next job: AFLW footballer. She needs to fit in a quick chioropractic appointment, before arriving at Collingwood headquarters for team meetings and physio treatment before training begins.

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The pile of school assignments that need marking will just have to wait until after 10pm when Chiocci finally makes her way back home.

At some point before midnight, she’ll slump into bed.

Chiocci’s daily routine – one driven by a love of footy, as much as a love of teaching and a stack of adrenaline – is not unusual across the women’s league.

The majority of AFLW footballers work: players over 30 are more likely to be working full-time in off-field careers, the younger cohort often working part-time or studying.

Collingwood captain Steph Chiocci in a class room where she teaches at Parkdale Secondary College. Picture: David Geraghty

AFLW footballers are paid on a tiered system, anywhere between about $17,000 and $32,000; supplementary income in required.

The average wage of an AFL footballer sits above $300,000.

An inaugural AFLW player, the 32-year-old Chiocci is now in her fifth season in the league, and her eighth year at Parkdale.

She says while the daily juggle leaves her feeling spread thin, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’d be lying if I said it was easy,” she muses.

“It’s taken a toll on me for the last couple of months or so being back at work, just the mental capacity to be able to do both.

“But the season goes so quickly and you don’t have time to stop and relax; I think that’s what keeps you going. You’re riding on adrenaline.

“When you get to training you’re surrounded by like-minded people who are like your second family, there’s banter, there’s jokes and you’re all committed to achieving one goal.

“I think that’s what motivates you.”

Steph Chiocci juggles her full-time job with leading the Magpies.

But COVID is dishing up more complexities than other seasons.

Only three rounds in and already, the footballers have dealt with changing fixtures and border closures, four clubs have had varying stints in isolation, and no one knows who they’re playing next week as the AFL operates the fixture on a week-to-week basis to deal with borders.

With Melbourne’s latest COVID-19 cluster, and states like SA now closing their borders to Victoria, the possibility of a hub is on the horizon.

For Chiocci, that prospect has her nervous.

“In my team, we’re fairly lucky in that a lot of girls are studying or working part-time and have a bit of flexibility, (if there’s a hub) there are probably only a few of us who would have to miss,” she says.

“I would ask my employer if I’d be able to do so, but I’m very understanding of the fact it would be on short notice, and it would probably get declined and asking for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks of leave is very difficult at such short notice.

“But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love playing the game, I love my football club, I love my football team.”

Alyce Parker says she’s in awe of the sacrifices made by her teammates.

Greater Western Sydney’s prolific midfielder, Alyce Parker, saw first-hand the juggle of full-time working footballers, when the Giants were forced to relocate from their Sydney homebase to regional NSW and then Adelaide for a month during Sydney’s COVID clusters over New Year, players left to do their best to work remotely or take leave without pay.

She is filled with admiration for her teammates who work full-time including exercise professional Nicola Barr and teacher Lisa Steane.

“I’d like to think that in 5-10 years, things will change and become easier … but at the same time, the challenges we have to face really shape us as people, and any AFLW person who is trying to balance both are usually quite intriguing people who have their lives sorted,” the 20-year-old says.

Like Chioicci, Lisa Steane (front) is a teacher.

Last week, Crows defender Marijana Rajcic was among 40 Adelaide players and staff who were thrown into mandatory self-isolation late on Sunday upon returning from playing in Perth, after a COVID outbreak forced a snap border closure between SA and WA.

Rajcic, a secondary PE teacher at Paralowie R-12 School in Adelaide’s north, had no option but to send a hasty email to her school’s hierarchy late at night to explain she couldn’t work on Monday.

“They were really supportive, I even got an email from the principal the other day (when we flew to Sydney to play the Giants), to say: ‘Make sure you bring home the four points’,” she says.

“It’s probably more of a nuisance for my kids, because it’s only week three (in the school term), and they’ve barely seen their teacher … but the school’s been really accommodating and doing everything they can to best support us.”

Her Crows teammate Eloise Jones started casual work at sporting company Sportitude, three months ago.

Marijana Rajcic says she’s been lucky to have a supportive employer.

Sportitude’s general manager Josh Willoughby, says the company hired Jones knowing the AFLW season presented challenges, but that was outweighed by the importance of having a women’s footballer on staff.

“Women’s football is growing and we wanted an expert in that space,” Willoughby says.

“These AFLW players are pioneers, but the reality is they are not getting paid anywhere near as much as the professional males, so they have to have a day job and so having a flexible employer is really important.”

Chiocci says she hopes the AFLW will be fully professional by 2030.

“The type of football we’re playing is really hard, it’s really fast and the game itself is evolving and I think it’s taking a bigger toll on our bodies,” she says.

“The standard has increased and it’s a great spectacle, but it means the games are harder, especially at the ripe old age of 32, there’s a lot of those factors that come into play and why it’s increasingly difficult to work full-time and play at this level.”