Queensland women’s team juggling family and playing with aplomb
It’s one of football’s anomalies that mothers returning to playing are put in the rehab group, but Queensland’s women’s team show motherhood and playing can go hand in hand.
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WHEN Olympic sevens gold medallist Amy Turner first returned to rugby after giving birth to tiny Kovah she trained in the injured players group.
It is one of footy’s laughable anomalies because Turner and footy-playing mums like her should be in a Super W group better labelled “Inspirational.”
When players say the Queensland women’s team is family-orientated, it literally comes with front-pack baby-carriers, strained baby food and nappies on the sidelines at training.
“Just because you have a baby doesn’t mean it’s over...it’s not full-time on footy,” said Turner, 34, with a beaming 10-month-old in her arms.
“You know women multi-task, right?
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“There’s a few frantic pick-ups but you pre-pack food, clothes and toys and there really is a family feeling around our team with lots of helping hands.
“I’m a role model for my baby now, instilling a good ethic and she’s alongside watching when I train and play.”
Turner knows about multi-tasking. Before the 2016 Olympics, she was a dump truck operator in Xstrata’s Mt Isa zinc mine when finding ways to compete at sevens tournaments.
Turner hadn’t played a 15-a-side game in 19 months before she ran on as a replacement centre against NSW in Sydney last Sunday.
“It was so much fun, I felt the adrenaline of playing and I was in a team environment again,” Turner said.
Winger-fullback Charlotte Kennington and partner Jake Strachan, the Souths flyhalf, juggle training on different days and raising 14-month-old Luna.
“When I came back to light jogging after Luna’s birth, I was put in the rehab group with the injured girls,” Charlotte, 27 said with a laugh.
“I got itchy-footed being away.
“Luna loves being in the rugby environment and part of it is there being lots of other kids to play with.”
The names of flyhalf Lavinia Gould’s daughters Khalarnae, 8, and Kaia, 14, will be penned on her wrist bandages for Saturday’s game against the Brumbies women at Ballymore.
“Kaia had a kidney transplant four years ago and we have regular hospital visits for dialysis so I could not be this involved in rugby without massive help from the people around me,” Lavinia said.
Prop Hana Ngaha is a mother of four, Christina Sekona and Ana Fotu have two kids apiece and Kayla Sadlier and Cecilia Smith each have a young one.
The women’s Reds are eager to bounce back in the 5pm game on a bumper day for grassroots rugby at Ballymore.
The sharpness in midfield must lift because the team will again be missing centre trump Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea who is away on sevens duties.
Gould produced some classy touches against NSW with her knack for committing defenders and putting finishers away like winger Alana Elisaia, who has five tries in Super W.
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