Women’s football: Sam Hall debuts in the VAFA at age 51

When Sam Hall read that the Ajax women’s team needed players, she decided to pull on the boots at an age when footballers are usually long retired. And in her second game she was the hero of the team.

Ajax players get around Sam Hall after she slotted a goal into the wind.

It started with a Facebook post from a coach looking for players.

Joe Nankin explained that the Ajax women’s team, the Jackettes, needed numbers to field a team in the VAFA in 2019.

Sam Hall came across it and thought, ‘Why not?’

She gave no thought to her age, 51.

So there she was in Round 1 playing her first game of football, many years after her father, Reuben, tried to put her into a Little League team, only to be rebuffed.

He was told girls weren’t allowed to play.

Hall had only one training session before her debut, which she said was the fulfilment of a childhood dream.

“I was obsessed with football. I always wanted to play,’’ she said.

“But back then it was different. I’m one of four girls and none of my sisters kicked a football.

Ajax first-year player Sam Hall. Picture: Valeriu Campan

So I would kick it to myself in the back garden. I taught myself. But there was nowhere for girls to play.’’

Her kicking skills were also honed on Glenferrie Oval and Princes Park, when she and her father attended Hawthorn matches.

He would go into the rooms after games and she would go on to the ground.

One day Hawks forward John “Bomber’’ Hendrie gifted her a pair of Puma boots; she wore them until her mother told her she was doing too much damage to the back garden.

Many years later when Hall responded to coach Nankin’s plea for players, she could confidently say to him, “I can kick a football’’.

But she’d never laid a tackle. “They all laughed at me because I basically hugged the girls,’’ she said. “But you learn very quickly.’’

The Ajax women's football team with Sam Hall (centre), who has started playing at the age of 51. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Hall kicked a goal on her debut, only to hurt ligaments in her ankle soon after.

The Jackettes won and, because of her injury, she was grounded as her teammates jumped around in celebration after the match.

But singing the song was “one of the most amazing experiences of my life’’.

“I want to do it again, and again,’’ she said.

Sam Hall (left) on the field. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The injury put Hall on the sidelines for weeks but she diligently did her rehabilitation and returned in Round 12.

The Jackettes won by a goal — a goal kicked by their second-gamer.

She was kicking into the wind and unleashed a torpedo that sailed through the middle. Teammates came from everywhere to congratulate her.

MORE: VESCIO READY TO MAKE MIDFIELD MOVE

DEES GREAT SLAMS VFL HOME AS ‘COW PADDOCK’

It was quite a buzz for Hall and her proud husband, football journalist Howard Kotton.

Ahead of his wife’s first game, Kotton arranged for Rodney Eade and David Rhys-Jones to call and wish her well.

“He’s really, really proud. He thinks it’s fantastic,’’ Hall said of AFL Record scribe Kotton.

The Jackettes dropped last week’s match against De La Salle and are fourth on the ladder.

They can still chase a finals berth.

And as they do Sam Hall, the 51-year-old football novice, is having a ball.

The Ajax women’s team for Round 13: Amy Sekler, Jessica Marget, Maddy Smart, Isabelle Worth, Lindi Nankin, Mikaela Grek, Nomi Blum, Daniella Abraham, Hayley Mrocki, Tali Pitt, Justine Gabriel, Hannah Mel, Maya Burstin, Jessica Israel, Sarah Kurland, Isabelle Norris, Sam Hall, Eliza Sharbanee, Morgan Klooger.