Live stream: Women’s footy pioneer Lynn Smith ready to make mark at AFL Masters National Carnival

Lynn Smith turned a lifelong dream into an amazing reality. Now, aged 70, she refuses to let the march of time stop her enjoyment. Catch her LIVE at the AFL Masters on KTV from Sunday.

Footy has ‘always controlled’ Lynn Smith.

The 70-year-old is pulling the boots back on over the next week for Victoria Metro at the AFL Masters, which this year is being played in Fremantle.

Smith is the oldest female player in the carnival, but her passion for the game will be a match-up no coach will ever be able to manage.

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Smith grew up in Victorian regional town Bacchus Marsh and fell in love watching Carlton on replay every Saturday night.

“It was all I was interested in as a child,” Smith said.

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“In a country town like Bacchus Marsh in the 1950s, there wasn’t much to do, so I used to just take it all in watching the black and white replays on Saturday night.

“I was absorbed by it, it just occupied my whole life, from a young age it was just ingrained and, I guess, it’s still there.”

Lynn Smith chaired off the field in her last Masters game in 2018.

Smith tracked down her first footy and embarked on a journey to emulate her heroes.

Her dad broke the news of the gender barrier in front of her Victorian Football League dream, but it only ignited further ambition in Smith.

“I had to do something about it, there was no opportunity to play women’s football, nothing,” she said.

“When you’re young and your dad explains to you ‘no, it’s for men only’, you just don’t get it.

“It was a matter of accepting and adapting to it but I could never rid myself of the love for the game and want to play.

“I knew I was going to do something, and I inevitably did.”

Smith said the thought of not having a competition to play in “consumed” her.

It lived in the back of her mind until she put a call out in the Sun to see if there were other women as interested in playing footy as her.

Smith (left) playing for Broadmeadows Scorpions in 1981.

Smith travelled far and wide to play.

Smith’s family didn’t have a landline phone at that stage, so her aunty in Strathmore took on the “full-time” role of taking names and phone numbers.

“The more and more I thought about it, I had to act, it became a bit of a thing that consumed me,” she said.

“I went to the state library, there was no Internet, I had to reach out through the library and I saw there were no state competitions so I decided to do something about that and put an advert in the Sun.

“She (Smith’s aunty) would take the messages, I would phone her from a payphone and take all the details – it was a full-time job for my poor Aunty, taking down those names.”

Smith found a vacant oval in Melbourne’s western suburbs and organised a training session.

Ninety-six players attended and it led to the establishment of Victoria’s first female footy league in 1981.

She lamented too much water has gone under the bridge since that first session, but she enjoyed looking back on it in the book ‘Play On! The Hidden History of Women’s Australian Rules Football’.

The advertisement in the Melbourne Sun asking for players

When the VWFL started, Smith was eager to play, and to win.

She jokes that her mindset has shifted a little bit since her ‘win at all costs’ younger days.

Now, playing in the AFL Masters, she is just happy getting a kick.

“Premierships, it’s the ultimate goal, but I think things shift in your life where you start to value participation,” she said.

“At least you’re upright and have enough health to go out on an oval and kick the footy around.”

Smith travelled the world but remained absorbed by football, playing competitively in the United Kingdom.

When she returned to Melbourne, she jumped straight into the AFL Masters competition.

She played up until she was 65 with teammates more than half her age.

Smith with former Carlton hero Chris Judd

Retirement beckoned in 2018 when degenerative injuries took control of her health.

The boots weren’t hung up for long though, as Smith got on top of her health and raised her hand for the non-contact competition.

“I like this non-contact where you’re a bit more protected, especially as a woman of 70,” she said.

“I have a lot of degenerative injuries: pressed disc in the back, osteoporosis, a bit of a heart thing going on but, nope, it’s not going to stop me – so what – I am still standing, so I am going to have a go.

“That’s not going to stop me, and it shouldn’t – I am out there having fun, having a kick and having a laugh.”

This weekend she will do what some of her Carlton heroes never did – pull on the Big V of Victoria.

Smith loves representing the Big V.

Smith faced SA in her last game.

Will it be her last hoorah as a footballer?

It’s unlikely.

“Who knows,” Smith joked.

“I’ve got no idea, the most important thing right now is that I’ve got my health, I am managing injuries and as long as I am above ground and not below.

“I don’t want to be pushing up daisies yet, not yet, I am not worried, I take it as I come but I have to do that at this stage.”

Originally published as Live stream: Women’s footy pioneer Lynn Smith ready to make mark at AFL Masters National Carnival