Football is. | Stephanie Galea + Catherine Zimmerman

Making sense of life right now is not easy, Every day is a challenge and everyone has different opinions about how they are affected by these very strange times. As we live through the second lockdown, I thought it would be good to see how people in our football community were feeling about the season cancellation and where to from here.

Taking a more conventional Q & A format I thought it would be a good time to mix it up a bit and also share some of the broader discussions that took place outside of the narrative format I have published until now. Thank you to Stephanie Galea from Heidelberg United and Catherine Zimmerman from Calder United for your time. 

Football is. When it was confirmed that the season was cancelled. What was your immediate reaction?

Steph Galea  We were training on Monday. So we pretty much had a feeling that, that was gonna to be our last session. So it was like a goodbye for six week session and we just trained for a bit and then had some dinner. The committee thanked us for being patient and still dedicated because it's a bit hard to obviously stay positive, dedicated and motivated. I guess when it's just so up and down when your are back for two weeks and then you know your suburb gets locked down and everyone else is training and you're not. It was pretty shit in that manner. Despite the post code lockdown everyone stayed committed and training except the team members that were in lockdown. 

I guess from the club's perspective, they were really happy that we were so committed and patient with the whole process. Heidelberg took so long to start due to pitch availability. So we were a couple weeks behind. Everyone's just really shattered.

We are planning to still train once lockdown is over and hoping other clubs follow. And then we can hopefully do things like practice games just to keep football going if possible, depending on obviously the COVID-19 situation.

Catherine Zimmerman I wasn't surprised. I was like, whatever at this point, it sums up this year this pretty much. I mean, it's so frustrating. It's annoying because I had goals for the season like our team, we had goals and we wanted to build off, of what we did last year. We had and still have a really special group. So it's really devastating to just not be able to play with them and do our thing.

Football is.  What's been the biggest impact that all of this has had on you?

Steph I was really looking forward to this year we had a brand new squad, brand new coaching staff and a whole new committee behind us. I was really looking forward to seeing what we have created. We didn't really get to trial it. So we can't really measure our success and everyone was really looking forward to it. That has had a big impact on me because new surroundings and environment can really excite and motivated people. So that to me was the hardest thing, knowing that we had to put all that hard work behind us.

Catherine I'm looking at different options. A part of me does really want to stay here and train and try make the W-league but, it's not guaranteed. I don't know if I want to wait around for it to not happen, you know? And then I would have wasted these past three months or the next three months.

I don't know what I'm gonna do. I was talking to my parents about it yesterday, I guess I'm trying not to stress about it.

Football is. Catherine, is going interstate an option for you?

Catherine I’m looking into that. But again, I think logistically, I just don't know if it's worth it. If I had to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel. I might as well just stay here because any money I probably make through soccer would just go into that hotel for frickin for 14 nights.

Football is. What's different about the lockdown this time round last one?

Steph Galea I just feel like this one's worse. I'm hearing the stage 4 restrictions might be coming in. So that obviously puts a massive delay on everything that's on hold at the moment. But this lockdown I think it's a bit different because it's the second time as well. So people are slacking off, if that makes sense. Like at the start, there was more hope that the season was going ahead. So everyone was keen to do like group exercises online and stuff like that. So I feel that's kind of dropped this time round because people know we're not playing so it doesn't really matter kind of thing. I feel like that might break the unity of the squad and people are pretty much just gonna wait till we come back to start exercising. I feel like this one's a lot worse.

Catherine It's been tough. The second time around. Again, it was expected, but it's so frustrating. And I think, more separate from soccer. I hate the fact that this year has been a waste and, we're being told what we can and can't do. And some of it I think it needs to be strict, and you need to keep people safe. But part of me is like, to what extent like I don't know how much longer we can live our lives like this.  We come out for six weeks, go about our lives and then, you know, go back into lockdown. I don't know. That's what frustrates me the most. And again, I know we need to be smarter. Be safe and stuff, I understand that but it's just frustrating.

Football is. Catherine, Do you think that it puts in jeopardy your ability to come back from the USA next year?

Catherine Yeah, definitely. I think no matter what if I came back next year, it will be harder than it has been. I don't really know actually, if I could get another student visa. But as far as just what I want to do with soccer.  I mean, this year has kind of been a waste. As much as I would love to stay here and play with the girls, I do have other goals I want to do with soccer like playing in other places. I would love to stay here but I don't know. I'm getting older, I think I need to move on and do something different. I know after I left here, I would still want to play overseas. But I think pushing that back another year to get another season in here would make things a little bit harder.

Football is. Do you think that this extended break could effect the quality of the league moving forward?

Steph I guess we need to start preparing for 2021. But obviously me coaching as well. I wasn't able to be there for my under 16s. As an assistant, I was given the same training time and pitch allocation for the seniors. It was hard for me as well. So I felt a bit excluded. So seeing the girls training on opposite ends of the pitch and I couldn't be there, it was a bit heartbreaking for me, but I guess there's nothing we can do. As long as everyone's training. You've got to take that a a positive. 

Catherine  Yeah, definitely, for younger players especially. I do feel for them because this is time away from playing can effect their development. For us older girls we just want to be playing games. The last few months where we were training just doing passing drills like crossing and finishing, which is fine but, we can't even play between ourselves and get game fitness. So yeah, we won’t become worse player for anything it's that just mentally you want to be playing and you want to be playing games to become better players. But yeah, when there's these restrictions, telling you what you can and can't do. It’s hard. 

Football is. Steph, with NPL and also the Futsal also being cancelled this is probably the first time that you’re free from July to September, How do you think you’ll spend the time?

Steph Galea Depending on the COVID situation the next season of Futsal may not start till after September if at all. It's hard it's hard to say, you get used to one lifestyle and then all of a sudden that just changes. Well, I've been extremely busy at work. So our face masks have really, really taken off. I mean, we're getting orders of 500 a day. And we're getting heaps of companies wanting custom corporate ones. So they'll have their logo on it. And that's just going through the roof and we're struggling to keep up. So that's been a positive. As I don't have to rush to training I can purely focus on working and getting this right. It's a positive it's keeping our business alive. Obviously producing sportswear has completely died at the moment. Face masks literally keeping us in business.

Football is. Where do you see yourself this time next year?

Steph Galea  Hopefully halfway through the NPLW season, but let's just hope.  I seriously plan on continuing where I left off. I really want to get into coaching again. And hopefully we're playing games.  I guess I'll still be working as well. Hopefully not too much change. But yeah, hopefully, there's no disruptions next year. I can purely focus on winning games. Hopefully Heidelberg can win a championship who knows? 

Catherine I hope I'm still playing somewhere, whether it's here or overseas. It's so weird, this year's still gone pretty quick. Surprisingly, when I look back time just flies. A year ago we were in such a different position than we are now.  Who would have thought this would be life right now? So I don't know. It's really hard to say I hope I'm still playing and enjoying it and living life.

Please note that these Interviews were conducted on July 15, 2020.