WHEN Emily Munro takes up her post at centre-half-forward for Bendigo Thunder, few people outside the club would realise just how far she has come to get out onto the field.
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It’s a 225km drive from the New South Wales Riverina town of Moulamein where the 20-year-old grew up, to the Kangaroo Flat football ground where Thunder plays its home games.
That equates to a five-hour round trip. But it’s one she is more than happy to make to get back playing the sport she loves.
Emily was a champion junior footballer at Moulamein, winning the club's under-14 best-and-fairest trophy in her final season before a rule banning girls from playing alongside boys when they turned 14 forced her to retire.
She switched to netball, but never gave up hope she might one day get the chance to pull her boots back on and display her footy talents again.
“Once I finished playing, I wanted to stay involved in football so I took up umpiring,” says Emily, who ran the boundary lines in the Golden Rivers league for about five years until giving it away this season due to time constraints.
“And over the past couple of years, I’ve been training with the Moulamein seniors, the men, to keep my skills in touch. I’m still doing that on Tuesday nights.”
The practice has paid off, because Emily has been a strong contributor to Thunder in the opening rounds and kicked five goals in her side’s 47-point win over the Eastern Devils on May 10.
Her strong contested marking and accurate left foot have been hallmarks of her performances.
Emily only plays in Thunder’s home matches because of the distance involved, but also drives to Bendigo during the away weeks to attend training.
“I always hoped I would get back into footy,” she says. “But I never really knew about the female clubs in Bendigo and even when I did, it was just so far away.
“I was contacted on Facebook two or three years ago asking if I was interested in playing for Thunder but I couldn’t do it at the time. I kept it in mind though, and decided this year to try and come across and play a few games.”
Emily is a signwriter by trade and has recently bought a house in Swan Hill, where she works.
She still goes “home” to play A-grade netball for Moulamein on Saturdays and says the club is an integral part of her own life and the fabric of the local community.
Her dad Brian grew up in the town and played football there; mum Kathy is on the Tigers’ netball committee; sister Penny is one of her team-mates on the netball court and brother William is a member of the under-17.5 football team and occasionally lines up in the seniors.
Emily’s boyfriend Tyson Spinks is also on Moulamein’s senior list and both families have thrown their support behind her resurrected football career.
“All my family come down and watch me play for Thunder,” she says, “and an aunty and uncle and some friends we know in Bendigo have come to games.
“Mum and dad help me out with petrol money, and Tyson’s family run Spinksy’s Good Wood and they held a wood raffle for me at the start of the year to help with my costs, which was very nice.”
Emily took up football at the age of eight and loved the free-flowing nature of the sport - running around kicking and handballing at every opportunity she could get.
“I was always out the back, kicking the ball with whoever I could find,” she says.
“I still did that, even when I was finished playing.
“My dad was my role model - we have got the same nice left foot and everyone always compared me to him and judged me against him. He was always there to watch.
“We made finals a couple of times, but probably my best memory was beating the boys to win the best-and-fairest award for the team in my last year. I’d been runner-up the year before that.
“I played at Moulamein until I turned 14 and was no longer able to play with the boys, and that’s when I went across to netball.”
Emily was also a strong track-and-field competitor, at one stage qualifying for the Little Athletics NSW state finals in the under-13 javelin event and finishing a very respectable fifth.
But it wasn't the same as footy.
She enjoyed playing in an all-girl team during her time at Swan Hill College, playing against other schools across the region and twice winning through to finals in Melbourne.
“We didn’t do any good once we got down there though,” she says, “but it was fun.”
And after six years on the sidelines, Emily is delighted to be back in action, having fun once more on the football field wearing the number 39 for her new side.
“I’m hopefully going to stay with Thunder for a while and have a great time with the girls,” she says.
“They’re a really good bunch of people to be around.”
In return, her team-mates are full of admiration for her dedication in travelling across state borders to follow her passion for footy and are happy to have her on board. Especially when she boots a bagful of goals.