Family relocation, epic road trips, breastfeeding in a grandstand during a trial to become a Tiger. Courtney Wakefield’s determination to play AFLW has featured all of this and much more.
Breastfeeding mere minutes before a physical try out to join Richmond? Yes. And that wasn’t the half of it that day. As Wakefield attempted to resume playing Aussie Rules after a 20-year gap, her youngest child was aged just seven weeks, and her eldest – a toddler - was running rampant on the sidelines.
The 32-year-old forward has detailed in the sixth edition of The Originals podcast how she and husband, Tom, experienced four miscarried pregnancies before they became parents of two.
The Originals: Episode 6 - Courtney Wakefield interview
Written and presented by award-winning journalist and author, Sam Lane; subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
When she drove herself to Bendigo to be put through her paces for the first time she found herself looking for excuses to turn around and head for home – a six-hour drive from Melbourne, in the New South Wales town of Top Hut.
“Lots of feeding, no sleeping and that’s it. I was extremely unfit,” she says.
“I was extremely nervous but I just kept saying ‘you’ve got nothing to lose’.”
Wakefield, who kicked Richmond’s second AFLW goal in the club’s round one competition debut and three goals in round four – in Bendigo – against Geelong, remembers wearing: “A very supportive sports bra and some old sneakers and some Wentworth footy shorts.”
She couldn’t physically do the two-kilometre time trial – “I had to feed, my boobs were full and it was so hot, I couldn’t do that one,” she recalls – but Tigers women’s football boss Kate Sheahan reassured her.
Fast-forward and Wakefield played VFLW for the Tigers and is now an original member of the Tigers’ original AFLW list.
Wakefield, her husband and their kids have moved from their farm in Top Hut so that she can play for Richmond. The kindness of friends has seen the quartet move to Pearcedale, about an hour’s drive from Punt Road Oval.
Previously, when Wakefield was playing VFLW, she drove six hours each way to train and play; sometimes dropping by her sister’s home in Bendigo for childcare support.
The Originals podcast; Courtney Wakefield: Determination to play
Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
