PTI to take on Ireland
Volume 11, No. 50, August 24 2006
By Barry Rollings

Top kick: Newly-selected Australian representative Cpl Emma Hender with the Player of the Carnival trophy she received at the women’s Australian football carnival in Sydney. Photo by Lt Cameron Jamieson

SUPERIOR fitness has paved the way for Duntroon PTI Cpl Emma Hender’s inclusion in the Australian women’s international rules team to tour Ireland between October 20 and November 7.

Matches will be played in Dublin and Galway on October 31 and November 4 under the international hybrid rules as employed when the Australian Football League’s representative men’s team plays matches against its Irish Gaelic football counterparts. Matches will be televised in Ireland.

Cpl Hender made the train-on squad after the recent women’s national Australian football carnival in Sydney, where she was named the Player of the Carnival.

She was told of her inclusion in the final squad on August 14 after attending an intensive day-long camp at Preston in Melbourne on August 12 with about 40 other tour aspirants.

“I was stoked,” Cpl Hender said. “It’s great to be able to go overseas and play for Australia.”

The rover, who plays for Eastlake in the Canberra women’s competition and Newtown Breakaways in the Sydney competition, was not confident of making the cut-off before the training camp.

“I had suffered bruising to my shin bone and was unable to train as much as I had wanted to,” Cpl Hender said.

“I did really well in the beep tests and was the second last to retire so that gave me a great deal of confidence to take into the other drills.”

The test required her to shuttle back and forth between two points set 20m apart while the tempo gradually became faster. “It was pretty intense,” Cpl Hender said.

“After the morning registration and introduction, we had coaches take us through drills and warm-up fitness tests and beep tests. We studied game theory and had a video session as well as doing skills, drills and game sense for three hours.

“We watched a few videos of AFL representatives playing against Ireland. It was pretty emotional to see them play for Australia and hear what they had to say.

“I was happy when it was over; I gave it my all and was tired and strained.

Those who put the women through their training were former Richmond coach and St Kilda fullback Danny Frawley, Australian Institute of Sport/Australian Football League high performance coach Alan McConnell and AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan.

Cpl Hender has been selected in the All Australian team in 2003 and 2004, but this will be her first experience of representative honours overseas.