Running into Steph Catley
Arsenal women’s defender Steph Catley has been a favourite player of mine for years, even before she moved to Arsenal. She played for my local side Melbourne City FC when they were just starting out, and for me, Catley being a born and bred Melbourne girl was always a huge factor as to why I loved her so much. And although it hurt to see her leave Melbourne City, I was lucky enough to see her go to Arsenal and get the opportunities she truly deserved.
Because it’s the women’s holiday break, a lot of our players have gone home to see family and I was lucky enough to run into Steph Catley at the local Melbourne Derby 2 weeks ago and ! got to have a short word with her while she was walking around the stadium signing things for fans.
I only got to speak to her for 20 seconds as she was extremely busy with fans and because it was such a surprise that she’d be there, I was a tad starstruck, but having met her a few times over the years, she luckily recognised me. I got the chance to tell her how incredibly proud I was to see where she has got to, from a local Melbourne girl who used to play in front of crowds of 200, to playing in front of sold out stadiums for the Matildas and sold out stadiums at Arsenal and she said “thanks” and signed my shirt.
Catley was a huge part of the rise of Melbourne City women’s, after the City Football group took over Melbourne Heart and made huge investments into men’s and women’s football in Melbourne, Catley was a massive part of the squad that put the women’s team on the map. When the men’s team were struggling, the women’s team were holding it down and Catley found a home and began to show how good she really was. She got loaned out to City by Orlando Pride and was quickly named captain and became a huge part in helping to lead the team to a second finals victory in a row and cement her name in club history.
Living in Australia, women’s football hasn’t always been recognized like it should have been, but in the past few years, the Matilda’s have really changed that and there’s now more appetite for national women’s football than there is men’s, and it shows just in the attendance of the games, The Matildas have sold out their last 13 games and with the Olympic qualifiers coming up, they’re set to make it 14, with tickets selling out in the space of 48 hours in a 75,000+ seater stadium.
Players like Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross joining clubs like Arsenal have helped grow the women’s game in Australia and showed kids around Australia that the impossible dream is possible.
Daisy Mae
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Lucky old You. Aussie women players are among the world’s best and Catley’s one of them, and we’re lucky to have her at Arsenal