USA Freedom Blog
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What an awesome event! To see everyone dolled up and mingling was beautiful. The mid season ball was an event put on by the Yeronga Club as a fund raiser and community event. It gave me a chance to meet people in the club beyond the ladies team. I met Sam Corless president of the club and friend to my coach Leigh Barnsey back home. It was a pleasure to connect with him and thank him for assisting in making this trip happen. I also had the chance to visit with Tami Dunn the team physical trainer whom I had been in contact with for some time prior to my arrival.
Friday June 22 at 7:30pm we had a game. It was a beautiful night. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The excitement was thick in the air. Playing under the lights was a unique experience for me. It was gorgeous! Yeronga showed once again what a power house they are. The final score was 114 to 13. Despite the score the opposition put up a good fight forcing Yeronga to stay focused and strong.
Tuesday’s Training involved a lot of skills work. Then we moved into some fun and had a half field scrimmage. I am really enjoying working with these ladies they are a highly skilled bunch. I have now been here for 22 days and the time has just flown by. It is sad to think I only have 7 more weeks to learn as much as I can from these amazing ladies.
Sunday’s game was cancelled due to Morningside forfeiting. The team was unable to field a team and therefore had to forfeit. My teammate Kate Lutkins and I decided we still wanted to get a workout for the day. We headed down to the Brisbane River and did a nice 5k run following the river and crossing over two bridges making a nice circuit.
We had a long weekend off. Yeronga had a bye in the line up so we took it easy. Thursday nights practice was turned into a team Dinner it was great to sit and chat with some of the girls and our coach.
We got back to practice Tuesday night I enjoyed myself. We scrimmaged ourselves for portion of practice I was put in the Ruck position something new for me. I jumped in and did what I could! It is amazing to watch a practice with a full team of ladies.
Tuesday’s training was chilly! We warmed up and scrimmaged a bit with the boys team. It was a light practice. This Sunday is a bye for my team, Yeronga. We will be gathering for diner rather than a practice on Thursday.
Yeronga has a phenomenal training facility. At home I am used to the make shift fields at a park that looks large enough or a facility with multiple soccer fields that can be used to create a field. Having real goal posts is fantastic!
I’ve made it safely to Brisbane. Upon landing that evening the team had training, I attended I was excited to meet all the girls and they were very welcoming and surprised to learn that we play in the US I enjoyed explaining our league to them and how it came to be that I made my way to their team. I had a great time the team is fantastic and very welcoming!
Welcome to my blog...I am Lara Porter from the Denver Bulldogs. I am very excited to be headed down to Australia to play in Brisbane with the Yeronga Devils. My journey began in August when I had the opportunity to represent the USA on The Freedom team in Melbourne and Sydney at the 2011 IC (International Cup). I began conversations with Leigh Barnsey, USA Freedom Coach, about my desire to come back to Australia and play with an actual Australian team and how much I could learn. Barnsey was a great supporter of the idea.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kat so very much for all of her great efforts in promoting womens footy in the US. I believe I forgot to do so in Melbourne, but when Rich thanked Kat for all of her accomplishments in getting the USAFL womens program to the stage that it is now, it almost brought the house down.
The 2011 Women's International Cup of Australian Football was a roller coaster of emotions. What better way to end my playing career with the Freedom than the first women's International Cup? I was expecting the feelings of elation that come with seeing a dream come true. And I knew that I would also be feeling the sadness of knowing that this was a farewell tour.
How We Got Here
When we established the first women's competition outside of Australia in 2003, Leigh Swansborough and I had a vision of women from across the globe participating in such an event.
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