Anyone whose kids play soccer knows that it\u2019s a schlep. <\/p>\n
Training thrice a week, games in god forsaken places that even your GPS objects to.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the beauty of football right? It\u2019s a global game. A universal language. It\u2019s a pathway to the world.<\/p>\n
And the world is where we find ourselves this year.<\/p>\n
Having made my name in AFL as Elle McFeast on the ABC\u2019s trailblazing show Live & Sweaty<\/a>, I, a Melbourne gal, found myself reconstituted in Sydney. Sydney is the heart of media and a Sydney boy had won my heart. There was, sadly, no Auskick in the early 2000s in Sydney when I got my act into gear to breed.<\/p>\n So when I saw Coach Stuart\u2019s pamphlet stuck to the wall outside our childcare centre in Double Bay, offering soccer coaching to toddlers, me and my mummy friend Abigail jumped at the chance. <\/p>\n Weekly Che & Hudson would run around the majestic Lyne Park that overlooks the sea planes at Rose Bay, while we grew the rest of our children. Coach Stuart was a former Premier League player, a fact most impressive to the toddlers. But what dawned on me was the inescapable truth this game that offered connection to a bigger world. <\/p>\n Listen to the latest episode of the Red Card For Mummy podcast via the player below, or click here to listen on Spotify<\/a> or here to listen on Apple Podcasts<\/a>!<\/p>\n We progressed from Stuart to the Spanish coach Hector, who, with his fancy feet and late Puskas-style belly, had the then-4 year-olds doing sit ups on the beach at South Bondi.<\/p>\n It seems like only a heartbeat and a daughter later, that we found our selves back in Melbourne. Our daughter aged 2, still in nappies, was plonked in makeshift goals by her brother, who then took aim, before placing a bucket on her head and forcing her roll around on the back lawn. \u201cThe grass must be your friend\u201d, she tells us he\u2019d say, for hours on end. I must have missed all that while I was working.<\/p>\n