Ellyse Perry: too talented for Canberra
Roar Guru By Joe Frost, 30 May 2012 Joe Frost is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Canberra United, Cricket, Ellyse Perry, football, Matildas, W-League
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Australian footballer and cricketer Ellyse Perry caught between two codes? (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
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Gun to your head, someone asks you to name a player in the W-League. Did you come up with Ellyse Perry? Me too.
I support the Newcastle Jets so, in theory, I support their W-League team. But I wouldn’t have a clue as to any player on their roster. Simply put, women’s sport just doesn’t feature on my radar. I think it’s fair to say it doesn’t feature on most people’s.
But I know Ellyse Perry. Does any sports loving Aussie not?
So it was with a complete sense of incredulity I read that her W-League team, current premiers and champions Canberra United, have told her she needs to devote herself to the club 100% or find a new one.
For you unpatriotic types out there, Perry plays as a defender not only for Canberra but is also an integral member of the Matildas. That’s how she keeps busy for half the year. The other half? She’s an all-rounder for the Australian Women’s cricket team.
She made her international football debut at the tender age of 16 and her Test cricket debut at 17 and three months, making her Australia’s youngest ever Test player. Furthermore, she is the only Australian to have played in both a cricket and football World Cup.
To top it all off, she doesn’t look half bad in an evening gown. That’s not sexism – there’s a reason Harry Kewell has a sponsorship deal with Politix while most other A-League players are lucky to get free boots.
Perry is by far the highest profile woman in Australian football and cricket. But her club have decided she can only play one.
“Ellyse needs to choose whether she wants to be a full-time Canberra United player and commit to training every day like everyone else does,” Canberra United chief executive Heather Reid said in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Or if she still wants to try and mix her cricket commitment with football, then perhaps she will need to find another club.”
What’s odd about this statement is Reid’s suggestion that Perry needs to be a “full-time Canberra United player”. The annual salary cap for each W-League team is $150,000 – less than 1/15th of the men’s salary cap and probably about the average weekly income for a player in the English Premier League.
Of course Perry isn’t committed to being a full-time Canberra United player – no one is at a club with that kind of money on offer!
To her credit, Perry appears to have told Canberra to take their ultimatum and shove it, saying, “there’s some changes at the club and the coach, Jitka Klimkova, has some different ideas about how the team needs to be run.
“…Mixing my football and cricket commitments doesn’t work so well in her framework. It seems I’ll have to start looking for a new club.”
In a league which is seriously short on profile (how often do you see an article on the W-League in any of the daily papers? Or even here on The Roar?) why Canberra would choose to sack their highest profile player for the very reason she has said profile – her talents in two sports – is truly baffling.
Rumours are Perry will head to the new Western Sydney W-League team, closer to where she grew up on Sydney’s North Shore. However one would think she’s not going to have any trouble finding a new club.
Her only stipulation is that her new club allows her to continue playing both sports.
One would think it would be their only stipulation as well.
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- Canberra United, Cricket, Ellyse Perry, football, Matildas, W-League
May 30th 2012 @ 9:26am
The Cattery said | May 30th 2012 @ 9:26am | Report comment
Women in both sports are earning pin money, so it’s incredible that one club would make such a stance.
You can understand it in the very top levels of professionalism, but a women’s soccer club demanding all or nothing? With a season that runs 7 games?
It’s a bit over the top.
I hope she’s able to continue playing both sports at the highest levels, one way or the other.
May 30th 2012 @ 2:19pm
Matt F said | May 30th 2012 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
I don’t think it’s over the top. From Canberra’s point of view, they have a player taking up a spot on the list who regularly misses games and training sessions. It’s not ideal from their end. I can perfectly understand that they would prefer that spot to go to a full-time squad member. An alternative argument to yours would be “is a club that is demanding her commitment for only 7 games really asking too much?” I mean, that leaves around 40 weeks per year give or take (when you include pre-season, finals etc) that she has away from the club to do what she likes.
That’s not to say that I don’t also see Ellyse Perry’s POV either. She has the ability to play at the highest level in two sports and, unfortunately, women’s football and cricket don’t offer her the same earning potential that their male equivalents can. It’s unfair to force her to choose between them because the rewards for picking one over the other simply aren’t enough when she can continue to play both.
It’s just the unfortunate reality of amateur/semi-professional sport. She’ll have no trouble finding another club.
May 30th 2012 @ 10:19am
sledgeross said | May 30th 2012 @ 10:19am | Report comment
I think the issue was that she missed some big games (including a semi final) due to cricket commitments.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:06am
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:06am | Report comment
Ellyse missed 50% of the W-League games last season and she chose to play an international cricket match rather than the W-League GF.
That’s not how any team sport – at any level – should operate. No individual player should be able to choose when she plays. It sends a completely wrong message to the rest of the team.
And, it’s not that Ellyse is that important to the team. Last season, Canberra Utd never lost a match when Ellyse was away playing cricket & they won the GF without Ellyse.
Interestingly, Ellyse chose to play a cricket international instead of playing for AUS in the last Women’s Asian Cup. No one missed her in the Asian Cup & the Aussies won the tournament to be crowned Champions of Asia … I’ve got ZERO idea what the AUS women’s cricket team achieved at that time.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:56am
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:56am | Report comment
Actually, Fuss (and I’ve posted this in a different forum) she was available for the Grand Final but asked not to be picked if it meant a player who played in the previous week’s semi final (which she was not available for) would miss out.
Having had contact with people connected to both sports who know or have coached or played with Ellyse, both football and cricket can’t speak highly enough of her in regard to her attitude, dedication and commitment.
May 30th 2012 @ 12:32pm
Tristan Rayner said | May 30th 2012 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
Er, Fuss, it’s no surprise you have ‘ZERO’ idea of the Aus women’s cricket team’s matches and their success – you don’t follow the game!
May 30th 2012 @ 12:50pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 30th 2012 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
Yes, Tristan … can someone who follows International Women’s Cricket please enlighten me?
In May 2010, when Australia was winning its first trophy in the Asian Football Confederation, what was the focus of the Australian Women’s Cricket Team? Was the cricket team playing some important tournament or a meaningless “test” against one of the handful of nations that plays the sport at international level?
Ellyse had a chance to be part of football history – not just in Australia but for the whole of Asia. But, she made a bad decision to play cricket that month.
Will Ellyse get another chance to achieve success of this magnitude in sport? If I were a betting man I’d say “no chance”.
May 30th 2012 @ 1:10pm
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
I guess I’m a big fan of Ellyse, Fuss, so prone to a bit of “protectionism.” I’m not entirely sure of the reasons for absence from the Asian Cup, but she did play on an even bigger stage last year in the World Cup, and scored one of the goals of the tournament to boot.
May 30th 2012 @ 1:46pm
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 1:46pm | Report comment
OK, done the research. At the time Ellyse was playing in the Twenty-20 World Cup for Australia in the West Indies, and was named player of the match in the final, which Australia won by 3 runs. The Twenty-20 World Cup and the Asian Cup overlapped at the beginning, and Ellyse was selected in the cricket team before the Matildas squad was announced for the Asian Cup.
May 30th 2012 @ 2:09pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 30th 2012 @ 2:09pm | Report comment
Thanks, apaway. I have no problem with Ellyse choosing to play cricket. But, in a team sport, the team has to be more important than any individual.
Strangely, from what I’ve read, it seems Ellyse has absolutely no issue with Canberra Utd’s ultimatum – it seems to only be a concern for others.
And, so far, I’ve not read any words from her Canberra Utd team mates – or her team mates from the AUS National Team – condemning the ultimatum Ellyse has been given.
May 30th 2012 @ 2:21pm
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 2:21pm | Report comment
No, but neither have we ever read any articles of disharmony from team mates about her splitting her time between 2 national teams.
May 30th 2012 @ 2:25pm
Matt F said | May 30th 2012 @ 2:25pm | Report comment
I think it’s because both sides have valid points, and also understand the others point of view. Canberra want a squad member that is available all season but understand that they can’t offer her the financial incentives to compensate her giving up cricket, and the season’s not long enough to demand she give up cricket entirely. Obviously Perry is the same, just from the other side of the debate.
It’s just an unfortunate reality of women’s sport.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:09am
Pope Paul VII said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:09am | Report comment
She is such a good cricketer. Noticably quicker than her contempories. Pity the girls don’t get to play more tests. Watched a bit of the ODI series v New Zealand. Skill level excellent. Some brilliant catching in particular.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:11am
Brett McKay said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:11am | Report comment
You couldn’t even name Melissa Barbieri, Joe??
May 30th 2012 @ 1:51pm
Griffo said | May 30th 2012 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
…or Matilda Lisa DeVanna, or Matilda Captain Melissa Barbieri, or German World Cup winner and Jets Captain Ariana Hingst, or coach and former Socceroo of the team Clayton Zane.
That’s just off the top of my head…
May 30th 2012 @ 8:34pm
Joe Frost said | May 30th 2012 @ 8:34pm | Report comment
Nope. I actually did know Emily Van Egmond plays football and Allysa Healy plays cricket.
But that’s due to their respective father and uncle rather than their own talents.
Women’s sport just doesn’t get coverage.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:22am
nordster said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Football is a year round sport ideally, at least to be played at the highest level. The money may not match it yet for the women, but the attitude and approach should.
Good on Canberra for having high expectations of their players.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:34am
Australian Rules said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:34am | Report comment
What a shame for Elise Perry – one of the most important female athletes in Australia, yet has to make a choice between soccer and cricket – 2 sports that will pay her peanuts.
If I was advising her, I’d say pick soccer. Despite the Matildas not qualifying for London 2012, there’s still the next World Cup, which probably has more prestige than the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
Talented girl.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:40am
Rellum said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:40am | Report comment
If Canberra want her to be full time they should pay her the adequate compensation other wise they have no right to ask her to give up anything. Hopefully she finds a club that is more fit with her.
May 30th 2012 @ 5:17pm
Mufasa said | May 30th 2012 @ 5:17pm | Report comment
You really believe that women’s football has the finances to offer that to her?? I say give them all adequate compensation, but oh, wait, there’s no money if you’re a woman in sport! Such a shame that they cannot afford to offer this due to a scummy annual budget of $150,000 per TEAM. Also, she knew very well what Jitka’s ideas were for the team so this has obviously not been a huge shock. As for the points below about the GF, Ellyse chose not to play in the semi, knowing very well this may mean she wouldn’t be allowed to play in the GF. She didn’t choose to let one of the other girls play instead, she wasn’t asked to play in the GF as they were already doing so well without her. Sorry, but it’s true. Yes, she is a great sportswoman, but you really do need to look at all sides of the story.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:54pm
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:54pm | Report comment
Dead wrong, Mufasa. She asked not to be considered if Canberra made the Grand Final as she could not play in the semi final. It was she who initiated the standown. You have your facts wrong.
May 30th 2012 @ 11:58am
apaway said | May 30th 2012 @ 11:58am | Report comment
Rellum
Couldn’t agree more.
May 30th 2012 @ 12:22pm
ilikedahoodoogurusnigha said | May 30th 2012 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Congrats Helen Reid….open mouth, insert foot!