The start of this year has been nothing short of eventful. I say eventful, because all of the other describing words such as crazy, whack, turbulent etc have been used. I have also seen the phrase “a complete write off” on occasion. There has been ups and downs for everyone, it’s a trying time and one filled with a lot of unknown. However, being ever optimistic as I am, I feel there will be a lot of good come from these moments, “light at the end of the tunnel” as it has been said previously.
The year 2019 finished in good style, with 1to1 coaching, some holiday clinic visits in Perth, Christmas, New Year and a lot of family time. Reflecting on the year that was, moving house, working with Rebel Sport, a trip to Cairns, a trip to Brazil, meeting Neymar, a trip to Spain that included Futsal, training and coaching, working with the A-League among other events.
The turn of the year, and it’s 2020. This next part is hard for me to write about and there is no easy way to say it, other than my father passed away. I felt lost for a little while, I have lived away from Perth, from my family since 2013. I missed Dad and Mum enough as it was, so dealing with the thought of not being able to speak with him, or see him again was tough. My dad was a coach of mine when I was younger, he was continually tough on me and never let me believe that I was doing well, or that I had done enough. He would admit when I had trained well, played well and when I had good moments in a game, but he would always finish with “and? What about next week? You have to keep that up now..”. He also passed to me, two great pieces of advice that I have held, right up to this very day. Number 1) “You can be good at many sports, but why not try and be great at one?” and Number 2) “If you’re good enough, you’ll land there, or there abouts”. I don’t think he intended to have the impact he did with these actions and comments, but it’s lead me to having the undying passion for Football, Futsal, Street Football ect that I do today. It’s also resulted in numerous playing opportunities, travel, working with brands, coaching, working within communities ect and ultimately the career I now have. I thank him every day for everything he gave me, I know none of it would have been possible with out him and mum, and more than likely I would have given up long ago.
So add to the above the fires, the situation in NSW, VIC and other regions of the country in December and early January, plus now we find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic. I never believed that I would see a pandemic in my life time, these were the things of movies. I hope this passes sooner rather than later.
Now for some good news, as I said earlier “ever optimistic”. In March I signed on officially as a PUMA Athlete! I have to thank Carlie from Agency-X for all the “behind the scenes” work and negotiating on her part. I’m super excited to be a part of this global football brand, and to be able to represent PUMA in Australia and as an Australian athlete, is something I will never take for granted. Although coaching has ceased in this moment whilst we wait for the Covid-19 virus to pass, I still have a lot of opportunities coming through and it’s given me extra time to work on my youtube, and create further content for you guys!
That’s all from me at the moment, stay home, stay safe, jump on to my Instagram or Youtube, get some tutorials and use this time to sharpen your tekkers, so when you return to club football, you can turn some heads!
For more follow “@d10football”on Instagram.