This season Canberra United will share its leadership duties after the club appointed defender Ellie Brush and goalkeeper Lydia Williams as co-captains for the 2009 Westfield W-League season.
This season Canberra United will share its leadership duties after the club appointed defender Ellie Brush and goalkeeper Lydia Williams as co-captains for the 2009 Westfield W-League season.
With less than a week until kick off against the Brisbane Roar, both Brush and Williams are thrilled to be taking on the task together.
“I was really excited to hear that Lydia and I were going to be co-captains this year,” Brush said.
“Not only has Lydia come back from America with a lot of knowledge, with domestic and international experience but it will take a bit of weight off my shoulders and I-m really looking forward to working with her.”
For Williams, the foray into captaincy isn-t new with the goalkeeper having the honour with the Young Matildas and believes that she-s ready for the job.
“I think that maybe the pressure during the game might take some getting used to but as far as being a leader I-ve been in a lot of tough games so I think it will probably come pretty naturally,” Williams said.
“It-s a big responsibility, you have to lead the team when the times are tough during the game but I-m pretty certain I-m ready for the challenge.”
“I believe I-m experienced enough to be able to deal with those challenges that come my way but it-s also going to be a challenge in itself.”
Brush lead Canberra United to the inaugural Grand Final last season while Williams, the most experienced player in the side, has learnt a lot from her stint with the Chicago Red Stars in the Womens Professional Soccer League over the winter.
Despite wearing the captains arm band last season, Brush credits the senior players last year, including Williams, for helping in leading Canberra United across the park and both are expecting little to change this coming season.
“It took a bit of time to get use to it but certainly as the season wore on I felt a little more comfortable but I had plenty of help from Lydia and the other experienced girls as well,” Brush said.
Williams said she didn’t expect much to change except her actual title.
“I don-t think much is going to change other than having the captains arm band around my arm,” Williams said.
“I-m pretty confident in being a leader on the field so I don-t think much is going to change.”
Leadership groups are common is plenty of sports but few football clubs have tried co-captains, a challenge Brush and Williams are excited about.
“Some girls might feel comfortable with one girl or the other , obviously we-ve got a core group of senior players in our team that they can approach if anything is wrong but I think it-s good that there-s two captains,” Williams said.
With the captaincy to work on a rotational basis between the two players, both strongly believe that it doesn-t matter who-s wearing the arm band with leadership to come from both of them in every game.
“We-ll both still obviously play our part as captain and take that responsibility into every game regardless if we-ve got the title or not for the game,” Brush said.
“We-ll work together and look to both have an influence.”
As for who claims captaincy for the Grand Final rematch on Saturday against the Brisbane Roar in Round One of the Westfield W-League, neither are to concerns about who gets the arm band first.
“I don-t really mind, we-ll probably have to toss a coin between each other to see who gets to toss the coin in the game,” Ellie says laughing.
“I-m not too fussed, I-m probably not the best at flipping coins and guessing which side it-s going to land.”
