General News
11 July, 2022
Alex Morcom's road to success
Footballer Alex Morcom has grown leaps and bounds since the beginning of her career as a teenager at Ballarat Grammar.
FOOTBALLER Alex Morcom has grown leaps and bounds since the beginning of her career as a teenager at Ballarat Grammar.From joining a burgeoning high-school team to winning the VFLW (Women's Victorian Football League) Premiership representing Essendon earlier this month, Morcom has consistently grown as an athlete and woman.As a student at Ballarat Grammar, Morcom was originally involved with netball before joining the girl's football team in Year 11."(Women's football) was probably something that I hadn't had the opportunity to play back at home, so I loved it," Morcom said."I remember doing Auskick back at home when I was little before moving over to netball, which was kind of the thing to do at the time."I think (girl's football) was starting to be normalised at the time, it was getting bigger and bigger."Morcom's mother, Carolyn Morcom, said that Morcom was always playing some sort of sport as a child."Her two brothers were footballers and there used to be a fair bit of kicking in the backyard and she would join them," Ms Morcom said."So I suppose she had a taste of it (at a young age), she was playing netball at the Warrack Eagles when the boys were footballing because there wasn't a female team."Morcom was football captain during her last year at Ballarat Grammar and the team went on to win the 2014 Herald Shield."It still makes me cry," Ms Morcom said."(Alex is) a pretty shy, kind of quiet person, and that day, when (the team) won the Herald Shield, she was the captain, and she got up and spoke to the parents, the team and the teachers and I was so proud of her."I suddenly just saw this young girl come out of her shell, it was quite precious."Read more: Final turbine constructed at Murra WarraMorcom continued her football career throughout her time at university, first attending RMIT University and then LaTrobe University where she started playing for the Diamond Creek football team.She eventually made it to the Diamond Creek VFLW (Victorian Football League) team where Morcom was an emergency player for the grand final.In 2018, Morcom found her footing at the Essendon Football Club and became a member of their VFLW team."To have been in the (Essendon VFLW) program has been pretty incredible," Morcom said."As an individual, you're going to develop your skills but you (also) have to work pretty hard."Morcom works full-time at the Essendon Football Club underneath a dual role. Three days a week Morcom works as an administrator in the men's program, organising training schedules and games.The other two days are spent as a community team member, running school programs and clinics. In these clinics and school programs, and just the general football world, Morcom has seen an influx of female players of all ages."It's been great seeing that grassroots participation," Morcom said."I think back, and I've been a sporty person and played whatever I could- I played netball, tennis, basketball but for the younger (female) generation to have the ability to pick up a football at an extremely young age, it's just so exciting to think where female football will be 10 years down the track."(Female football) has already developed immensely, I think it's great to see how many girls are involved in football now, it's just incredible."On the elite level of women's football, Morcom said she would "love to see" full-time female athletes."(I'd) love to see (female footballers) that can focus purely on playing football and not having to balance everything like they are at the moment,"I mean, you've got girls that are working full-time while (playing full-time football)."For them to be able to focus purely on the football side of things will only help develop the game and develop individual skills and team skills too."Morcom's ultimate career goal would be to reach the top level of AFLW (Australian Football League Women)."There's only a certain amount of people that get that opportunity and only a certain amount of spots at that level," she said."I'll keep pushing to get there, to be able to play at that level. I have to keep working hard and staying on track to reach that goal."
