{"id":102610,"date":"2022-03-31T15:50:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T05:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=102610"},"modified":"2022-03-31T15:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T05:50:31","slug":"falcons-mum-still-has-a-long-footy-life-ahead-of-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2022\/03\/31\/falcons-mum-still-has-a-long-footy-life-ahead-of-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons’ “Mum” still has a long footy life ahead of her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NICOLE Callinan<\/a>‘s<\/strong> footy journey began all the way back in 2006, where after playing indoor cricket for both Victoria and Australia, she played her first game of Aussie rules for Melton Centrals in the now defunct Victorian Women\u2019s Football League (VWFL). She then moved across to Darebin in 2012 and as part of one of the most dominant football sides many fans will ever see, she won five flags with the Falcons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that fearsome Falcons side, she played with the likes of Daisy Pearce<\/a>, Lauren Pearce<\/a>, Elise O’Dea<\/a>, Darcy Vescio<\/a> and many others that are now household names at AFLW level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing the experience of playing in that team as \u201cpretty amazing,\u201d Callinan says rubbing shoulders with all those stars has made her the player and person she is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callinan didn\u2019t play in the pre-AFLW exhibition games that ran from 2013-2016, but was still picked up by the Western Bulldogs in the inaugural AFLW draft. Known as “Mum” during her time there, she would go on to play four seasons at the kennel, including in the Bulldogs\u2019 2018 premiership win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callinan spoke glowingly of her time at the Bulldogs, saying that she felt \u201cvery valued\u201d, labelling that period of her career as something she will always cherish. Having retired from the AFLW in 2020, she returned to the Falcons and is still playing in their VFLW side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think in my mind I wasn\u2019t done playing footy,” Callinan said. “It was more probably the mental side of playing high level, like the top level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callinan was self employed at the time, and with the long training nights on top of full-time work it meant she got to a stage where she needed \u201ca breather\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But physically, she wasn\u2019t done playing footy, and she had a clear motivation. The choice of where she would play her footy was obvious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing back to the Falcs, I definitely wanted to play footy and VFL suited me so that\u2019s why I got back into it last year, and the Falcs was a no brainer,” she said. “To come back to the club that helped me get to where I am today and also to give back and help players coming through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re playing against other teams that are AFL affiliated, so they\u2019ve got the support of that AFL club. Darebin, as a standalone club, for me to be able to come back and help and sort of be a coach on the field, I\u2019m happy to do that. I love that, because I\u2019m able to help people and guide them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one of the most experienced players at the club, Callinan has seen a lot of change at her beloved Falcons. In her time there, they\u2019ve gone from seemingly unbeatable, to struggling the past few seasons, and now having a bit of a resurgence in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has changed a bit,” Callinan said. “Obviously since AFLW and with all the players going off to be part of their own AFLW clubs and things like that, it\u2019s very different from where we all finished up. 2017, I think was the last time every one of us played, and we won that Grand Final. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was pretty cool to finish off like that with everyone but not there\u2019s still players who played in that Grand Final team here, which is a credit to them to be here and the drive and passion they have for the club, they\u2019ve kept it going, so I really admire them and their hard work as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season she is now coached by a former teammate in Kate Tyndall<\/strong>, which is a rare occurrence in football at any level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callinan had nothing but praise for the way her former teammate is coaching at the moment and has a lot of respect for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s such an experienced and knowledgeable player as well coming to coach, I think she\u2019s just coaching the way she played,” Callinan said. “She\u2019s such a team player and what she\u2019s delivering is exactly do the team things, team first and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re taking on board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anything has changed for us. We\u2019ve always been good friends, played for years. I\u2019ve known her since 2012, I think we both started in the same year. We\u2019ve just got that mutual respect, we were wing buddies the last few years playing at Darebin together and then we got recruited to the Bulldogs together as the wings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we know each other well and we probably think very similarly in the way we think about footy and it’s team first for both of us. I love how she\u2019s coaching at the moment and how she\u2019s including everyone and also noticing the things that it\u2019s not just the players on the field, it\u2019s off the field, and she really recognises those things, so you\u2019re making everyone feel valued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside all that she does at the Falcons, Callinan has a lot on her plate that she describes as having \u201cbeen pretty full on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At St Kilda she has been a Player Wellbeing Mentor since 2021, and a Development Coach role was added to her position ahead of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only that, but she is a remedial massage therapist too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callinan said that clear communication has helped her be able to balance it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having achieved just about everything she can in football, the question remains; what drives her now and what\u2019s the ultimate career goal moving forward?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although she doesn\u2019t want to \u2018think too far ahead\u2019, Callinan has some pretty clear ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty basic,” she said. “Darebin, it\u2019d be nice to get to the finals I think for this season, I think we\u2019re on track for it. But if not, I just think massive improvement from last year to this season already and if I can see the girls develop and developing and doing the best we can, that\u2019s going to warm my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For me in general, I think being a part of AFLW in whatever way it may be, whether it\u2019s wellbeing, player development or coaching, I think for me it\u2019s just \u2018go with it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the way her beloved Falcons are going this season, Callinan just may be able to tick at least a couple of those goals off. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NICOLE Callinan‘s footy journey began all the way back in 2006, where after playing indoor cricket for both Victoria and Australia, she played her first game of Aussie rules for Melton Centrals in the now defunct Victorian Women\u2019s Football League (VWFL). She then moved across to Darebin in 2012 and as part of one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10000,"featured_media":84231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3115,278,8,3121,137],"tags":[3014,3004,3060,4764,3171,3093],"class_list":["post-102610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-vflw","category-womens","tag-daisy-pearce","tag-darcy-vescio","tag-elise-odea","tag-kate-tyndall","tag-lauren-pearce","tag-nicole-callinan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102610"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102636,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions\/102636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}