{"id":41037,"date":"2018-10-13T06:52:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=41037"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:53:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:53:22","slug":"hard-working-taylor-pescud-thriving-in-team-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/10\/13\/hard-working-taylor-pescud-thriving-in-team-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard-working Taylor Pescud thriving in team sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

WESTERN Australia (WA) Under 18 representative, Taylor Pescud <\/strong>was never accustomed to a team sport as a child.<\/p>\n

Coming from a horse riding background, Pescud was used to being on her own in the sport. But once she picked up a football, she didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really loved playing a team sport,\u201d Pescud said. \u201cComing from riding, you were on your own. \u201cI really loved the social aspect of the sport, I really loved working as a team and just the game itself. \u201cIt\u2019s high-paced, it goes 360 degrees, it\u2019s just really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17 year-old is a late-comer to the game, having started in 2016. While admitting she was always interested, it took interest from her Physical Education teacher to actually get her to play the sport competitively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got into footy because one of my school teachers at school saw me playing in the school games and told me to try out for state 15s,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought about it for a while and I decided I would go down and I went down, I made the team and that\u2019s where everything started. \u201cMy brother plays footy so I was always interested but I used to ride horses so that sort of took up all my time but after I played state 15s, it all went from there and I\u2019ve been playing footy since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going straight into state football is not easy, but Pescud has been thriving. She featured in WA\u2019s Under 18 team in the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships and played her role well. But having only played football for two years, Pescud would like to finesse her basic skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of improvement, I\u2019ve had to work a lot on skills and stuff like kicking because I came to the sport so late, I was further behind some of the girls that have been playing the sport since they were much younger so they already mastered like the basic skills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Pescud identified her hard-working ethic as one of her main attributes, highlighting her desire to be the best football player she can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of strength, it\u2019s probably sort of my drive and work ethic,\u201d the WA representative said. \u201cI worked really hard to try and get my skills to where everyone my age is and just like attack on the ball. \u201cI really like a hard contest so I go in whenever I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Pescud is not always a hard-nut like she is on the football field. Away from football, she takes time to enjoy her surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love walking my dog or just taking time to listen to music and go for walks, and just really take it as a time to destress with so much that\u2019s going on this year with Year 12,\u201d the 17 year-old said. \u201c (I take) as much time as I can just to make sure my wellbeing\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being in Year 12, Pescud has thought about her career after she finishes school. While she admits university is where she aims to go, she is still putting lots of her energy into football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have plans to go to uni and work towards something there whether it\u2019s sort of business or something more science-based,\u201d she said. \u201cBut further than that, I haven\u2019t got too much planned, I\u2019m just working on footy at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her mind set on football, AFL Women\u2019s is of course is at the forefront for Pescud.<\/p>\n

\u00b4(I\u2019m) really hoping I can take it all the way,\u201d the 17 year-old said. \u201cI\u2019m just happy playing footy. \u201cIf I don\u2019t get there, it\u2019s not the end of the world but I think we\u2019re really lucky with the opportunities we\u2019re being presented at the moment. \u201cWe\u2019re at the best time to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WESTERN Australia (WA) Under 18 representative, Taylor Pescud was never accustomed to a team sport as a child. Coming from a horse riding background, Pescud was used to being on her own in the sport. But once she picked up a football, she didn\u2019t look back. \u201cI really loved playing a team sport,\u201d Pescud said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":59438,"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":[5603,11613,278,8,3131,137],"tags":[5351,157,4846,1921],"class_list":["post-41037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-east-fremantle","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-western-australia","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-aflw","tag-taylor-pescud","tag-western-australia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41037","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}