{"id":68500,"date":"2020-06-16T12:51:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T02:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=68500"},"modified":"2020-06-16T12:51:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T02:51:38","slug":"qa-sophie-ure-gold-coast-suns-academy-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2020\/06\/16\/qa-sophie-ure-gold-coast-suns-academy-queensland\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Sophie Ure (Gold Coast SUNS Academy\/Queensland)"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last week, we head back to the pre-season where we chatted to a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central<\/em>‘s Taylah Melki<\/em><\/strong> chatted with Queensland’s Sophie Ure <\/strong>at the state testing day hosted by Rookie Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

TM: Sophie, how did you get into football?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SU: “All my family has been involved in it and I’ve just played it since primary school, so it’s just been a big part of my life.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You didn’t really have a choice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Well I was always there. I thought it looked fun so I may as well join in.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is it that you love about footy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Just the people around it. Everyone’s so genuine and nice and everyone’s there for each other, trying to make everyone better.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How are you finding being part of the Gold Coast SUNS Academy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I’m really enjoying it. Especially over the summer, it\u2019s helping me to keep on improving my fitness. I’m from up North so it’s a bit smaller up there, but it’s still really good – good coaches.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How different is it from your experience up North?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“There’s definitely a lot more boys up there, especially from my region so I’m a bit isolated from the girls in the academy sense but it’s still good to see what you’re up against and see how you can improve just from watching the boys.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How old were you when you started playing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“(I started at) AusKick when I was about five or six, and then played Under 9s.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So did you play mostly against boys back then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yes. I played with and against boys until I was 14, then I only played women’s in the last two or three years.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How have you found that change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Playing with boys definitely helped improve my skills more. I had to be better to actually get a kick, so I feel like when I moved over to women’s, it was a bit less about your skills and more about how hard you can hit.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a particular area you’re looking to improve on this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Probably my tackling and defensive pressure… I’m not the most solid person so I want to try and get a bit more involved with tackling pressure so I have a presence.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And what do you see as your strengths on the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I don’t reckon my kicking is too bad. But I haven’t really compared it to people down here.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have any goals for 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Just to get as far as I can with my footy, whether that’s just the academy, the Under 18 team, or whatever happens.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How have you been travel-wise over the journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It definitely is a lot balancing all the footy on top of Year 12, but it’s good because I enjoy it, so it’s not a chore.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have any role models or mentors you look up to at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“My parents have been pretty good, they’ve always encouraged me so I just want to be as positive as them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last week, we head back to the pre-season where we chatted to a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central‘s Taylah Melki chatted with Queensland’s Sophie Ure at the state testing day hosted by Rookie Me. — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":68501,"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":[5603,278,11617,8,3132,137],"tags":[12528,801,4202,10542,12428,12350,12527],"class_list":["post-68500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-feature-articles","category-gold-coast-suns-academy","category-news","category-queensland","category-womens","tag-2020-aflw-under-18-national-championships","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-gold-coast-suns-academy","tag-gold-coast-suns-womens","tag-queensland-girls","tag-queensland-womens","tag-sophie-ure"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68500","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}