We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast was produced, the Gadigle people of the or nation. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present.
It's the year two thousand and we're with the sports obsessed Lydia Williams, who is glued to her TV. The twelve year old is fixated as the Olympics takeover Sydney. Kathy Freeman wins gold for Australia in a four hundred meter sprint. She watches on as Kathy wraps herself in the Aboriginal flag during her victory lap. Something clicks in Lydia's mind. Women can have a career in sports. A First Nations woman can be a national heal.
Thanks and that the Maxieldas are better and football is better for having had Lydia Williams inn.
But her path to success won't come without its struggles. I'm Att Middleton and this is head game today. While Lydia Williams was saving goals, the Matildas and the power teamwork were saving her. Lydia Williams, I have a Matilda in the building. Long time I see Lydia. I bumped into yesterday at the Logis and at the Logis after party, and here we are today. How we've made it, I don't know, but it's great to see you. How are you, oh man?
It's because we're both rock stars. That's how we made it.
Do you know what we are? And we lived like rock stars yesterday. But it's great to have you on. I remember seeing you last night, and yes, we were on the podcast tomorrow and I was super excited to not only see you, but to have you on because cod talk about a phenomenal career and talk about head game, you know, having the mindset of an elite athlete. It's something that takes discipline, it takes ructure, it takes years of experience to get to where you where you've been
in your career has been phenomenal. But take me back to the very beginning when you were a little child and you were running around the field or whatever you're doing. Where did you Where were you born and where did you just what was your family life like growing up?
Yeah? Well, I was born in Katanning, which is a small really small town in w A. And then we moved to Calgouli when I was eighteen months and that's yeah. So that's where I actually grew up. And Kalgouli is the biggest goal mining town in Australia of a big population of thirty thousand people. And you know, there's a town, but then surrounding it's red dirt desert, just barrenness.
Did you move there?
Well, it's biggest city than Catana.
That wasn't a career move for your parents. Let's move to a bigger city.
Yeah, And yeah, that's just kind of how I lived my life is you know, sport was always on the weekends, as you kind of do in small country towns and everything, like, you have a really good foundation of family and friends, and weekends are dedicated to being outside and doing that. So that's really how I found my love for sport and passion for just being active. But my mum, she's American.
She grew up in America, ended up going and working on Wall Street before coming to Australia to you, yeah, to work as a missionary in the middle of the desert to help indigenous women with domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse. So she left, yeah, the bright lights of New York City to live in a tent and to you know, help out people that needed it a little bit more. And my dad that's where they met.
They met was so she went from the bright lights to you know, from training to to living in a tent.
Yeah wow, and just helping women in the night that needed help and somewhere safe to stay and whatever they needed. Be kind of that that person for them. And my dad he kind of, I guess, had a different upbringing than my mum. He didn't know his father and he
was born and a part of the stolen generation. So during that time, his grandparents raised him and they would hide him so he didn't get taken away because some of his siblings got separated from him and went to missions, and his grandfather was making sure that whenever the police came into town or any counsel, you know, he would hide him and make Dad hide in the bush and make sure that he didn't get taken away as well. Wow.
So and how did they raise you, Well.
It was obviously a lot of difficulties and struggle they had within their marriage. Of all of a sudden, it was a very white American woman marrying a very dark indigenous bush like man, and so from both sides of the family they had to deal with a lot of racism.
And you did you did you see.
That or no? By the time I came around, it was yeah, they were you know, madly in love and dealt with a lot of that that struggle. I kind of saw them all from my dad's point of view. Is I'm more white presenting than what my dad's color was. So when I'd be at football or we'd be walking out around the street and you know, like my dad will be holding my hand or whatever it was, you get you know, you get double looks or people you know, my dad's watching. You'll be like, oh, is that your dad?
Oh who's that black man watched? Like watching the game? Like is he okay?
There's something that's completely normal to you. Was just being thrown at you in little little segments like that.
Yeah, And it's like almost like what I would say, kind of like naivety of racism, Like it's just casual racism being thrown out. But for me, it was like I don't understand why I have to keep explaining that that's my dad, Like don't we look alike? Yeah?
Yeah, you must be relentless and must be horrible to keep doing that. And also it highlights the fact of racism, right, it's there in your face, you know, you think you know it's casual racism or people just at it's like wow, actually when you look at it, for you to keep chipping away. You like that from such a young.
Age and it really affected me, I think when I was early teens, because I was white presenting, but I had a desert slang and we spent every year, we spent at least a month out in the desert where I'd camp under the stars, learned how to light a fire, learn all about desert culture, bush life, elders, everything Aboriginal and indigenous that I could think of. And then I'd come and be in calculate a town and I'd have all these desert behaviors and it wasn't obviously accepted by,
you know, people that weren't familiar with it. But then also because I was white presenting, then like if a black person saw me, then they'd you know, be double look as well. So it was almost like people knew me because of my parents, but if you just looked at me, you wouldn't really know what your culture, where are you from? And I really had kind of an identity struggle of I just wanted to be one or the other and I couldn't. It was like not accepted either way.
And how did that affect your relationship with Did you take one side or the other or were you just trying to find out who you know where you sat? Really?
Yeah, I think it was more like trying to figure out where I sat. When when I was eleven, we moved to Canberra as a family, and all of a sudden, my desert lingo was. You know, I was in bush of like a lot of trees and there was no red red dirt. It was like grassland and mountains and it was really cold and so like that was a really big culture shock to me. But then I still
had a desert like twang. So all of a sudden things I would normally say or do or how I would sound now I've had to change how I speak to people because they wouldn't understand me.
Got you so?
And then during that time as well, I'm a you know, young adolescent girl, and I don't want anything to do with my dad because he doesn't know anything about you know, female hormones or anything like that. So then all of a sudden, I've become I guess more white. But I'm also in a culture or an area that I don't get to, you know, express my indigenous heritage that much.
What was that like growing up? How would you? Were you jumping between two identities? Were you? Were you sort of questioning who you were? Was? It was tough? Yeah?
It was tough. And during that time, when I was fifteen, my dad actually got really sick and fifteen yeah, so in the in the midst of all this identity crisis and you know, going through hormonal changes and just enjoying being a teenager, my dad gets sick and within three weeks of diagnosis it was he's got cancer to he only has one day to live.
Oh wow. So he got diagnosed and within three weeks he was no longer. Yeah, oh sorry to you that.
Yeah, no, it's I've processed it a lot, but you know then that was an extra bit of.
I yeah, a big bit on top. Right. So not only you going through this struggle with yourself, but then that lands on your lap. Wow, and you sound like you were really close for your dad.
Yeah. I mean like my whole I kind of say, like my whole childhood in Kalgarouli and growing up was my dad was like I just loved everything about it. He taught me all about the land. You know, I talking to my mum. Now there's so much of me that is my dad. So I think we have a really big connection even through his passing, but then moving to to Canberra and being in like a more I guess white collar area, then I you know, drift to
my mom's side. So then really it was kind of when when dad got really sick and passed away, it was like, oh, there's there's a whole part of me that felt like missing. Wow.
So your dad taught you, like you said, you know, how to live in the verse, you know, to make a five, et cetera, et cetera, you know all that good their heretiage stuff that that that you loved. Who taught you to to kick a football?
It was my dad. Yeah, he loved growing up playing He was actually a fl loved AFL. So I remember we go to pub in Kagarli and I'm like a little six to eight year old and we'd go into a pub and meete whoever West Coast Eagles person was there, and Dad would be like, hey, she's going to be playing sport one day and blah blah blah, and yeah Dad was a real, real big, I guess, advocate of me being outside and playing sport. Mum was very big on education, but both were really big on supporting me.
And what age were you at when you started really enjoying Is it soccer or football? Here is soccer football?
Yeah, we have the World Cup, so it has to be football.
Yeah. What age did you actually realize I'm pretty good at this and I want to take this seriously or it was you just a kid kicking a ball around and you just played for a team. How did it progress into the obviously the phenomenal career that you've had, which we touched on, but how did it progress into you, you know, getting your first sort of serious contract to rolling into represent your country.
Oh it's actually mum. So I went when we first came to Canberra, I came late to registration and basically they were like, do you want to be in Division one but there's only a goalkeeper position left? Or Division four and you can play wherever. And I was like,
why would I ever go to Division four? Yeah? So I was like, yeah, we'll rotate, and it just we're not rotating and I remember I went to a goalkeeping clinic in Canberra which had about maybe thirty goalkeepers and only a handful of girls within that, and the goalkeeper instructor or coach whatever it was, he actually was an ex previous soccer US coach and unbeknownst to me, he actually went up to my mom at the end of the whole clinic and he's told her, whatever you do,
do not let her quit. Out of everyone here, she has the most potential to be a professional and make it for a very long career, so don't let it quit. So I think that was just kind of something that was in the background, and I just remember anything that I went to, if it was national championships, would we
had to pay. And my dad never really had a job, so we're on a single parent threshold and income, so we had to obviously go to a lot of Aboriginal funding or sports places and just asked to help for like money trying to do that, and it was never burdened late It's never was. I never knew that it was like hard for them to raise that, and I just I went to everything they made sure that it happened that I got to be involved with everything that
I could and as possible that was there. So I think that was kind of my mum and dad really realized it, but never said it to me directly.
When did you realize it? When you go wow, you know, listen, I'm good.
You know it was Actually I told this story when I had my retirement game to the girls and our
current goalkeeper coach. He was actually my very first goalkeeper coach at a camp and it was it was in two thousand and five, so my dad just passed away and I went to this camp and it was a selection camp before the team went to the Under twenties World Cup in Thailand for the girls, and I was a baby and there were three other goalkeepers who obviously were going to go and play, but he pulled me aside and he was like, don't quit, I'll see you
in like a couple of years. And I was like, oh, yeah, whatever, yeah, And then literally like I was, I wasn't devastated because I was like, I've only gone to one camp. This is cool, Like I got to fly all the way to Perth and then three months later I got called into the national team at sixteen for my very first.
Hand seen you get called into the national team. What did it take me back to that? What did that to take you back to that call? How did that happen? They contact your parents, They tell you where were you when you got that?
They contacted my parents because at that time, I was actually training with the as boys, and the goalkeeper coach for the Matilda's kept coming into training camps at the AIS, and the coach at the time, Tom Somani, he kept seeing my progression of like improvement and I'm training with boys, I'm not training with girls anymore. And then he actually called that coach and the goalkeeper coach and myself and had a conversation with my parents and then they're like, okay,
you're going to like Matilda's camp. And I'm like, who's Matilda's those girl the women that walked past, Like I'm still in school, Like what like okay, So yeah, that was my first kind of like introduction is like I was a schoolgirl.
Was your father still alive?
No? My dad wasn't alive at that point, So I kind of throughout that.
I feel about that.
It's hard, but I think through the difficulty in his diagnosis to when he passed, Like I me and Mum. It took us three years before we could both sit down and talk to each other, like it was impossible for us but your dad, yeah, because we were so upset and afraid that we'd make each other cry. But I mean we'd walk in to shopping centers together and like Mum would just start balling, and I was like, I don't even know how to help. I'm a fifteen year old going through angst myself and I find it
really hard to open up. And I got sent to therapists, but I'm like, I don't want to talk, like I'm not I don't know what to talk about. And so for a good six months, like I can't remember anything.
It's a blur.
Yeah, it's a blur. But I think in that I took a lot of that pain and hurt and unease and turned it into.
Sport, focused it on.
I love that, Yeah, And it just went from there like it's I you know, it was something that I could do. I could go wake up every training day and go and be like, Okay, I don't have to think about anything. Yeah, I'm just I enjoy this is something I really like. People are there for me, but ultimately I'm I'm an athlete and they're athletes, and we have a job that we need to do.
Yeah, redirectioning those negative emotions onto a positive sort of purpose really works, doesn't it.
Yep?
If you can tunnel let and focus on that. So that's phenomenal. So how do you feel when your mom tells you.
I'm intimidated because I firstly, I don't know what it entails. Like I've not seen I don't know what a camp is. I don't know where they go.
I don't know you're being thrown in deep ag.
Yeah, like I know a few of them from like the academy training centers, but I don't I don't know anything. I'm not. At that point in time, I was a goalkeeper. I didn't really understand like technique and structure, and you know, I just loved what I was doing. And I think going into an environment that I wasn't sure, I was like, Okay, well, I think I only knew one person.
And was it intimidating because your first Nations woman? Was that was the part of that or was it just intimidating just because of the magnitude of it, or was it a bit of both.
At that point in time, I think because I was still grieving about my dad and going through that process. I think I really, I guess compumentalize the indigenous part and really kind of didn't really want to talk about being First Nations because that meant that I had to open up about my dad, and for me, I wasn't
ready to do that. So I went in nervous as a sixteen year old, and I'm now in an environment with twenty five year olds, and I'm also someone who's quite shy at that time and quite you know, still trying to figure out everything that's going on. Of course, So yeah, I.
Age you asking these questions, aren't you about yourself, about the situation about other people? It's like, yeah, you've you're trying to figure it all out, and you think at that age you can you can figure it all out, and ultimately you can't. It's yeah, it's a funny age to be out. I remember being at sixteen seventeen when I joined the military, and I'm just like so overwhelming. Oh yeah, you just have to just take it each day as it comes. But how does your life change
from that moment onwards? You know, what's your what was there an obvious change.
No, like because I guess my life was still the same. I'd be able to leave school and go to training camps or tours that we did, but you know, I mean I was still like at school hanging with my friends. I'd miss you know, some weddings or birthdays or whatever it was, and that would suck. But I was like, no,
it's like cool, I'll see you guys soon. And I'm traveling and I think at that point we only flew to like Asia, so it wasn't any huge flights away and it was maybe like four times a year, so really it was like, oh cool, Like I get a little holiday and a break and get a little bit of money.
And while you're doing that, you're obviously playing for local team.
Yep, yeah, who I was playing. It was like a state team, so it was like, yeah, Canberra Eclipse I think it was called back then. So yeah, and it wasn't like full time like it was. I train mostly. I think like I play on weekends and then just train separately and then just be able to play with like a club team.
Back then, and I say back then, women's football it wasn't taking that seriously as it is now it's obviously you know, blown now, especially since the World Cup right last year. But what was it like did you feel like that that was it taken seriously or.
Was it you know, I think it was it was because it was Everyone that was a part of it did it because they had passion. Because there wasn't money in it. There wasn't all these extras and sponsors. Everyone that was a part of it, from coaches to medical team, to gear people to the girls did it because it was like a passion that they had and they just loved it. So it was almost that rawness of like
we're just going to go out and have fun. We have something to prove, but like, what are we like, Let's just go out and make sure that we make ourselves really proud and happy, not the expectations of everyone else.
And when did it really start to ramp up for you? You know when because obviously the more the exposure it gets, the more you play that, you know, when did it start to really ramp up where this is full time now, this is you know, I'm in it.
It was my first club that I went to, which was in the US. I went to Chicago and I was a nineteen year old kid going overseas for the first time.
How does that come about?
One of the girls was going there and they needed another goalkeeper. And at that point I was playing youth and was doing really well in the I call it Young Matilda's and I was already established in the Matildas now and it was an opportunity to go overseas. It was the first time that they had it. I have a dual citizenship, so, I mean, America uses a draft system where they do get a lot of college girls
to join teams to then develop them. So it was basically I was a draft draft that had international experience and was playing and training at a really high level, Like why wouldn't you come get me? And you don't have to worry about visas or anything like that. So
it was actually funny. The coach was m Hayes, so she was my first, my first like proper professional coach and now won a gold medal with the US so but yeah, she recruited me over and brought me over to the States, and that's when I was like, wow, Like we're training twice a day, We're doing this, We're drinking protein shakes, your nutritio. Yeah, yeah, and I was like, oh, we get to stay. You're paying for my apartment, like, and you're giving me a car to drive around and
a salary. And and then I came home and I remember feeling like I was on top of the world. I don't play I played like maybe a few practice games, but I mean I was on a great team where I learned so much. And I came home and I thought like I was pretty pleasing with myself. Made it And initially I reckon yeah, and he lived on the back of the year and got told that I was basically nothing from some yeah not just needed to get rid of my arrogant attitude from some coaches that.
The coaches, Wow, so did you get there? You get you're a bit of cocky, you're getting a bit complacent. Yeah, I've got everything at myfe because you've almost done the reverse. Normally people join a professional club and then they go onto the national team. You were in the national team. That's why I said. You went straight to the the national team, and you've done the flip reverse right from the national team and then you went and played played professionals.
So you get a clip around the ear in America? How does that how does that feel?
No, I mean that was a bit rough. That was it was a it's what I needed. But at the time I was like I didn't do anything, Like why am I getting like almost like punished, like here I am, But no, it was it was needed. I think it gave me a little bit of down to earth of like, look how good that person is and why aren't you playing? Like, well you're not playing, so whatever your arrogance is, like I don't know where it comes from, because guess what,
you're not actually on the pitch. And it was like, oh, yeah, okay, well what are they doing that I need to do? And I think that was awake. It was a quick wake up call. I think it was six months of cockiness. Yeah, and then it was like nope.
Yeah, I remember when I joined the military and I passed out training best your cruit, best PT and then we go into my first unit and the same with me the first year, just like I don't need to do anything. And then the rude awakening of it seeing people overtake you, seeing people getting promoted in front of you. See it's just like wow, I need I actually need this wake up cool. Yeah, because again, like you say I'm not on the pitch, they are what do I need to do to get there? And what did you
do to get there? Oh?
Well, then I came back and I was didn't go back overseas. I actually was looking for another opportunity, which it came in the form I had a year to be at home, and during that time we had I actually broke my wrist during that time.
Oh wow.
When I came back home, I was just training with the boys. It was a bit of a wet night and I went out to save a ball and when I saved it, it just felt something in my wrist kind of snap. So I actually then for the next eight months there was qualifiers with the national team and qualifiers with the youth national team, and so I had to put a splint on and then I was waiting until I could get surgery. So I played for eight
months with a broken wrist. Just strapped it up, just strapped it up, sucked it up.
You don't what I mean. Those opportunities, right, and just like don't know that you had a broken risk. Yeah, they wasn't something that you heard because you wanted to do your trials.
It was just yeah, it was they were just like, what can we do? So I went to a risk specialist. They gave me a little splint to wear and I just wore it under my glove and just got on with it until I had time to actually have surgery, which was in twenty ten, so I had I think it was four months off doing rehab, got back into it, and then two thousand and eleven I went over to Sweden for my next club, and I was a two year deal and when I got over there, I had
a great two months. And then the second game of the season, I ran out for a ball and tore my ACL.
That's that's a pretty serious injury. Yeah, Carl, what was going for your head when you're on the ground? Yeah? Do you know it? Do you know? Do you know exactly what it was? No?
I thought it was my hamstring at first, but then I got up and tried to move and my knee gave out, and I was like, what is that feeling? I hate that feeling.
And you'd only just gone to Sweden.
Yeah, only just gone to Sweden. And in my head I was like, I'm the furthest away that I could be from Australia. Literally, the furthest part of Sweden Airport I was, so it was to travel there. It was at least thirty hours. In my head, I'm like, oh my god, I ain't gonna have I need to get surgery. And I'm like, am I covered for surgery? Like is that the club covers that? Or do I need to go home? And they weren't actually sure of the diagnosis either,
So then I had to be there and wait. And it was at a time in Australia when quite a few of the team started getting a cls, so it was maybe three girls on the national team had acls within that six months as well, so I kind of knew from talking to them when they had theirs done, like what it feels like, where were they? Did they
come home? Whatever it was, And so in my head I was panicking because I was like, oh no, I'm like them feeling I'm seeing so many similarities and hearing so many things that like I need to get home. So that was a real hard time of I didn't really want to hurt my relationship with the club because I was only there for two months, and then I was like, but also I need.
To sort this out. Yeah, I need to get get it done, and also being somewhere where you feel like it's home, you know, especially with an injury, you know, you don't want to be somewhere where you're not familiar with, you know, especially if you were covering, and so you fly back to.
Yeah, so I ended up being I fly back to Australia to get surgery and I was there for three months to make sure that kind of the hard stuff was out of the way with a physio at home and I could be home. And I remember just being so like emotional and just I mean I wanted to go. I was loving it. I was loving being away from home, and I remember I had to be back home with my mom whilst nursing an injury, and it was just,
I think, really hard for us both. That was the first time we actually spent time together since I left.
And how did that affect your relationship with the Matilda's.
That was fine because at that time we didn't have contracts, so and also the kind of like the talent pool that was coming in there was not much because the competition in Australia was only three months long, So really, where are you finding people they need to be in academies and state institutes to kind of get that, but there was no real kind of stepping stone to keep developing that turnover and that threshold. So yeah, I was
fine for the matildas. That was all good. It was just kind of like get healthy, get fit again, and then I went back over and finished my Yeah, finish my rehab there. Next season was fine, and then the following season I went over to America again, and halfway through that season I redid the same ACL give me yeah, and that was right. I was in twenty fourteen, and that was ten and a half months out before the World Cup in twenty fifteen.
And how did that affect your mindset?
I remember telling the physio I've done it, and we walked right in. He goes, I'm not gonna test you here because it's going to be on TV and we're going to walk in and I'm going to test you, so I need you to get up and let's go. So up, I get walk with him in. He tests and he's like, yeah, we can get an MRI, but like, we'll get one, but we'll try and get you home.
And I remember getting my phone and walking back out to the bench and calling my national team doctor and national team coach at the time, and going, I've done it. What do I need to do to get back for the World Cup? And at that time, I was the starting goalkeeper, so it was all hands on deck. They said, we'll book you a flight and we'll get you into surgery in a week, So I had two days to
pack everything up. Oh. Actually, I was devastated that night, and I remember I was talking to Abby one back actually and most epic US footballer goalscorer, and she told me, let's have a drink tonight. You can cry about it, you can be sad, but when you wake up tomorrow, you're going to the World Cup. And I remember that the words that got me through that whole rehab. And I didn't have time to think in that time that rehab, I had zero time to think. I had physio. Yeah,
I had no time to even doubt anything. And during that time, it would be like wake up, go to the gym, You're doing mobility circuit and a workout, and then after that we're going to go outside and do running or whatever, or go on the recovery center. So that takes me to lunchtime, go get lunch, drive back home and then you're going to do a goalkeeping session where it's just just catching, just whatever it is to
keep the mind ticking over. Then you're going to watch some footage of you playing, and then it's study bedtime, and then you're doing that for a whole nine months. And then at that time, we were actually going into camp from about five months out of the of the World Cup, like literally five days in weekends off, five days in weekends off, and they wanted me in and
to continue that process. But now I'm around the team. Wow, And it was the way that everyone banded together during that moment really makes me grateful that that would have been a make or break for me in I think in my career of mentally and physically and injury wise. But the way that they kind of banded together for that, yeah, it really got me through. I think what could have been something awful.
So yes, teamwork that ultimately got you got you your mindset straight to think, right, we're gonna have a drink after this, We're going to prepare for the World Cup. How did that preparation go and when? How what was it like getting the called up or you know, did departing for your first World Cup wasn't it.
Yeah, it was that I got through the rehab fine. I got to eight and a half months, which they kind of like they're like nine months earliest, very earliest. And I got to eight and a half months, and coach said to me, in order for you to play your first game in these next like four weeks, I need you to play ten games for me to feel confident that I can play, ready, that you are ready to go.
Yeah.
And so that basically was go to camp, play midweek, go home play on the weekend. Go to camp play midweek, go home play on the weekend. And I had to do that. And that was the one part that I was if I doubted anything, that would have been the only part, just because I was like, this is my first games back. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm playing at home with a boys team, like I had to find a team.
Yeah, of course. Yeah.
And so I was playing with boys teams and then the week day I'd be playing with the girls at camp. So that was hectic. And then getting that phone call, like it was face to face just saying Okay, you're going, we got you. Wow, you're going. It's fine.
All that hard work. Yeah, that dedication and commitment. How did that feel when you when you were sitting face to face and you've got that cool up let's call it.
Yeah, it's just validation, just validation that I had people had my back and people believed in me and at that tournament. Different now, but that was what year was at twenty fifteen. Fifteen, we actually made history back becoming the first Australian nation to make it past knockout rounds. So we beat Brazil in the knockout rounds and then we're facing Japan who ultimately won that World Cup. But that was the first time men or women we made history of getting through that.
How would you describe teamwork, you know, coming from such an elite sort of high performance team, what would you say that teamwork is?
The teamwork is just like you have to make sure that what yourself you are selfish with what your job is, but the ultimate goal is what the team's job is. And if you don't have a peripheral then it just doesn't work. If you're just purely focused on yourself, then great, you did, you did your job, but guess what we lost, So it doesn't matter. So I think, yeah, teamwork is like selfishly peripheral vision.
Do you thrive in a team? You know, how good is it? How good does it feel to be of a part of a high performance team where they get it? You know, when people just just get it, They're not just there for the sake of it, going in doing what they need to do and buggering off that. You know, it's the whole atmosphere, the whole sort of coming together, the bonding of a of a proper high performance team.
It just it just feels like things click, Like you don't you don't feel like you have to wake up and be like, oh, here we go again, Like you're like it's a hard day, I'm going to get through it, and then I get a rest or whatever it is. And I remember an old coach of mine one of the best things he's ever said. He's coached men and women, and his observation was for men, for them to like perform, they need to perform to belong. But for women they need for them to thrive is they need to belong
to then perform. And that was the one thing that through his object you could just kind of you kind of see how it works, like yeah, like I was like no, like, let's fit in, let's form this trust and whatever it is, and now we're all performing. Or I can tell you now you need to do better and you don't find that threatening or intimidating where minutes you know you have to do it. If you don't, well we can bugger off.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you did the twenty fifteen World Cup, how did you perform?
Good? That's that was a defining moment. I think for me just within myself getting through what I did and then us achieving what we did as a team. I just felt an overwhelming sense of strength, I think, both on the pitch, off the pitch.
Just carry it throughout your whole demeanor.
Yeah, because after that, we had our CBA negotiations enduring the Collective Bargaining Agreement. So seven years, four years prior was the first time that we had contracts and now we were it was up. It goes for four year cycles. Now it was up during the World Cup and we were getting ready to renegotiate and they halted the renegotiate the renegotiations and basically we were on twenty thousand for that whole work with national team for what we're putting
in like we were nine to five. Basically we were on not a lot of money, we were below minimum wage. Wow, we were like and it just was stopped, like there was no movement in your country represent and we just did the most amazing thing and there was nothing, nothing happening. And I remember out of that, we were scheduled to play the US, we were world champions, and we said no, we had a strike. It was when do we get a change here? Like do you want to invest in us?
Because we really believe in ourselves. And that was definitely a team effort of everyone being like, no, collectively, we're gonna say no. And there was so many phone calls, there were so many conversations that we had just to make sure everyone was either on the same page or just understood the stance on majority. And yeah, we had we had to strike and you know, got basically what we wanted, which was improvement. And then you know, four
years after that, we're equal parody with the men. So yeah, that twenty fifteen.
Stand was a pivotable turning point, right wow. And then so for the next World Cup, which is obviously four years, it's four years and World Cups you want the same pay as men. Yeah, that's a huge moldstone car. How did that feel? Oh?
I just felt like we got now belief in our federation. Like before it was like we had belief in ourselves and then now all of a sudden, it's like more people come on for the right and.
And you feel valued, right, Yeah, you know you're putting the hours in. You know you want to feel valued, and it's just yeah, that feel good. That feel good feeding, isn't it.
Yeah? And also like the hard yards that a lot of us did, it was like validation for that, but it was also a stance on like if you want to now be in the national team, you've got to understand like this is where we're at. If you want that money, you need to perform or if you want to be up here with the big dogs, like you've got to make sure that we continue performing and we continue fighting. So yeah, I think through that trying to see as like the money or is the reward for
you to work hard? It's not you working hard, like you get that money to work hard, it's you will get that if you work hard.
And when did the first major come knocking on your door? Because you played for some c I was just looking through and I'm like, wow, phg as, I'm an Arsenal fanily So when was your first major club? When did they come knocking?
It was actually during COVID so Joe Montemoruro it was the coach and he went over there and I had him at Melbourne City and he just kind of was saying, look, we have an opening spot for a goalkeeper. Do you
want to come over? And I was like, I loved working with him, and it was just at a point in my career where I knew that I probably couldn't do like full seasons or probably needed to be at a place where I was cared for physically, because I could kind of feel my body starts shifting into a point of like your reach and the end of that hill.
You're at the top of that and let's see what's yeah, yeah, yeah, So I was like, you know, so for me, I was like, yeah, you know what, that actually sounds pretty good. So flew over to London and got to be a London colony and you know, play with the girls and experience what life was like at Arsenal, which yes, it's just a different world. England is a different world with football they live.
Yeah, and how was that culture change?
It was good, Like I really enjoyed it. It was definitely different because it still was COVID and everything that was happening in between of COVID was you know, crazy, but it was, Yeah, it was. It was a great time. Like I mean, the world stopped. Football didn't stop, sport didn't stop, and so to be a part of you know, making sure that you know, we still had income, we
still were doing our job was really nice. And being at a place like Arsenal to provide that to the players, it just felt like the lifeline of you know what basically stopped the world?
How cool is that Arsenal football player? Man, did you have a did it ever sink in to realize the magnitude of who you're playing for? And because I know you say, the UK it has it's a different beast when it comes to football. But to say that you played, you know, you're an Arsenal player, that's that's that's a pinch yourself moment. Yeah.
I think when we when I started really watching EPL, like I've always watched it, but just it was just you know, it's on all the time, like Sky sports BB see, like it's just on all the time, and I'm like really immersed myself within that culture and went to like a few of the men's games and I was like, heck, yeah, this is cool, Like this is so interesting and so different to what I haven't been exposed to before.
Wow. So you go from Arsenal then to PHG, Yeah, now they're the Giants. Yeah right now, how did you do you poach? How did that get come? Of course?
So I was kind of in the middle of, I guess, figuring out what I wanted to do next, and then another again, another opportunity. It kind of feels like with me, opportunities that have come around have been within like a month of needing, needing to make an answer and a decision within that like everything that I planned out probably hasn't worked out, But anything that's been like you have two weeks are you going? Are you not? Has been
Arsenal has been PSG has been Whatever's next? But yeah, it literally was I was trying to figure out what to do. I was still in England, like in the middle of like contract negotiations or you know, talking to other clubs, and then PSG came through to my agent and was like, we have an opening. Is it yes or no? We need to figure it out. And I was like, heck, yeah, I.
Want to go.
So yeah, up, I packed everything and off to France.
I went, wow, are you starting to now pick up sponsorships and is you know, immersing yourself as this this professional footballer.
I think it was more I knew that I didn't have that much time left, like how long is this fairytale gonna end? Or when does this this end? So I really kind of had to sit down and I think around, you know, during this time is when I started thinking about retirement, what that looks like, when does that happen? Where am I going to be? And for me it was I had kind of a year and a bit with Brighton, Oh sorry, with PHG and then I was like, you know what that's that's going to
sound really good. And then we were leading into our World Cup preparation and everything and kind I had a three YEP and I had a conversation with my coaches with the national team and they were like, you know, you're not really playing that much at PSG, which training environment was awesome. I it basically didn't really need to to play all the time kind of I guess what was optics and what I needed to do in case I needed to play. I needed to be at a
place where I had that opportunity. So I had to make a decision what I wanted to do, and I left PSG and went to Brighton, back to the UK. Back to the UK. I didn't say it too many bad places London and Brighton, so I was cheering. I went to the best places I could be.
You certainly did.
But yeah, that was at a point where I was starting to think about what's next. But at that time also it was you know, getting sponsors and leading into what the World Cup was, and it was like, you know, I'm going to try and put in as much as i can in my body and in my like I knew that it was my last tournament. Sure in twenty twenty, we had the opportunity for the bid, and when we got it, the bid, and we're like, oh, we're actually
doing it. Like obviously the men tried to go for the bid and blew it out and didn't happen for the Men's World Cup, and so I was like, we actually have a good chance because two other teams bowed out and then it was us in Colombia and I was like, oh my god, we can actually win this thing. And then I remember sitting in this boardroom. We're all like social distancing in the chairs at three am. We've
been campaigning and media calling like from seven pm. And I remember the President FIFA coming on and doing the announcement and obviously going the you know, the rights holders for the FIFA twenty twenty three Women's World Cup is Australia New Zealand, and we went berserk, I can imagine, But it was just because we've been to so many World Cups and all we want and it was Australia to feel what we felt and see what it's like in Europe in places where we've been, and really wrap
up in that culture. And honestly, like I wouldn't have You couldn't have paid me enough money to Like, I would have not won anything if you would have told me that World Cup would have gone the way it has. And just the the vibe and support and people like falling in love with the team and enjoying football like it's just everything we dreamed of and kind of can't believe that it happened that World Cup.
The viewing figures were the biggest of any sporting event in the history of Australia. That is huge. The turning point for that because all of a sudden you're on the global map. Now was it? Was it that obvious for us? It was because all of a sudden, we're seeing it. We're seeing the matildas everywhere, We're seeing Australia everywhere. You know, it's it's in your face? Was it obvious for you guys on the other end?
I think it grew as the tournament went on. The first game against Ireland, when Steph took up to take the penalty, started obviously with Irish fans. I mean, you know how Irish fans are. They're cheering the whole game, and I think people in the stands are watching us, they're like, oh, like okay, they're cheering, like do we need to cheer back? And then all of a sudden they started to understand, you know, how it looks like and how it works, and you know, and then Steph
scores and then this huge eruption. It was like, wow, that's cool. And then as it progressed, it got to you know, us versus Canada and I must win game in Melbourne and then obviously the bat Stadium people were just cheering the whole time and it was like this is a cool vibe. And then we won that game, and then it kind of like people started to understand what it's like and how like you could almost see like people starting to get more and more into it.
And then by the time the the England game came up, and just hearing the crowd when Sam scored that goal, like it was deafening, and I think that was just like so life changing. Definitely the France game life changing. The France game was definitely I think when everyone was like, oh my god, like they believe in us, and then all of a sudden that when it got to that Sam scoring that goal, but then it was like can they win it?
And then there was true belief in the campaign. And what was it like coming back as national heroes? It was phenomenal?
Right, Yeah, I mean never like it's it's weird because we've all known each other since we were children. It was like teenagers, we've all grown up together, we've all known each other, so for us, it's like, oh yeah, like these guys are the same, like, you know, we're gonna catch up with each other when everyone's retired. We're gonna make sure there's time for our families to get together.
And I think that's the beauty of the team is everyone already has this relationship with each other from the hardships and from the things that happened before the World Cup. That when after the World Cup and everyone's looking at us, we're like, oh, yeah, this is cool. But like we've always been like this, We've always you know, done this and worked hard. It's just now we have more eyes on us, and now we nearly meant it, We nearly
made it. Like we're we actually really believed in ourselves and you guys believed in us.
Well it's phenomenal, it's well deserved and it's about time. And a final question for you, Lydia, what is next for you? Where are you going? What you're doing? And yeah, where's where do you see yourself now?
Well, I'm definitely home, permanently home now in Australia, which you feel good, Yeah, it does. I'm still trying to figure out how winter works, haven't We've done that for a while. But no, I'm home now, I'm doing a little bit of speaking and joining the speaker's circuit and all that kind of stuff. But I do want to give back as much as possible, whether that's First Nations or football or you know, just empowerment. So that's kind of my big passion empowerment.
Wow, brilliant, Well listen. All the power to you, Lydia. It's been great talking to you. Thank you ever so much. Keep inspiring. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you, Thank you.
Lydia. Williams is the author of Goal and Saved Our linked the details in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me on Headgame. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any of our incredible stories and leave me a review wherever you're listening. I'm Att Middleton. Catch you again next time.