Dr Brandi Cole Part II // Tales from the Tillies!!!

or we'll take the strapping off for me. Like, you absolutely cannot give anything away that will compromise the health or welfare of the player by the opposition knowing something about that player.

or whatever you want to call it. If you have listened to that, you will know that it absolutely got out of control. We were having so much fun, Andrew were just fangirling her so hard, but also getting so deep into her incredible pathway from all the way back to childhood, as we usually do. But there's been so much that doctor Brandy has done in so many different areas before we even got up to the chapter that she's in currently, which many of you will know her from.

Of course, most of you will know whether or not you've listened to the episode that doctor Brandy is the team doctor for the Matildas, which in itself is so fascinating and has so many facets, particularly with the recently passed Fever World Cup, so of course we wanted to get into Tilly's fever and everything behind the scenes. But doctor Brandy has so many achievements before that, including being

an elite athlete herself. She's done a million degrees, she has her own practice, so Angre and I got really distracted going through all of those chapters and didn't actually make it to the Tilli's chapter until fifty five minutes in or something like that. But we had so much fun, and it seems doctor Brandy enjoyed herself as well, which we're very grateful for. So she agreed to jump back on for a part two, and this segment of the interview will focus on the behind the scenes of pretty

much being the glue that holds the matildas together. So another wonderfully enjoyable, completely fascinating episode. We learned so much like so many interesting things about what life was like not only in the FEF World Cup but in the Olympic village. And also just how intense the job of the support staff is. And I'm sure you guys will hear. We're just as obsessed with doctor Brandy as we were last time. I hope you all enjoy and love her as much as we have. Maybe we'll get her back

for part three. She's got a lot coming up, so I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as we did.

getting updates. Like everyone was just outraged that I read the dictionary, like and I'm like, you don't tell people that. It's like I got about that.

put ear plugs in because I was giggling. I didn't realize I was doing it because I had my noise canceling earphones on. And so you said you were doing those like deep breathing that would get quicker and quicker, and then you would just giggle and then you'll.

But she also wanted to make a point of when you asked me about my skincare routine, she said it's clearly because of her, because when we used to travel away for the juniors, she'd take me into at the airport in the international airport before we go ay. She takes me into like the cosmetic secon and like I just would not. I don't, I don't know, And she'd show me all the face creams and she's like, this one's worth five hundred dollars, you should put this on,

and like all the testers. So every time, it's why she'd get me, like the best testers to put on my face to help me with the you know, the dehydration of air travel.

your life up until the Tillies chapter. But it's so nice to hear as well from your end that you had friends who didn't know things about you that came out like that's just so lovely.

I had a spare ticket, but he was already going or he couldn't make it, so I was like, no, that's fine, Like that's not what I was talking about.

but were you both like it? Like, how do they set you're just a human like or you're a human being that each like does things they were like, what does it even like, we couldn't even just start to I think what the girls is probably a bit easier to forget what they do from a go to training, Like they eat together as a group and there's a lot of videos around that. You see it on all their socials and then the rest of the team. We're like like, what do they do? Like where do you go?

Usually dinners are fixed, so you have to be there at seven pm, for instance, But we tried to make it a little bit more relaxed in the world cup because being in camp for ten weeks you sort of feel a little bit institutionalized anyway, So it was a little bit There was certain days that you had to be there on time and in other days that it was also a window. So what I mean by window is breakfast is available from seven point thirty until nine.

And so we travel with our own chef, Vinnie, one of my closest friends, one of the best humans in the world, so he and then at the major tournaments we have a second chef with us, so we still wherever we're staying, they like the hotel staff are doing majority of the cooking, but they're overseeing the menu well in advance with our dietitian and then they're managing the actual food and like, honestly, I live my best food life in camp like that is one of the highlights

of my job. I also eat for the whole of Australia in Camp. I have got very strict rules at the buffet, like, oh, it's a buffet, like to the point where I cannot ever go to a buffet in the rest of the world ever, because it just does not lift up to the standard of the Matilda's buffet. It's one of the first things I remember when I

first came into like I did two days. This is years ago in the Matilda's camp, just cover for the doctor at the time, and I was I walked into the meal room and I was like mind blown by the buffet, like it was by far the biggest thing that's stuck it. Like you said to people sort of get starstruck by the players. I was star struck by the buffet most amazing. I've got some priorities, honestly, food. I told you, I get angry, like it's a very

real thing. So I'll put up on my social some of the videos and things I took of the buffet because it's just phenomenal. So I have some rules, but I've self imposed, so I mainly allowed one plate permeal. So you should see how the plates pretty big. You should see how heats that they are. But then I can go back for fruit and yogat. That's my kind

of dessert because there's a whole treats thing. I am not allowed treats in camp because it's just like too amazing, to the point where when it was my birthday, so we do birthday cake for each person's birthday who it

is and we seen to them. And so when I started this at the Asian Cup January twenty twenty two, and there was like eight birthdays in the space of a month, and I was like, oh, maybe I'll have to make my allowance and I'm allowed birthday cake for the next camp because I just missed out on all the birthday cakes. But it was to the point where when it was my birthday at the very beginning of the World Cup, Vinny actually thought I didn't like cake because I don't eat the dessert, so he gave me

a cheese plate for my birthday crate. She was awesome. I mean, I love cheese. I have cheese and nuts on every meal, like I probably ate. I don't know, like one hundred dollars of macadamias a day in the for the whole World Cup, I reckon, like just yeah.

Can I talk to about this? So I just kind of be around hanging out and that's sort of easier to catch up first thing with the girls se if there's anything that they need, So I just kind of hang out in the Tillies Cafe or morning until the end of the breakfast window. Then we've got We've made it quite routine. In terms of our training sessions have

been fairly standard. So it's the eleven am training session, which means they have a meeting anywhere between ten and ten thirty in the morning, depending on how long the travel is to training, and so whatever their meeting time is, we have an our window prior to that meeting, so it might be from nine thirty to ten thirty, for instance, where they can come to the medical room for strapping, so they either come in and struct themselves or all

the physios are there. I'm not always there for that whole hour because i might be doing something with one of the players, for instance, but I'll wander in and out, and I'm always obviously on I'm on call twenty four seven anyway. Then we travel to training. In the World Cut, the training venues were quite close, which is nice, but travel to training is the time that the medical team catch up on our sleep. So we like to sleep

on the bus. Well that's will we listen to our podcasts or music, So we didn't get much of that in the World Cup because the venues were so close. And then training will go for a couple hours, so it's very pre planned and we know exactly what's happening at every minute of the entire training session. They'll do a prehab which is ten minutes where they're doing like their activation work. Then they'll do the warm up with a sports scientist. Then they'll do all the different training drills.

Then they'll do their recovery afterwards, so they've got their nutrition, their shakes, everything there. There's a big table set up. They do ice bars at the field. If we can't get them there, then we take them home to do the ice bars at the hotel, but it's better if it's right at the field straight afterwards, then they shower, change, we get back on the bus. We go back for lunch, so then it's a lunch window. So if someone's been injured at training, for instance, we might grab them before

the lunch or otherwise it's just when it suits. The girls go straight to lunch because their fields. We usually sort of do a bit of a tidy up or whatever we need to do and then head to lunch. I don't know. We shower, I met tighty up of the medical management, none of ourselves, and then the afternoon so the heavy Jackie will send out a message while

we're on the bus traveling back. Usually that says who wants a massage, who wants treatment, and then she'll do this like matrix of times for who's booked in for what, which then usually goes all afternoon. Sometimes the afternoon they might have gym, so on match day minus two and match day minus four they'll have a gym session in the afternoon. Sometimes that's back to back at the field if the gym's at the field. Sometimes it's after lunch, so when we're in camp, we don't know the date

or the date. We just refer to everything as coming up to the next match, so we just say, oh, it's match day one's five, it's match the minus four, and it becomes matched on minus one match day and then match day plus one match days plus two. So in the World Cup you kind of have the pluses and then they turn into the minuses again, so you might have a plus three and then a minus three. But in the Olympics it's literally like game two days and game today, So our match day plus one is

our match day minus two on the same day. So it's kind of like it's just chockers because you've got to do like the recovery plus the prep or the same day. And so then sometimes like if we're lucky, we were lucky enough to have three physios at the World Cup, so the tree would finish at sort of more reasonable time, so we could often then have all our meetings pre dinner or around dinner, which is ideal because then we get a little bit of time to

sort of plan after dinner. But if there's only two treating physios, we often they treat quite late and then we have to have a meeting. So every evening the whole medical team get together for a meeting, so that time is determined by the last player being treated, So then there'll be a group message that goes out Medical meeting at say eight pm, and so then we discuss every player from top to bottom in alphabetical order. So we always start with Mecca. It's just a running joke

that we'll all be chatting. We'll all be chatting away and then someone just be like, so maccap and then that means like, hurry up and start the meeting.

so they'll go through with us the session. From the sports science point of view, they've got to look at if there's anyone that needs modified loading in terms of volume of running or kicking volume or anything like that. Then from an injury point of view, we might say, okay, so this player has a bit of a quad strain, so we don't want them to do any long kicks on their right leg, for instance. So sometimes that won't

that'll be easy. Sometimes if they're the person who normally, like says, if it's Steph for instance, who normally does the kicking in for the set pieces, then we have to get someone to take a spot. So it's more of a sort of a manager how we got to manage training. Sometimes often we'll manage around what the coaches want to do. Sometimes they'll say, well, is there a drill that you want to sort of swap in because

that's going to be better for these players anyway. So it's a big meeting about that, and then we leave and the sports scientist stays there to sort of finalize the training session, and then sometimes we then have to meet again afterwards with him if things have changed. And then in the morning we get sent that plan with who's in, so like it's like a PDA document and it's like every drill, the timing of the drill, the players like who's in where that we check over to

make sure. Sometimes we have to check the next morning, so we might say, like that's a two week confirmed, so this person is going to be in for these three drills and then come out. But we've got to confirm that with in the morning, so then we'll get those the physios will check in with those players first thing before breakfast, and then just send the messages to the coaches. Yep, this person is in these drills. I

was expected all sorry, this person's pulled up. We were a bit more worried about then we want to pull them out of this session. So it's just an ongoing itery process that is day after day after day. So yeah, so our day, my day might end like ten thirty eleven PM officially, I mean if I'm in bed before midnight, it's amazing. Yeah, and you've worked all day, so I mean, I guess in the World Cup, I was averaging midnight to one am to go to bed and get up

at six. But after the games, so that penalty shootout game that started at five pm, so that was it was lucky. It was an early game. I think I finished work at one am and then we were moving at seven am, like we had to get the guys and everything on the freight to fly, because after every game in the World Cup, we flew the next day, the next month.

So I guess start if we break it down, there's twenty three girls in camp in the World Cup. Obviously the World Cup is a little bit different atur home World Cup. It was above and beyond. So this is not the norm when I'm talking about the World Cup. This is the bells and whistles version. It's not oh my god. We normally have about the same number of staff, so about twenty two. So usually I'm looking after about

fifty five people as the doctor. I think in the World Cup, we had like thirty staff at what point. So we had the first like the round game. So the first three games it was what we call a base camp model, so we were based in Brisbane, so we were staying in Brisbane for the two weeks or whatever it was for those three games. But then we

were flying in and out of the games. So we had a friendly in Melbourne, and then the day after that friendly in Melbourne, which I think was like the fourteenth of July, Friday the fourteenth, maybe that Saturday, the fifteenth, we flew to Brisbane and went into our base camp for the World Cup, so officially the World Cup started. Then we'd already been in camp for four or five weeks prior to that day and then when we got to Brisbane, so that was we got to Britan on

the Saturday. Our first game was in Sydney on the Thursday, so then on the Wednesday we flew back to Sydney, so we actually like went Melbourne, Brisbane Sydney between two games. And so when you're moving everything, like you're moving the entire of your apparatus, like the gym, you know, the buffet, the everything.

you know, upper class. I had two hotel rooms simultaneously, one in Sydney and we stopping both of them. I fancy, yeah, fancy, that's where the budget goes. I guess. Yeah. So the Sydney game, the first Sydney game, so we trained in Brisbane in the morning and then we flew to Sydney and then we had to go straight from the airport to do a familiarization session that's called that was part of a FIFA requirement because we were supposed to do.

The FIFA requirements were that you train the day before the match at a specific venue for FIFA that all the media would be at. But wh you wanted to train in the morning and then travel because it's much better for the girls to train than travel, rather than traveling and their training, so we negotiated that we would go to the pitch and do a familiarization, so we would just walk around the pitch and then the media

would be there. So we went straight from the airport to home Bush which is in western Sydney for those who aren't from Sydney, and then our hotel was in Double Bay, which is in eastern Sydney, so we kind of went and did this big thing and then the press conference was at Homebush, and then that happened to be the day that Sam got injured, so then from there I then had arranged to get an MRI for her, so then I took her to get the MRI before we got back to the hotel. So that's like a

big day, and that's the day before the match. Yeah, so then match day, I mean, it's my favorite day for so many reasons obvious because we're playing a game, but it's pretty relaxed in the morning. So match day is probably the one day that I have a bit of a time that I might have some spare time to myself because the girls are pretty self sufficient. The day of the match, We've done everything that it like.

I mean, obviously I'm on call. They might need something if something comes up, if one of them wakes up sick, something like that, but they like to sort of do their own thing in the morning. So often I'll actually get out and go to a cafe with Jackie and I they had physio. We like to sort of go to a cafe in the area that we're in just to kind of see the locally othere. You literally never see anything other than the hotel and the field.

So by the time that we come in the stuff and as a travel with the girls, which are basically the coaches and the physios and myself because we're still sort of available for treatment all day. Then we kind of walk in and everything's done and we just walk in and we arrive ninety minutes before kick off and then we have like a very set routine and it's like to the minute. So FIFA are very strict with everything.

It's I always used to find these things funny when I first started working in the sport, like it might be like seven oh three is the start of the warm up and like just very specific. But now it's just normal to me. It's just that's just football. Like a lot of our games were eight pm at the World Cup, so I think that on average, So after the game, we'd sort of go through make sure that there was no injuries to the players or sort of a sort out if we need to do anything that evening.

Like there's not a lot of things that you have to do that evening. Most of it can be done the next day. But often I'll organize scans and things at the back end of the day for the next day so it's all prepared, and then when we get back we have a very I mean, game day has about four hundred meals because there's the breakfast, lunch, and dinner window but then we have a pre match meal. So often we'll do lunch and then pre match meal,

which is three or four I should know this. I think it's four hours before kickoff is when the girls have their last meal, so sometimes that kind of merges into lunch. If it's like the five o'clock game is a bit tricky. With the eight o'clock game, it was quite easy because it was just more basically like a lunch and then an afternoon tea, and their pre match meal is pretty much like a breakfast and an afternoon tea put in together, so that's what things are served

at that particular meal. So a lot of them will have like cereals, there's a live spaghetti bleonnaise station, so they that's what the girls eat. So basically they have live pasta station every dinner and they'll line up and they'll get their pasta cooked for them, like to all I kind of thing. So that's why we need some chefs as well.

to move. So after those three initial rounds, so after our Canada game when we won, and we went to the quarter final, which was against Denmark back in Sydney, so our Canada game was Melbourne, and so then we flew from Melbourne back to Brisbane and then I think Denmark was in Sydney, which was the quarterfinal, sorry, the round of sixteen, round of sixteen. The quarterfinal was against France, which is the penalty shoot at once. So yeah, the

round of sixteen. So we went from Melbourne to Brisbane and said a few days and trained in Brisbane and then we had to move to Sydney for the Round of sixteen game. But that was we had to pack up the whole of the base camp for that move. So from that point on, so from the round of sixteen to the quarter final, the semifinal, in the final, it changed and it wasn't a base camp model. It

was you move and follow your game. So we literally the whole entourage had to go Sydney, Brisbane, Sydney Brisbane time. So I think I did like seventeen flights in the World Cup. I think I Canada. And so one of the games where we were coming from Sydney back to Brisbane, all our kit usually goes on freight, which is a truck and it goes like a day ahead, So we leave from training the day before and sort of the truck drives wherever we're going and then it gets there

when we get there. But because it was such short turnaround, it had to go by air freight. And so when we arrived back in Brisbane, yeah, before the quarter final games. So before the France game, we arrived back and I said, oh, the freight's not here yet. It actually the plane that was meant to come on. I don't know how that engineering problems or something. So they had to fly all our gear in seven different ways and then they had

to so then they got a truck. And then when the truck arrives, like the truck people don't bring it into the hotel for us, like that's our job as the staff. So I think the freight arrived at like hop us twelve after midnight. The staff were so we've been up to like three for that game. So the Denmark game that was a Sydney game, so I would have finished at three am, flown up at seven am

in the walk up. We didn't have training that day, but I think once the girl started getting the concussion, I had to do a training session every day to get them on their protocol. So I would have been at training that day with one of them. So then at twelve thirty pm or am the next night, we all had to go down to the lobby and get all these bags off. It's one of my favorite jobs. Actually, it's kind of like a workout. So I get in the truck, usually with the with the I usually get

in the truck with the courier. People like shove the bags down and like, I'm like, hurry up, guys.

to their doors. So you know, the girls travel with at least two maybe three suitcases each, So we're talking like sixty six guys just for the girls, and then you know the staff bags and then all of like it's like a full on removalless truck that you're loading and unloading every time we move around.

just always there as well. And I said to Naaria vieographer, said, you should not be helping, you should be videoing this, Like we need this is we need content, no matter about behind the scenes the girls, Like where's the behind the scenes with the stuff?

You can find out so much about behind the scenes of the girls' lives and what they eat and how they sleep, and like it's so interesting to see that there's a whole team of like third twenty two to thirty people who were moving at the same time with all the stuff supporting the girls, and even the fact that for you, when you're in camp mode, like your breaks, which are meal breaks, are actually when the girls are going to come and consult with you, so that's your

downtime is actually a work session.

girls from Europe in a totally different time zone. So it's like it's so much harder when I want to help them and I'm like, I need your knee in front of me to be able to help you. It's like I can do so much by zoom. But so I actually, yeah, it doesn't feel like there's not downtime to me. It's like it's great there. You know, it's just one big family just hanging.

you have to be on time for. So then because it might be like a staff meeting, if the manager needs to speak to the whole sort of group, and then it's always the girls will eat first and then the staff elide after that, and I just find it incredibly hard to sit there in amongst the food for half an hour until I'm all had to eat, Like that is definitely the hardest half hour of my life.

life that much. But if you are, like the timing of that, and then the fact that the girls end up sinking, but then that you're also managing their hormone levels and energy levels and fatigue and symptoms and stuff while you're all living together and also trying to be you know, perform as elite athletes at the same time, how do you manage cycles and like how quickly do they sink when they get back together.

And then right at the end, I said, oh, yeah, it's interesting because there's no scientific evidence behind like the sinking of the men's recycle, but it's definitely a thing that I noticed in camp. And then the entire article they wrote was about the girls sinking their cycles and like nothing else about it. I'm like, oh my god. Anyway, it's like, well, yeah.

It's just if you have the choice, like you don't do that. But obviously the World Cup doesn't move if the girls have their period, So how do you guys work their training and injuries? Like does that change around cycles?

monitor their own cycles as well. They get very used to what the impact of their own cycle is. So some girls will feel at their worst in a few days prior to having their period, and then some girls

will feel worse when they've got their period. So it's quite varied per individual, but they obviously get to know and like, these girls are professional athletes that are training and playing day and day out the whole year, so they are used to the fact that they have to train and perform at any one point in their cycle

for the whole year at all times. We've got probably a very low rate of contraceptive use across the Matudas for you know, no particular reason, but I think it's like ten to twelve percent of the girls, whereas the average in athletes are like thirty to forty percent. And the reason that I know that they do get in sync obviously other than the fact that we monitor it, but it's not like I've got this big spreadsheet going, oh,

look at this is because one of them. One of them will come and ask me for some n aprogesic, which they find is good for their pre menstal symptoms. And then the next minute I've got half the team asking me for n aprogeesic. I'm like, oh, okay, well that's so cool. So that's that's more how I know. It's like when they need more sort of medical assistance in terms of symptom management. And yeah, it was interesting in the World Cup because it was such a long camp.

We had like two or three cycles within that time frame. I was like, what again, it's been four weeks, okay, So I'm sure when I put in my medic like I put in an order, usually I put in i've got a medical kit, which is basically like I take a little mini hospital in a big suitcase. So normally I would make sure it's stopped before I go, and then I'll just restock at the end of the window. But I had to restock at like two or three times through the World Cup because it was such a

long thing. I'm sure that someone fa thinks that I'm like having a you know, black market of drug selling on the side because I have to order so many anti inflammatories. But it really like if you got twenty three girls and two to three menstrual cycles each, like that's you know, that's a lot of pain. That's that's a lot of information. So that's one thing that's very different compared to the to the men's side, and in terms of the anti inflammatories, like they all have their

kind of individual medication that they find work. So I always ask any any patient, I always ask what works for you? Because it's not me to say to someone what's going to help them. I can give them advice, so I stock. I know exactly what the antifometry of choice for every of the players is and for different things. Sometimes they might be used to using one type and I'll give them I'll say, well, look that's probably good for this, but for this in this case, you might

want to try this for this reason. And late they trust me, so they'll always sort of go with my advice. But I try not to change too much because I'm in their world, so I'm just there to support them to perform the best they can.

very closely. But it seemed like people were getting injured more so in training that ruled them out then in the games. The question was actually were these do you think like there's freak accidents or was it you training such high intensity or like, is that a common thing for people to be ruled out? Meant a lot of them from training sessions. I think Mary and Sam are from training, and then I'm not sure even about what Alana's was in the end.

in terms of injury rates. So we have a traffic light system, so at the end of every that meeting, at the end of every evening, we have the girls highlighted green or or red. So green is available no problems, Orange is modified or needs to be reviewed before the next day, and then read is unavailable for the next day. And so we actually are monitoring very closely and we

can see the trends. Like because it's a big color thing in our we sent it out to all the coaches every night, so like one of our little things is oh we get all green. It's amazing, and that's you know what we're amy for. We amy for all green. By the time the first game starts, this particular camp, we bought in a lot of players who were actually quite significantly injured coming into a camp, which is very unusual because normally, if you're just doing a friendly game,

you don't bring players in that are injured. You just leave them out. So I think that when we started, and it was a staggered start, So we assembled on the twurth of June, but the girls didn't necessarily have to be released by their club until the tenth of July, so they came in and droops and jobs as the clubs allowed them to come in, depending on whether they were at the end of their season or in the

middle of the season. Because the girls that played in London and Fresh City, the European girls were at the end of their season, so they were available earlier, but they had to have a mandatory break before they came in. That's what FIFA sort of determined. And then our girls, a lot of them playing in the US or Sweden and they were mid season, so some of them didn't come in until just before, like two days before that

first friendly game, so it was a big difference. So we had I think eight players who came in in that kind of first four weeks that we were in full rehab so weren't participating in the training at all. So we were as a medical team designing their training each day individualized for those eight players, and I think four or five of them were of our starting eleven, So we're talking about like top players who hadn't played

a game for the months because they were injured. So to even kind of bring all that together to have most of them available for the first game, it's, you know, it's actually a huge tribute to both our sports scientists and our physiotherapists who just work behind the scenes, day in, day out to sort of bring that all together. And so then in terms of injuries, once you're in there and you're sort of everyone's fit and you're ready to go,

then your injuries are rather contact or non contact. So contact injuries electraumas, you can't really prep or plan for those, so if they happen, it's just part of sport. It's the non contact injuries that you're trying to do everything you can to avoid it, So they're the ones that all things going well. You know, in an ideal world, you shouldn't have any non contact injuries because should manage everything so perfectly that you don't. But the reality is

you do get them. And so you know, of our obviously the concussions, we had two concussions in training. So the first two were Mary and Ivy. They were both just contact concussions. So it's just unavoidable. I mean it was they were both with the ball. So it's oh, it's actually interesting because I don't know, like the balls have a very specific PSI that they're pumped up to, but these balls were a different brand to balls that

we normally use in games. I don't know whether that was anything like if the ball was harder, like the actual make of the ball. I mean, it's just very unusual that we had so many concussions based on heading the ball, that we all being or being hit in the head with the ball that we haven't had in the past. And then obviously Sam's injury was a calf injury, so that was a non contact injury, you know, was

just something that happened. There was no sort of preemptive sort of moment to that it's just an acute injury that happened. But other than that, So Charlie's happened in the game. Her concussion. Alana's probably happened in that game, but we weren't sure. It wasn't evident until afterwards. Wasn't about her concussions. She kind of had like sort of a bit of a delay of onset symptoms or a bit of It was kind of a tricky one to diagnose.

But I can't really think of any other sort of big injuries that resulted in people being ruled out of games. There was a few that we were managing soft tissue things throughout, so we might not have trained them so that they could play. So the idea is if someone's pulled up saw, you don't put them back into training and really make that injury worse. So that's the fine line between doing enough and then not doing too much.

So obviously people will say, well, just don't train them, but not training someone and then underloading them into a game is a big risk as well. So balancing the risk of overloading and causing a worse injury or underloading and causing a worse injury. And we debate about every evening about it. I know that our coach is quite he's so respectful of our medical team. I mean, you've probably heard him talk in the media like it's very genuine that he trusts us fully and we'll do, you know,

whatever we advise. But sometimes he was worried that we were making like he didn't want the girls to train in a certain training session as much as we were trying to get them to train, because he was just worried about them getting injured. But it's like, well, we're worried about next week if you don't do this this week sort of thing. So it's just that balance. And I guess on the field, you probably don't see the little injuries because we just sub the player and you

just think it's a sub. So we've got a lot of corks in those games, like like a lot like just I mean, it's the same girls that often get them. They're just the you know, the tenacious ones on the field. But so sometimes it's quite evident when they cool down the next day, like they might have to miss two or three training sessions to recover from that. That's an injury that sustained in the game. But we just don't

make a deal about it. We don't sort of you don't see it because they're back playing by the next game, so they're the ones that you don't notice.

the strapping off for me. Like you don't want to give you like, you absolutely cannot give anything away that will compromise the health or welfare of the player by the opposition knowing something about that player.

what is this. Is this a pretend, meticule time out that's happening on the field, that's all strategy, or they really sore on the well.

you back on. So they try like super super hard to not have That's why if you watch closely, you often see a game where Jackie and I will stand up and walk to the sideline and we're just standing there ready to go on. But then they're trying not to call us on, and they're like, Okay, I can recover myself, I can do this, and then they'll they'll play on. But sometimes I say to them, like, you really should have called us on for that one, like you, you probably needed a bit of help or a bit

of assessment. But the I mean our girls octually, these girls are very very tough.

Are their dates and times? Or like what are some of the coo or do you all have to travel with like peanut butter and a jar? Like what are the things about the team including you guys that only people who are in the team would know that are like just quirks about you guys.

I think that was the game we played in the other kit too, like the blue kit, not the yellow kit, And like I'm not superstitious at all, but I get so worried about because it's such a mindset thing. So then for every game, so we get told as you get towards the game, there's like a match commissioner meeting and they tell you like, this is the kit you're playing in, and this is the kit the goal keeps playing so it's not in our control. So like FIFA

tell you no choice. Yes, So every game I was like, oh my god, Like I was trying to find out for the manager as soon as possible whether it's going to be the pink kit for that Cup because I just really needed to prepare.

And the laundry at the Olympics it was like this big because you're in the we're in the village, so it was like the whole of the village having the laundry yet and it's in COVID right, so so literally you'd have to line up for an hour to submit your laundry and then you'd get it back at a certain time in the evening. And this lucky sports bra

went missing. So half of the team and the coaching staff and the medical staff just waltzed into this laundry like this big facility in Japan and went behind the scenes. And we're just searching people's laundry bags to find her lucky sports bra because like we couldn't. We just didn't want her to have to play without it. Like we found it, but like, oh thank god.

becomes second nature the stuff. Like some I don't know, sometimes we start to get superstitious, like oh, well I wore my hair like that, and then you wore this, and that's what we did, so we'll do that again. But we're only really mucking around, like we're not actually serious, Like it'd be fine, like we'd be fine to I go out of my way to make sure that I

don't create superstitions. So I just keep changing things up so that I don't create an attachment to something, because otherwise then you're just relying on something that's out of your control potentially. So yeah, I am.

get it ready. And then I think we the game that we lost against Nigeria, I was like, I want different socks or something, and I was like, I was like, why did I wear these socks?

I'll sit down and watch it. Yeah. So I'm the opposite, like I'm inside this bubble and I have no idea what went on outside in terms of you looking in, Like I just don't know what people know, what people saw. It's so cool.

being an extended I'm like, that's fine. And then the next game and I'm like, they still called you the physio, to the point where I went to our minimander and I said, look, I've got some friends that are watching on like the coverage, and they're getting very upset that they are calling me the physio and not the doctor, Like can you just talk to the commentators and let them know that I'm the one with the ribbons in my hair, I'm the doctor, and Jackie is the physio,

and she's the other one on the field. And because we look quite similar, like over the years going on the field, people make a joke and say like we're sisters and we're running on the field, and some of her friends apparently called her up and said, so do you guys just like sciss a paper rock? Who does what on the field when you run around, because like sometimes like it's Brandy doing it and sometimes it's you.

the TV. So literally, like all my friends catch on mouse, so I'll be in a game overseas and then my watch will just be going off with photos of screenshots of TV I've been on. But anyway, and so my daughter's at school now. But a few years ago she went to Kindy and that was like, what do you want to do when you grow up? And she said, oh, I want to work on the TV like my mum's and so like she thought my job was on the TV because that's all she got to cv at work.

Like she now understands, she's a massive Tillies fan. She knows I'm a sports doctor. And then when she left Kindy and they sort of did that KINDI graduation before she started school, she said that she wanted to be a sports doctor and that she was going to take over as the Matilda's doctor after me. And she said, she said, nom, so can you just stay there till I'm ready to have the job And I said, well absolutely,

not six yet. And then she said, oh, and I might work in your clinic as well, but I want to be the boss, so I'm going to be the boss. I was like, of course, you are good on her.

That's where all the singing and dancing and in the chain room like and for Prehab, I mean, there was so much about the music. So the music starts when we arrive and then the ten minutes of Prehab is very much music. It's such a mix. So you'll have Nicky Webster into some like Rapper into Seleen Dion into black Magic into Yeah, like it's such a diverse Kaya Simon is the main DJ, and then Lydia and Sam often if Guy's not there, So it's probably second to food. The music.

You know how you put the torch on your phone. Now, Yeah, I'll dig that one up and put it back on the story too. It was like they're the moments that you remember more than the sport, like those are all behind the scene things.

World Cup, Like I haven't had a holiday yet. I've recovered, but I still am a little bit You know, like I need a break. My patient said to me, Oh, like you look at ittle bit more now, like you're a bit dead behind the eyes. When I came in two weeks and I was like, yeah, I loves how I felt too.

But usually it's fine. Usually I come back refreshed because, as I said, my real life stressful comparantor I can't laugh. But we're going into We're going into camp in a month's time, four weeks time to Perth. We've got three qualified games for the Olympics. Yes, so I'll see if I can get some behind the scenes Freighton food footage for you.

And that was the day that Charlie was doing her Charlotte Grant was doing her concussion rehab and she actually did a karaoke performance to a Marley Saras song for us as her like her welcome into the advanced group, My dream, my Dream Gift. I'm not on TikTok, but if you follow Charlie on TikTok, they often do like singing dancing TikTok to we're in camp. I always walk into them, see them making them. I had a cameo in one when we were over in London. They're like, Okay,

you got to do this. You gotta walk on in the background and do this.