One Sally James, there’s only one Sally James …
It’s a chant from the Canberra United faithful heard regularly throughout this season, as James pulls out an impossible reaction save in the last five minutes against Melbourne City to ensure her side takes something out of the game. James was voted Player of the Match by Canberra members, and she is having a wow of a season.
Her road back to Canberra, however, has been anything but predictable, with plenty of ups and downs that have shaped James’ character.
James started her football life as a striker with the Majura juniors in Canberra. Her transition to goalkeeper was happenstance.
“They used to call me Striker Sally, I had a couple of school friends in my team. [There was] Midfield Marcia, Striker Sally, and Elinor played here, there, and everywhere. It was a lot of fun.
“One rainy day we were conceding a fair bit – we’d score goals, but then we’d concede, and I was, like, maybe I could do something about that? Unofficially, it was to spite my mum because she said she didn’t want me to play goals because it was boring, and she didn’t like watching [me there]. Once I went in, I just fell in love with it.”
James might have originally been trying to spite her mum, but she also impressed as a goalkeeper, earning a place at Canberra United Academy. The move from a traditional club team arrangement to an academy-style environment didn’t always sit comfortably with her, something she discussed in an interview with Ryan Miller-Woods of Impetus, conducted earlier this season.
“I honestly lost a love for the game. I think I was kind of in and out a little bit. I wasn’t enjoying training. I just wasn’t having a good time. And when you lose that enjoyment for it, I honestly was this close to going to AFL.
“Emma Ilijoski and myself were on FaceTime, and we drew a Venn diagram of AFL and football. The diagram was leaning more to AFL, but when Ant called [Antoni Jagarinec, with an invitation to play with Belconnen United in 2019], I just knew I wanted to give it another crack.”
“Just go one more year, and see what happens. I honestly owe everything to him.
“I found [the Academy] very intense. I felt a lot of pressure, and I don’t think at the time I was equipped with the skills to deal with that. I feel like a lot of people who play sport come from family sporting backgrounds where they can give them advice, tips, and tricks. I don’t come from that at all. There’s not a sporting bone in anyone in my family’s body. Nowadays, there are more resources around the mental side of football. If I’d been able to vent, or say how I was feeling, maybe it would have been different.
“I got along fine with everyone, the girls were great.
“People say goalkeeping is a lonely position but I don’t really find it lonely. There’s a difference between being lonely and being alone. Like now, this season, more than any other season. I feel so much a part of the team, love the girls. I’ll clap for them while they go cheer in the corner at the other end, even if it means I’m doing my own celebration by myself.”
While James was pondering a switch to Australian rules football, she was also excelling on the futsal court and was named Futsal Premier League 2 U18 Women Goalkeeper of the Year for the 2018-19 season. This feat was made even more impressive when you consider that her club, Boomerangs FS, plays in a Football NSW competition, and therefore makes regular trips to the Greater Sydney area during the season.
The 2019 outdoor season with Belconnen United that followed was a time of rejuvenation and success for James. It ended with a remarkable grand final win – James’ first outdoor trophy! – courtesy of ex-Matilda / Canberra United legend Caitlin Munoz’s last NPLW kick, which earned an extra time victory for Belconnen over Canberra Croatia.
“Munoz joined in our [Canberra United] training yesterday, what do they say, form is temporary but class is permanent? She just got the ball, back facing to goal, does a little turn, smashes it top corner, I think the keeper saved it, but she’s unreal. She’s like Bobby Fisher, she thinks five or ten moves ahead so she doesn’t have to run as much. Such a smart player. Her presence, Brownie [Catherine Brown], Maddy Whittall, Lauren Keir, Nicole Jalocha, those older players helped me stay at Belco. Seeing where they could take their football and how they were such nice people, they took me under their wing and made me enjoy being in a team environment again.
“I think it’s a little bit different when you’re all young [in an Academy environment], you’re looking for a role model but you’re all the same age and have had similar experience. It’s a different kind of culture.”
“I found Academy personally, more cutthroat. Club land has more of a family [feel], and something I’ve learnt about myself is that I do a lot better when I feel a family type of vibe because I prefer to play for other people as opposed to focusing in[wards] and honing in on myself.”
Coach Jagarinec was the other main factor in James rediscovering her love for the game.
“I think he reads people really, really well. He pulled me aside for a chat yesterday, it’s like he just knows if something’s up, and he knows how to talk to different players. When I first came in with him, I was so shy and I didn’t talk. he somehow found a way to bring me out of my shell and make me feel comfortable.”
The back end of 2019 brought James into the A-League arena for the first time but as with many keepers in the league, she has learnt to bide her time and overcome injury frustrations. A stint with Illawarra Stingrays came in 2020, along with participation in both the Future Matildas and a Talent Identification camp.
“[The 2020-21 Canberra United season] was with Keeley [Richards] and I knew I was in there as number two but she got injured a couple of days before round one, so I knew I’d be playing. I made my debut against Adelaide. I think around the third game, against Roar, I broke my finger. It broke it pretty bad as well.”
Unfortunately, James would become accustomed with not being a regular starter over the next few A-League Women seasons. Offseason stints with NPL NSW clubs Blacktown Spartans and APIA Leichhardt helped her through times when she wasn’t in starting lineups with either Melbourne City (two appearances in 2021/22 and twelve in 2022/23) or Perth Glory (two appearances in 2023/24).
“[With City] the way it was presented was that I’d go in as number one, but I dislocated and broke my thumb in pre-season, so that wiped me out for three and a half months.
“Bubs [Melissa Barbieri] was just playing awesome, and I couldn’t get my foot back in the door, and I completely understand that decision. At the time I didn’t, but I [now] feel that was pretty naive for me to think that I was just going to go back in. Of course not, she’s in form, absolutely deserves to be playing.”
Morgan Aquino’s stunning form last A-League season led to an overseas contract for Aquino and just two appearances for James.
“Yeah, it was tricky. I knew from speaking to Alex Epakis I wouldn’t necessarily get the first bite of the cherry, but historically they had chopped and changed [starting keepers]. In my head, I was, like, okay, if an opportunity comes, great, I’ll take it, and then it’s my responsibility to keep it. If I lose [the opportunity] then that’s on me. As it went, Morgs had a top season and the chance to play didn’t present itself.
“I think there are times where you just have to sit back and understand that your role in the team is going to be more of the support person because I don’t think you can fight with reality. All you can do is just do your best and keep showing up, keep being positive around the group.”
Despite being in and out of starting lineups during this period, James clearly impressed national team coaches enough to remain in the Young Matildas setup. She played in all three of their games at the 2022 U20 World Cup in Costa Rica, where a win against the host nation was followed by losses to Brazil and Spain.
James returned home to Canberra for 2024-25 and the decision has paid off with starts in every Canberra United game. Her communication has been first class – she freely admits to being completely hoarse after games – while her reaction saves and anticipation have been off the charts. Sure, there are one or two moments she’d rather forget – James groans when discussing the Newcastle away game – but she is in stunning form, and loving her time with the current playing group.
“I love being home, we’ve got a great group of girls, Ant’s great. And my team won at foot tennis once [grins].”
The United goalkeeper’s union – James, Coco Mastorovic, Georgia Ritchie, and Janet King – is a tightly knit group who work together with goalkeeper coach Tim Davies (“we’ve known each other since I was at CUA [Canberra United Academy]”) to elevate each other’s level of performance.
“[The coaching team] instil a lot of confidence in me, and when you feel backed and you feel like someone genuinely believes in you, and they’re helping you, you can take a deep breath and go ‘Alright, we’re on here’ and play freely because you’re not worried about anything else.
“That trust has made a huge difference for me. I used to feel pressure in other environments to be super serious, worrying that if I wasn’t, the coaching staff might think I didn’t care or wasn’t fully committed—even though that couldn’t be further from the truth. But here, I don’t feel that pressure. I know the coaching staff understand who I am, and because of that, I feel confident to joke around, be myself, and have fun at training. That freedom has helped me relax, trust myself, and play at my best.
“I’m happy with where I’m at, but I also want to not stay happy where I’m at. I want to keep getting better and better, build off of this and take the lessons that I’ve learned into seasons to come. You can’t take your foot off the gas.”
When asked about which of her clubs have contributed most to honing her art, James doesn’t pinpoint one – “different coaches will give you different things, I don’t think one coach can give you everything” – but rather points to two things she has learnt along the way.
First, her time at Canberra United Academy, which included some very one-sided games. Then, the possession-dominating style of Melbourne City, which taught her the importance of concentration, of being in the moment even after long minutes of inactivity.
“When you’re playing keeper, it’s all about that one moment. In a team like City where you could go 80 minutes without touching the ball, if in the 83rd minute, someone breaks and gets a shot off, it’s your job to save it. You can’t classify yourself as a great goalkeeper if you’re not standing up in those moments.”
“Kind of like sleeping giant mentality, just waiting for that one moment, and always expecting something to happen.”
Another key point about paying attention to detail came from her time at City with goalkeeper coach Jordan Franken, who also works with Portland Thorns and the Australian Under-23 Matildas.
“Sometimes I would concede a goal and be, like, oh, there’s nothing I could have done about that, and Jordan was, like, no, this is what you could have done. Even if it’s something where I could have moved a player just two steps to the right … it was that detail-oriented, and initially I found that quite shocking, but I’m grateful for that now, for sure.
“The best game for a keeper is if you have a worldie, pulling saves out of [nowhere]. The other best game is when you don’t touch the ball at all because you’re moving the pieces in front of you to try and prevent you from touching the ball.”
Canberra United is well on track to realise a pre-season target of conceding less goals – James has nothing but praise for centre-back Liz Anton and the way she has marshalled the defence, especially while Maddy Ayson was unavailable – but has also worked hard on cohesion, squad rotation, and their approach to the back end of games. After winning the first two games, the team needed a period of growth over the difficult five or so games that followed.
“I remember there was one game in particular, I think it was Wellington away, it was quite early on in the season. We were under the pump pretty much the entire second half, but the effort and the scrap that the girls put in was tops.
“Michelle [Heyman] even slide tackled, and that never happens! I think she would tell you that.”
“That became something of a reference point for Ant, in terms of what he wants the back end of our games to look like, the aggression, the never-give-up mentality, physical, strong.”
Similar to her ‘in the moment’ goalkeeping ethic, James doesn’t like to think too far ahead to her footballing future. At present it’s all about helping her team reach the top six and earn the club’s first finals appearance since the 2020-21 season.
“We’re optimistic [about finals], it’s in the back of everyone’s minds, we don’t want to let it get to the point where we are relying on other teams. We’re hungry for it, we’re going to bust our arses to make sure that it happens, and that’s the key part. It’s exciting, it’s there, but just seeing it isn’t enough, we need to actually make it happen. Action-based goals as opposed to outcome-based goals – yes, we want to make finals, but we need to be focused on the processes that will help us get there.
“I don’t really like to think about the future too much, just take it one day at a time. More clean sheets [laughs]. Making the national team would be unreal, and playing overseas would be really cool.”
In signing off, James has the following words of appreciation for Canberra United fans.
“You guys are the best support in the league, easily. I think I said that in one of the media interviews and I mean that whole-heartedly. We hear the chants, we appreciate it so much, they’re our 12th player. Michelle was saying she bumps into people who have been coming to games since CU was founded, which I think is so cool, and speaks to the loyalty of the supporter base we’ve got. I personally love it when everyone gets up in outrage when the ref makes the wrong call, sometimes I have to laugh to myself. People come with signs and bracelets. The girls know fans by name, we’re very, very lucky, we appreciate it so much.”
