Salisbury Inter have had a season to remember. A WNPL SA league title, after being runners up last season? Tick. A WNPL & WSL Cup win, wiping the memory of being semi-finalists the year before? That’s another tick. Now Inter have the chance to clinch a rare treble on Saturday when they meet West Adelaide in the WNPL SA Grand Final.
One player that has been part of the success is Tasmania’s own Emily Heazlewood, who moved to South Australia last year in search of a new challenge. Beyond 90 caught up with Heazlewood recently to discuss her career journey and what brought her to Inter.
“I started playing football for U7s at Launceston United,” Heazlewood said.
” I went through the junior system however I only played one year in the girls comp (U13s), the rest were with the boys, which I really enjoyed and feel as though it’s helped me become the player I am today.”
“Played with the boys all the way up to U18s – 18s was the hardest year, because it was hard to keep up with their speed. I then went on to play with the women.”
Heazlewood went on to become a breakout star in the NTC (National Training Centre), playing with the U13-U17s group.
“I think maybe my second year of NTC they entered our girls team in a boys Hobart comp, which meant travel three times a week to train and play while going to high school during the week, which had its challenges,” Heazlewood said.
“[After the] 2017 NTC challenge I got selected to go to the Junior Matildas camp, which is still the highlight of my career today.”
Heazlewood faced more obstacles as she had the opportunity to play for Launceston City in the Tasmanian Women’s Super League but schooling commitments would prevent the move.
“I didn’t want to leave my club (Launceston United) to play at WSL level as I loved my club, and when City folded in 2019 I didn’t want to travel to Hobart or Ulverstone again for trainings as it was such a commitment and just didn’t work around my school college years,” Heazlewood said.
After two years at United and graduation from college, Heazlewood decided it was time to see how far she could take her footballing career and opportunities from the mainland beckoned.
“I approached and trialled at a few SA clubs and picked Salisbury Inter because they felt the most welcoming.
“Inter helped make sure I could get to and from the club alright which was a big thing for me, considering I flew over there on my own and had never visited Adelaide before.
“The WNPL standard was quite a big step up as I went from being quite a strong player in Tasmania to just fighting for a starting spot in my first year at Inter.”
“Playing alongside and against girls who play and have played in A-League Women (formerly W-League) in the past makes the competition pretty competitive!”
Heazlewood went on to list María José Rojas as a notable team-mate that she’s been fortunate enough to learn from.
“María is a fantastic player. I sometimes get caught out just watching her during our games as she can just keep the ball and scores so well!”
“We have a great bunch of girls in the squad this year so definitely don’t have any favourites. Everyone pushes each other to do their best and I’ve learned a lot playing alongside them in such a short period of time,” Heazlewood said.
After being runners up in the WNPL SA last year, Inter made 2021 their own by winning the WNPL and WSL Cup and then winning the league on the final day.
“I felt we had a decent run last year and this season I feel the team has just built on top of it, it’s so great for the club to get the results we have so far,” Heazlewood said.
It was a close race to finish on top of the ladder.”
Heazlewood recapped one of her favourite Salisbury Inter memories to date, which was scoring the winning goal in their Round 7 clash with West Adelaide (go to the 3:07 mark of the below video).
“Scoring the winner felt amazing to have helped my team get the win over [West] Adelaide,” Heazlewood said.
With one eye already on Saturday’s Grand Final, Heazlewood concluded our chat with her goals for 2022.
“Hopefully I can play as much as I can and just keep trying to improve on my personal game.”
Saturday 23rd October
Women’s NPL SA Grand Final
Salisbury Inter v West Adelaide
3.00pm at Summit Sports and Recreation Park, Mount Barker
