For most women professional players in Australia, their career will on average last just over three seasons, with a select few able to play for over a decade. There would only be a few who come back to the game after a lengthy absence that was not forced upon them by injury, which makes Perth Glory’s signing of midfielder Sadie Lawrence after a gap of nearly 10 years since her last Glory appearance all the more remarkable.
Lawrence first took to the field for Perth Glory in 2009 as a 16-year-old, making her debut against Newcastle Jets at Members Equity Stadium under then-coach John Gibson. Playing alongside her in the team that day were goalscorer and ex-Matilda Collette Gardiner (nee McCallum), Lisa De Vanna, current Chelsea assistant coach Tanya Oxtoby and club appearance record holder Shannon May, whilst the squad also contained Sam Kerr and Ella Mastrantonio.
She would go on to play 16 more times for Glory, making her last appearance on 17 December 2011 against Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium under coach Jamie Harnwell.
Lawrence then fell out of favour with Harnwell and played no part in any of his future squads. The arrival of Bobby Despotovski in 2015 continued her absence from the Glory, and with no call ups throughout the tenure of Despotovski’s time at the club, it appeared as though the A-League Women career for the ex-U20 international was well and truly over.
However, in 2021 she had a stellar year with NPLW WA treble winners MUM FC, captaining the side in the latter part of the campaign and becoming the real driving force behind their success, as she anchored the midfield and contributed 10 of the team’s 81 goal tally.
Her performances did not go unnoticed, with Glory coach Alex Epakis watching from afar on YouTube and also catching up on NPLW WA games when he was able to visit Perth during COVID lockdowns. Lawrence was duly awarded a contract to cap off a truly remarkable season.
In order to return to the A-league Women competition, Lawrence had to rediscover her desire for the game. She credits her coach at MUM FC, Mark Jones, as being a key figure in enabling her to step up to the next level.
“I had the confidence in myself to know that I could do it and I really worked on getting myself fit. Mark stepped in as our coach and he just believed in me and he really did help me to see that I could do it.”
Lawrence had this to say when she learned she was going to be making a comeback to the professional game, and spoke about the gap between her last appearance and her return to the Glory set-up.
“I was holding back tears, I was so, so happy, and it’s been excellent, Alex is such a good coach and the culture here has been amazing.”
“It really sounds cliched, but I was just too young when I did first go into it. I don’t think I was ready at all, mentally or physically and I think now is my time so hopefully, I can show that.”
Her impressive form during the NPLW WA season has carried on into pre-season training and Epakis had this to say about her efforts so far:
“She’s been outstanding since she’s come in and we couldn’t be happier and excited for what she can do this year.”
In terms of targets and goals for the upcoming season, Lawrence spoke about her desire to be a good team member:
“[I] just want to help get the team to get to where they want to be. Obviously, we’d like to be in the top four but just playing a good brand of football would be really good. We’ve all got the mindset there and the culture’s really good to [help us] have a really good season.”
The selection of Lawrence by Epakis is a bold move and goes some way to answering critics in the WA football community who accuse him of not paying attention to local players. By giving Lawrence another chance like this Epakis has shown he will pick players from the local league. The challenge for MUM FC’s skipper is to now repay the faith her coach has shown in her and get back to the form that earned her a national call up all those years ago.
