On Sunday, Perth RedStar will take to the field in the WA State Cup Final, attempting to win the first-ever trophy for the new club.
Leading them will be captain Shawn Billam, who recently played her 200th senior game for the club, with the majority being played for Northern Redbacks before they merged with ECU Joondalup this season to become Perth RedStar.
Billam is one of the rare breed of players in WA who have reached the highest levels in the game without going through the NTC or State system, having moved to WA from the UK when she was 14 and missing out on the “traditional” pathways.
“I grew up in Worksop and played for Worksop Town when I was a kid, and a couple of us played for the Sheffield United development team, which is where it all started (for me) really.”
Moving to Australia with her parents when she was just 14 was a difficult transition and with no football network to plug into she found herself struggling to find information about where to play, and basically had to start her football journey all over again. She started playing for her local club (ECU Joondalup) after getting details from Football West but struggled at first to come to terms with the game in WA, and her playing style would often raise the ire of local referees, as she was used to playing at a much higher physical intensity.
She played at ECU for a year before joining Northern Redbacks. She chose Redbacks simply because a number of her ECU teammates were also making the move there as the ECU team were disbanding and the players were all looking for somewhere to go. When she arrived at Redbacks, she finally started to develop a sense of the WA football landscape and quickly established herself in the first team at the age of 16. While playing in a pre-season Night Series competition she caught the eye of then Perth Glory coach John Gibson, who invited her to become part of the short-lived WAIS squad.
“He tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come down to WAIS training, and then in the following season, I became more full-time.”
At the time the WAIS team would include the likes of Tanya Oxtoby, Collette McCallum, Lisa De Vanna and Sam Kerr, and players such as Billam would find themselves playing with these players one week and then the following week they would be back with their club side. Playing and training alongside players of this calibre re-ignited Billam’s desire to play at the highest level, but it wasn’t until Jamie Harnwell took over the reins at Glory that she earned a more permanent spot in the squad.
“Jamie came along and that’s when I became more ambitious. I’d been on the edge all the time but now I wanted more and that’s when I started fighting for a spot, trying to learn as much as possible and taking it more seriously.”
Billam picked up her first Glory contract at the age of 19 years, but she found life to be very tough. This was a far cry from the current minimum wage that players now receive, and she recounted those early days.
“It wasn’t great, just everything (was hard), the travel, going here there and everywhere. You had to do it off your own bat. You didn’t have any money, Mum and Dad were paying for petrol, you had to watch what you were eating and then you might not even get a game and this went on for a couple of years. You couldn’t go out at weekends and I had just started Uni as well so couldn’t take part in things as I had to go training.”
Billam admitted that she didn’t feel she was an established member of the squad until the last season of Harnwell’s tenure and she was then part of Bobby Despotovski’s first squad, along with a core group of West Australian players. The squad was hard hit by injuries in that season with Sam Kerr forced to miss most of it and Caitlin Foord also out for an extended period. There is no doubt this had an impact on the team’s performances.
“We ended up getting battered most weeks, but in the following season we ended up going all the way (to the Grand Final) with pretty much the same core group of Perth girls. We had learned a lot from losing all those games and we ended up being mentally stronger because of that (experience).”
Her time in the ALW coincided with the introduction of the minimum wage, but Billam also acknowledged that the league had changed massively in other areas during her time.
“We were training at different parks, which were cow paddocks, there was obviously no money and then the EBA came in. We started getting more flexibility with our flights so that people weren’t having to travel late one night, then play the next day and fly home again immediately after. We had more say in where we trained, the use of physios and masseuses increased and we were no longer expected to do our own taping and those sorts of things.”
An undoubted highlight of her time at Glory was the semi-final game against Sydney FC when Glory won 5-1 and Billam scored the fifth goal with a top bins special, but she touched on the other aspects of life as an ALW player.
“Sitting in the stands (is) obviously (hard), and you get it as you know there is something you’re not bringing to the table that the coach wants, so you have to work harder. Being told you’re not fit enough, it all takes its toll. I think I became a better player because of that though, and the older you get the more you can understand all of the reasons behind things.”
Since leaving Glory and returning to Redbacks (now RedStar) Billam has been firmly entrenched as the 1st team Captain and is now the longest serving captain in the club’s history. As such, she has seen many triumphs over the years. She puts this consistency at the club down to the senior players and their insistence on standards being met.
“We have high expectations, and it’s not something that we take lightly. We don’t have a go at the younger players, we just encourage them to become better players and try to help them improve with their decision-making. We don’t scream and shout at them and this means that the young players that come through now feel more relaxed in the team environment rather than being fearful of making a mistake and being shouted at.”
The start of 2022 saw the Redbacks club merge to become Perth RedStar, and for the women’s team it has been a season that has so far surpassed all expectations given the tremendous upheaval off the pitch and a new playing venue at RedStar Arena. Billam offered her thoughts as to why the onfield performances have been so good so far.
“The style of football we are playing is key, and also I think a lot of the older players are probably playing the best football they have ever played in years. We believe in one another, and we know we can keep possession of the ball even under pressure. The team is also very hungry from last year. A lot of the girls have won titles before, but when you lose at the very end as we did last season then that really gets you, and I think a lot of the girls were really hungry and determined to show people that we are the best team in WA.”
Even though Billam has now played over 200 games and won countless titles and honours, there is still a fierce burning desire to win more and there is no doubt she will be leading from the front in Sunday’s cup final when she attempts to win the State cup for the sixth time in her career.
