Going the extra mile is something Georgia Brown has done a lot of lately — or perhaps extra miles in the plural would be more accurate.
The 25-year-old lives and works in Auckland, but flies south every week to link with the Southern United women.
This week she will make a return trip — arriving in Dunedin yesterday and flying back to play Auckland in Auckland tomorrow.
Unbelievably, that fits better with her work than playing for a team in her own city.
Originally from Queenstown, Brown spent four years at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Since returning she has lived in Auckland to train with the Football Ferns in the Future Football Development Programme (FFDP).
She played for Auckland last year and the team had made her an offer to play for it again.
However, having given up her job in architecture and starting as a personal trainer in Takapuna, her circumstances have changed. The majority of her work comes in early mornings, or afternoons and evenings.
But Auckland’s training venue was a two-hour trip in the traffic, meaning she would have to finish work about 3pm.
Because she gets paid by the session, she would lose too much financially.
The offer from Auckland made her off-limits to Northern — which is just 10 minutes from her home on the North Shore.However, she was told by the national team she had to play national league when another idea came.
"I was driving along and I thought ‘Football South is where my roots are from, that’s where I started playing until I moved away. I wonder if they’ll have me to play for them?’
"I wasn’t able to get as much work off as I needed if I was to play for Auckland."
She does not regret the decision. She trains with Northern on Tuesdays and is kept busy with FFDP trainings, too.
Every Friday lunchtime she flies to Dunedin to train with the Southern team and stays on for its game.
She knows a lot of the players from school — she was a boarder at St Hilda’s Collegiate — and feels it has helped her enjoy the sport again.
"[Football] was stressing me out a bit, but with the Southern team it’s just a different vibe and I love it. It’s made me love football again.
"I grew up down south. It is just a slightly different environment, I guess. I really like it.
"It’s still really competitive and organised and everything — I don’t know how to explain it. I’m just from the South."
The work-sport balance also proved difficult when it came to the FFDP.
Training was held in the evenings to accommodate workers, although that did not fit with her job. It left her trying to fit as many sessions as she could into the mornings, although financially it was a struggle.
She is yet to play for the Ferns — injuries and an untimely drug ban have so far curtailed her prospects.
For the most recent squad she has been named as the first stand-by player.
National women’s league
Southern United v Auckland
McLennan Park, Auckland
Tomorrow, 2pm
