DESPITE playing soccer most of her life, it was evident to Marianna Anthony that Australian rules football was where she needed to be, and specifically in the AFL Women’s.

After speaking about her heartbreak of missing out on an initial list spot with Essendon, to her short trip to North Melbourne and now landing on Carlton’s AFLW list, she spoke about how her football journey all began.

Anthony was an emerging soccer playing growing up, playing three seasons in the National Premier League (NPL) Victoria with South Melbourne and Alamein.

“I played as a defender, any where in the defender, centre back, left back, right back,” Anthony said. “All I knew how to play was defence, then when I started playing footy I remember my old coach through I could run quite well, he said ‘you’re a winger’, so I’ve kind of only played there since.

“That was quite a shock to me, running forwards because I always had such a defensive mindset. But it’s been pretty fun to be able to run to the forward line as well and be more attacking.”

Anthony’s journey to take up football was a little bit of an unusual one, but the choice to go with soccer originally started due to a lack of a clear pathway for female footballers. One thing lead to another and the talented defender rose through the ranks in the Victorian soccer pathway.

“I loved footy growing up but I never knew it was an opportunity as a kid as there was really no pathway,” Anthony said.

“Soccer was the next best thing and I played that from a pretty young age and played it at a competitive level and was always pushing towards the national training centre and senior level playing NPL. It was quite a different experience to playing footy.”

Anthony admitted she “lost a bit of passion” with soccer considering she had been playing it since she was young.

Initially her goal was to play it competitively, but as she got older, she conceded she “just lost that drive” so opted to quit, join Aussie rules and “fell in love with it straight away”. She describes her origin story of signing up with the Bombers as one that was “actually quite funny”.

“I started playing footy at my local club which was called Caulfield Grammarians,” she said.

“It’s where I learnt to play, just went for a couple of sessions to learn about the game and have a bit of fun. My dad’s a keen Essendon supporter and he saw that there was a trial at Essendon for cross-code players and he signed me up and said ‘you’re going’ so that’s pretty much how I ended up at Essendon.

“Even though at the time I lived at Sandringham, I was very lucky to get an opportunity there. It probably didn’t make a whole heap of sense given I was driving past St Kilda’s ground which is two minutes from my house, but that’s how I ended up at Essendon.”

Jumping from a sport that is exclusively using your feet, to one where ball handling is crucial, it was never going to be a completely seamless process. Anthony said there were several hurdles she had to overcome in order to rise up the football ranks.

“Definitely just learning the skills, there’s so many different skills to learn for football using your hands, kicking, tackling,” she said.

“The general understanding of how to play a competitive sport and how to defend and attack, those things came naturally from soccer and probably some things as well from soccer which I can implement in a different ways that maybe other footballers don’t maybe have. Just all of the skills of the craft are challenging and took me quite a while to learn everything.”

After being signed by Carlton after a whirlwind journey – which is explained in the first part of her feature – Anthony said the experience had been “really great” and had “exceeded expectations”. Though she admitted it was definitely “nervewracking” at first, she had settled in well.

“I think you don’t really know what to expect when you first walk through the doors,” Anthony said. “But everyone was incredibly nice and welcoming just from the get-go and I think that really helped.

“Everyone’s just been really positive and supportive and that’s really helped with my confidence. While there’s lots of big name, incredible players but I’m very lucky I get to play with, but they’re also really great people so it’s made it a great experience.”

When asked if anyone in particular had taken her under their wing, Anthony said there was a group of players rather than one individual who had helped her settle into the club.

“I’d say a group of the leaders at the club have been really supportive and helpful with different game structures, people like Jess Dal Pos and Kerryn Peterson, and even some of the younger players have been really great in imparting knowledge like Mimi (Hill), it’s really helped me feel comfortable and just learn about the gameplan and get the most out of everything.”

Season 8 of the AFL Women’s is less than a month away and now the former soccer player is entrenched in the Australian rules culture. With the World Cup currently on across Australia and New Zealand, Anthony is reminded of her past journey, but is fully focused on the road ahead.

“I haven’t really looked back because the footy experience has been so positive,” Anthony said. “At times I kind of miss soccer as well, when I watch the Matildas playing. Footy is definitely my favourite sport.”