It was a regretful announcement that came this week as the Club learned of Georgia Boric’s tough decision to leave the Jets due to work commitments.
The towering goalkeeper works as a rowing coordinator at a Sydney school where she organises and coordinates the school program and recently had her responsibilities increase in a changed role.
Jets Head Coach Ash Wilson spoke of her and Georgia’s disappointment for the situation and how it’s an example of the numerous hurdles women in our game are battling and have to endure.
“It’s the unfortunate reality of the women’s game,” Wilson said.
“They’re balancing work and trying to be professional athletes.
“With the amount of catch-up games and lack of information about when they’d be played, and the late minute changes, it makes it very difficult for employers to have consistency too.
“I still can’t give the players clear-cut guidelines about when these games will be played. We have an idea, but we can’t give them a definite time and that was something that became an issue for Georgia’s employer and they’re well within their rights to have those concerns when they’re also relying on her for certain roles as well.
“She’s very saddened by the fact that she had to make such a difficult decision.
“We wish her all the best and there’s definitely no hard feelings. We want to make sure she knows she’s supported by us.”
When asked about what changes she’d like to see, Wilson admitted “she doesn’t have the answers”, but does feel like there needs to be more exposure of the challenges they face.
“The majority of my team work full time,” she said. “Tara Andrews is an engineer, Hannah Brewer is a teacher, Lauren Allan is a radiographer. There’s so much going on in their lives. It’s a difficult one and the league probably needs to look into it.
“I’m in a position where I work full time too.
“We make it work because we love it. Women’s football is founded on our passion. That’s why it’s disappointing when someone like Georgia has to give up something she’s passionate about.
“It brings to life what some of the challenges are for the girls.”
While there’s still various developments that are needed for our women’s football to thrive, the Jets Coach did make mention of the strides that part of the game has made in recent times.
“I think the new sponsorship and rebranding of the league is fantastic,” she said.
“The more we can value the product on the girls’ side, the better.
“This year the Jets have definitely supported us and we’ve seen greater investment come through our Club which is fantastic, but across the board we need to continue to grow that.
“There’s definitely improvements, but there’s still a long way to go to bridge that gap.”
While young, promising goalkeeper Sophie Magus has now come into the side for the remainder of the season, Wilson said Boric would certainly be welcomed back to the team if the opportunity presents itself next season.
“She’s a fantastic team player,” she said.
“We saw it in the games she was on. She’s got such potential and she’s a quality keeper.
“She’s someone we valued at the Club. She’s always welcome to contact me and she knows that.”
