By Mathew Asciak
The Coburg Football Club entered new territory in 2023 when they made began their transition into the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA), many new faces entered the fold at Piranha Park across the pre-season. Among those was a newcomer to the game, Sheridan Bennett, whom would be entering just her second season of playing the sport in 2023.
Like many young athletes, Bennett’s football journey began at her local club, Hurstbridge, playing in the NFNL Division 3 squad for the Bridges.
“I started playing last season at Hurstbridge, which is local club to me… I originally started because I had worked with friends that were in the team and coming out of Covid I was looking for something else to play,” Bennett said.
Despite having limited experience playing the game, Bennett had superb debut season. Playing 13 games for the Bridges, the 22-year-old forward would play 13 matches in 2022, kicking 11 goals and claiming Best on Ground honours three times, most notably in the club’s premiership victory, against a Mernda side which featured fellow new Lion, Natalie Todaro.
In what was a maiden premiership for the Women’s program at Hurstbridge, the individual accolades kept coming at season’s end, coming 2nd in the club Best and Fairest, won the best finals player award and featured across the centreline in the NFNL Division 3 Team of the Year.
Looking for a new challenge, Bennett made the decision to make the switch to Piranha Park for season 2023.
“I had a pretty successful first season and that’s what prompted me to look for something a little more competitive… and I really wanted to find somewhere to push and challenge me,” Bennett explained. With various avenues being considered, one being a move to a club in the VAFA, head coach Thomas Chitsos reached out to Bennett to convince to make the move.
“Tommy reached out and asked me to come and train and see how I felt about it, I think I came down for maybe three training sessions before I decided, I love it here, its amazing culture, welcoming staff and players as well,” Bennett said.
In the short period she has been part of the Coburg family and footballing community, Bennett champions the culture within the club as the primary driver behind her love for the game.
“I love the culture with footy. I have only been at two teams, but I found that both foster a supportive group of girls and coaches as well. I do love that you can come join any team and everyone on the team is so supportive and welcoming,” Bennett explains.
With limited access to Women’s Football programs in her local area, Bennett began playing myriad of sports before making the crossover to footy, beginning with Basketball.
“From Under 10’s I always played Basketball, I never really thought about it (playing football) as an option, as it was not really supported locally,” Bennett says.
“I started when I was nine, I originally played Diamond Creek, before I moved to the Eltham Wildcats and started playing representative Basketball for a couple of years,” Bennett said.
After taking a six-month hiatus from the sport during high school to embark on a student exchange program to Canada, Bennett returned not being able to play representative level due to time away from the game, so she instead played in the under 20’s.
During her exchange in Canada, Bennett added Pole Vault to her long list of sporting endeavours. Much like her footy career thus far, they came with their accolades, winning the state championship in Hockey and Volleyball in primary school and plays Netball socially.
Being a talented sportsperson and athlete will always come in handy on the footy field, much like the famous Basketball backgrounds of AFL stars Monique Conti and Scott Pendlebury, Bennett will look to harness those strengths, while acknowledging she has much to learn on the footy field.
“Playing any sport is quite helpful, learning how to move the ball, I found Basketball and Netball quite fast pace. So, learning to be able to move around the field for Football and around the court for Basketball would be quite helpful.
A challenge there is not playing a lot of contact sport, as Football is contact focused, so I’m not used to that just yet.
I think just changing my mindset of not rushing because it feels like you don’t have any time because you’re worried, you’re going to be tackled,” Bennett explained.
With a strong pre-season under her belt, Bennett set out to further her development as a player and stake her claim for a senior debut, which came to fruition in round 4 for our home game against Fitzroy. Deployed on the wing, Bennett collected 7 disposals on debut, in a narrow 5-point defeat.
“I guess an easy goal to track is to play one senior game. I would just love to improve in any way possible, in this environment, it is the best environment for me to be in, the amount of opportunity I have to grow as a player is huge,” Bennett said.
Stepping outside the sporting landscape, Bennett recently completed her studies at University, enabling her to gain full-time employment and helping foster a supportive work environment in her HR role.
“I work in HR as a graduate, I studied Psychology at Uni and then moved into a full-time role last year… I love to work with people and that’s the aspect of Psychology that carries over, helping people with their workplace issues.
We are an outsourcing company… I am now doing communications for all of Australasia for our business, working across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore,” Bennett explained.
With her first senior appearance under her belt, it would be fair to say that the skies’ the limit for Sheridan Bennett. With strong dedication and passion to constantly improving her craft, there are no limits to how high Bennett’s ceiling is at Coburg.
