The mental resolve Erin Regan developed over 17 years of competitive figure skating to pick herself up and keep going after crashing hard to the ice is serving her well in her new sport, Aussie rules football.
Now she crashes into other bodies.
Regan, who plays for the Burnaby-based Vancouver Vixens, left Monday for footy’s heartland, Melbourne, Australia, where she’ll play for Canada’s national women’s team at the sixth Australian Football International Cup that runs from Aug. 5 to 19.
The tournament, which is contested every three years, is the largest international Aussie rules football event in the world, and Canada is the defending women’s champion.
That’s put a little extra pressure on Regan, who only discovered the sport four years ago after she played rugby for 10 years following the demise of her skating aspirations.
The women’s final will be contested at Melbourne’s expansive Etihad Stadium, where they’ll play in front of thousands of rabid fans settling in for a regular Australian Football League match between Carlton and Hawthorne that follows.
Regan, a teacher in Port Moody, says the prospect of playing a match under the critical gaze of footy fans who grew up with the game is a bit intimidating.
“It’ll be a real learning experience,” Regan says. “Aussies can be real candid, but having that Aussie crowd will make you compete as hard as you can.”
Regan says her progression from skating to the rough-and-tumble sports of rugby and footy may not make the most logical sense, but it was probably inevitable.
“I wouldn’t say I was the most graceful figure skater,” Regan says.
While Aussie ex-pats and growing ranks of Canadian athletes have had a men’s league in the Lower Mainland since 2001, the women’s game is still in its infancy.
Regan says she discovered the sport when her husband, Giancarlo Brancati, played for the Burnaby Eagles. While the occasional female player would suit up for the men’s games, there was a formative women’s team in Delta that mostly played intra-squad matches and occasional tournaments against teams from Seattle, Portland, Calgary and Edmonton.
Now playing for the Vixens,
Regan says it can be a challenge to field a full squad — usually the team plays 15-a-side footy and the International Cup will be her first experience playing on a full side of 18 players.
Regan says the speed and spatial awareness required of top footy players is unlike any sport she’s ever experienced. The action comes from all sides on the expansive oval pitch, and hits come from any direction.
“People who’ve seen it say it’s insane,” Regan says. “The contact and pursuit of the ball is constant.”
But one element the Aussie game shares with her previous athletic endeavours is the camaraderie. Teammates look out for each other and opponents respect each other, Regan says.
When the running and kicking and tackling and pounding are over, both sides get together to celebrate their bond with the sport. And if there’s one thing Australians can do as well as anyone, it’s celebrate.
