By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
IT HAPPENED quickly, but the damage was done. When New Zealand-born Brittany Dudley-Smith twisted her knee during a soccer match, she thought her football career was over.
“I just jumped in the air, came down and my knee went one way and I went the other,” Dudley-Smith, 19, said.
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to play again.”
It was two years ago when Dudley-Smith, now leading goal kicker in the Victorian Women’s Premier League (VWPL), tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while playing soccer in New Zealand. With her football future on the precipice, the then 18-year-old made her way to Australia hoping that any coach would still take her.
Prior to her injury, Dudley-Smith’s career had been full of high achievements and barely-concealed potential. When she was 12, Brittany won the Golden Boot award for New Zealand’s Weir Rose Bowl competition before being selected in the under-14 and under-16 Auckland teams. This was capped off with the honour of selection in the under-17 World Cup side and the opportunity for Brittany to represent her country in Trinidad and Tobago.
With her soccer career unfolding like a fairy-tale, Brittany’s ACL injury and her subsequent knee reconstruction couldn’t have come at a worse time. Her family were considering a move to Pakenham and Brittany had already held discussions with prospective clubs in Victoria, but those hopes, like her knee, appeared in tatters.
If it wasn’t for the faith shown by Casey Comets coach Ian Williamson, Brittany’s father Michael is not sure what would have happened.
“He’s (Ian) brought her back to where she was before she left New Zealand, she’s at World Cup fitness,” Michael said.
“I’ve never seen a training regime like the one he puts the girls through.”
Typical ACL recoveries take over a year but under coach Williamson’s tutelage Brittany was back playing in seven months. Williamson said Brittany has shown enormous courage during her two years with the Comets and had become one of the standout players in the VWPL.
“She’s showed an enormous amount of guts and determination to come over here at all, let alone when she was unfit,” Ian said.
“When I saw her footage I thought she had a lot of potential, but I always knew she had more.”
And Brittany knows it too, her eyes firmly set on the future – whether that be in Australia, New Zealand or beyond.
“I want to make a mark and let people know that I’m here to stay,” she said.
