DUB ZONE TALKING POINTS: The season finale of Dub Zone delved into a variety of women’s football talking points, including Indiana Dos Santos breaking records at only age 15.
Also, the crew dived into the unprecedented rise of female voices in the game, catching up with rising football commentator Taryn Heddo to touch on her first season calling the Liberty A-League.
Here are some of the key talking points the Dub Zone panel discussed as the regular Liberty A-League season drew to a close.
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The importance of not getting caught up in the moment for Sydney FC teenager
Sydney FC made history by securing the Premiers Plate for the third consecutive time and unearthed an exciting prospect in the process – Indiana Dos Santos.
Aged just 15 years and 170 days, Dos Santos became the fifth youngest goalscorer in the Liberty A-League, behind the likes of Sam Kerr, Emily Condon, Emily Van Egmond and Whitney Knight.
However, trying to live up to the lofty expectations can become a burden for upcoming players as it often places unnecessary pressure on their shoulders.
Liberty A-League commentator Teo Pellizzeri stressed the importance of Dos Santos not getting caught up in the moment.
“I thought she was excellent,” he said on Dub Zone.
“The great irony is that her older sister – and I say older because she’s only 17 – Jynaya Dos Santos (got) called up to the Young Matildas. Getting called up to the national team is what left Sydney FC so short on numbers that they had to turn to Indiana to play.
“But Ante Juric is a very loyal coach to a winning line-up so that’s probably why she kept the spot.
“I don’t know whether she’ll play again now that Shay Hollman is back from international duty and pushing for the spot that’s been her own through the years.
“But you know what, there’s no pressure on this player here. 15 years old, you know there are some great names on (the youngest goalscorers list), but there are some cautionary tales as well.
“All because you score a goal at 15 doesn’t mean your entire career is set out in front of you and I’m sure there are a lot of people keeping her feet on the ground this week.”
While Dos Santos is just at the start of her career, Sky Blues boss Ante Juric has praised the youngster for making the most of her opportunity and holding her own in a star-stunned team.
“She deserves her chance and she’s taken it with both hands at the moment, she’s unbelievable for 15,” Juric told AAP.
The Liberty A-League has long been a breeding ground for promising talents to announce themselves and Dos Santos is just the latest product and certainly won’t be the last.
This season was ‘when the balance really tipped’ for female voices
This season we’ve seen a surge in female voices covering the Liberty A-League, spearheaded by Taryn Heddo, Georgia Rajic and Pokuah Frimpong who’ve entered the commentary space.
Former Matilda Grace Gill has also commentated a few games as the lead play-by-play caller.
As women’s football continues to garner attention, female commentators have been afforded the opportunity to call incredible moments and share their love for the game with a growing audience.
Heddo, one of many trailblazers, joined Dub Zone to discuss her transition from commentating on NPL TV for Football Victoria to the Liberty A-League.
“Yeah obviously it’s a huge shift… there’s things that are different. You’re calling a game of football, but the little technical things,” Heddo told Dub Zone.
“The score and pause, so something that commentators do at the end of half-time and full-time is (to) say the score at the end and my very first A-League Women game, I wasn’t used to the formal way of doing that and ever since then I’ve had the producers voice in my ear – ‘score and pause’ (on repeat).”
She added: “A lot of the information I pull is stuff that I already know about. I’ll say ‘oh this player plays in a certain way’ and I know that because I’ve watched a lot of the games so a lot of that is memory.
“But then in terms of what’s in front of you, I handwrite a lot of my notes just because I find that the most useful so I probably spend anywhere between 5-10 hours the day before handwriting all of my notes.
“On one hand, that gets the information in your brain – all the important sort of narrative points of the game, but also I’ve got in front of me how many goals the player has scored for the season, for their career, club (and) how many assists for the season as well so you can pull that information out.
“I guess the challenge for the commentator is then applying the narrative of the game… and how does that inform the viewer in a greater way.”
The new callers had to effectively learn on the job for the most part in their debut season and unlike other occupations, any mistake made is in the public eye which adds another layer of complexity.
“Most of us in our jobs, we have the opportunity to make mistakes and maybe one person knows about it – your manager,” said Heddo.
“At my previous job, I was a receptionist and the person on the other end of the line would know that I messed up the transfer of the call.
“But obviously it’s very different in this scenario – you’re learning publicly and that’s something that takes a lot to get used to and it’s something that’s incredibly valuable. Over the course of the season I’ve learned to embrace it.”
While females are still met with obstacles when entering sports media, the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup is sure to encourage young women to cover matches and express their passion for the sport in varying capacities.
Pellizzeri praised the new callers who have stepped into the commentary field and insisted this season will be remembered as one that amplified women’s voices like no other.
“These are three people who have come through not just talents commentating, but as a peer support network supporting each other and I think it’s a credit to all three of them,” he said.
“We’ve heard them on about a dozen games over the course of the season (on Saturday) afternoons when you’re bouncing around the grounds is often when you hear from them, but I think my question about the World Cup is we’re about to see a massive influx and I think… you can’t be what you can’t hear.
“It’s a real credit to them. They’re all going to go back to their respective NPLs and keep getting reps and keep working their way up.
“I think that’s where we’re going to see the real change. The reason we’ve heard these three is because normally when you listen to the NPL competitions, there weren’t any female voices.
“It’s seen as a pretty difficult barrier of entry. It’s not produced, you don’t have replays and coaches and clubs can be very intimidating to go and talk to, especially if you’re a young media professional coming through and it’s a very sort of established environment and you’re coming in as a total outsider trying to do it for the first time.
“We’re going to remember this season as when the balance really tipped and women’s football had a lot more female voices in it.”
Former Western Sydney Wanderers boss Catherine Cannuli also acknowledged the efforts of the commentators who’ve embarked on this unique journey and insisted she was pleased to see women also call men’s games during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“Credit to all the girls. I’ve worked with all three of them and I’ve seen them out at the commentating world – they’ve been amazing,” Cannuli said on Dub Zone.
“I have to really give it to them because they’ve thrown themselves in the deep for something that probably wasn’t as familiar to them.
“Credit to everybody that’s actually got behind them and actually have this day because if we go back 2-3 years ago, there wouldn’t be these opportunities.
“Something that resonates with me is the men’s World Cup – hearing that female voice was like ‘wow that’s a female commentating on a men’s World Cup that is amazing’.”
