Since her dad paid her to score as a child, Michelle Heyman has kept setting targets and hitting them – and the new Liberty A-League season is no different, hears Tom Smithies
As the days tick down, the targets just seem to get higher. A month out from the start of the Liberty A-League season, and Michelle Heyman has already lined two showstoppers up as twin goals for this season.
You could call the Canberra United goalscoring machine a former Matilda but even that’s part of the challenge. When United kick off their season on November 19 it will be four years almost to the day since her last Australian cap – but Heyman is gunning for a recall.
Not only that, with 82 club goals to date, she has the target of 100 to aim for, ideally this season – though her signing of a two-year deal shows she isn’t slowing up anytime soon.
In fact Heyman believes that at 34 she is fitter than she was at 20, and is taking what you could call the JFK approach to her goal-setting – asking not why, but why not.
That includes the prospect of impressing Matildas boss Tony Gustavsson so much that he contemplates bringing back into the international fold in time for the World Cup. In Heyman’s eyes, you have to aim big – and that was always the case.
“I’ve been training for the last couple of months just trying to stay fit and stay ready for the league, and 100% I’m going to try to push for (100 goals) this year, I really want to,” Heyman told KeepUp. “I think I’ve got a few goals to score for it, but with the season being a little bit longer (thanks to the addition of Western United), it gives me more of a chance to hit it.
“So I like setting myself high targets. I’m definitely going to push for it. This is a silly story, but my dad used to pay me when I was little, I think it was five bucks a goal. So I was always feeling like, I’ve got to score, score, score, score, score.
“I think it’s ingrained something within myself that every game I want to score a hat trick or more, I don’t set myself out to score one goal, I always want to get three.
“I’m just going to continue that and that’s been my mindset since I was little. Though my dad stopped paying me after five goals in one game!”
These days the rewards are more powerful. Heyman’s spectacular return from 18 months away from the game – scoring 19 goals in 26 Canberra games in the past two years – suggests her other big target isn’t in any way unrealistic. The prospect of next year’s women’s World Cup has Heyman dreaming of the green and gold once more, especially with the new Liberty A-League Pass giving all registered junior players free admission to matches.
Register here for the Liberty A-League Pass
“This is a game changer,” she said. “To have a World Cup on home soil, to be able to inspire the next generations of kids to play football, to love the game that I’ve loved since a little kid, it means the world to me.
“I want to make sure that they remember who I am, that they never forget my name. So I’m going to continue to be a powerhouse in this league and even prove to myself that I can be back in the national team, prove that I’ve still got what it takes.
“It’s always a hope. I missed that jersey, I miss my roommate, I miss everything that I did at the Matildas. Now I’m feeling better than I’ve ever felt, I’m like, why not? Why can’t I?
“I’ll continue to just have fun and play the game that I love and knock down all the doors. I’m just going to continue to push and be the best Michelle that I can be.”
