Perth Glory captain Natasha Rigby is one of the Liberty A-League’s top captains and on this week’s edition of the Players Pod with Robbie Cornthwaite, she opens up on her own experiences outside of football that have ultimately made her a better leader.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rigby picked up a role as a recreation officer in a maximum security women’s prison, along with her commitments to the Glory Liberty A-League side too.
The Glory captain spoke about how her experiences working in that environment helped mould her into a better captain and ultimately, a better person.
In season 2022-23, you can listen to Robbie weekly on his new KEEPUP podcast – The Players Pod, with Robbie Cornthwaite. This week he chats to Perth Glory captain Natasha Rigby and Canberra United midfielder Grace Maher. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“So it’s funny, I actually worked in sport and recreation management the entire time that I’ve been playing for Glory, which has been seven years now,” Rigby said on the Players Pod
“And when COVID hit, I couldn’t do that anymore, because obviously sport wasn’t really running and so I picked up a role as a recreation officer in a maximum security women’s prison, which was like a wild experience for me.
And you’re right, like there was so many amazing learning moments and I am so grateful for that opportunity because it was an incredible time of my life, and I think the biggest lesson that I learned is like everyone’s just the product of their past experience and their trauma as well.
“So I think you can never judge a book by its cover, is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned and you have to treat everybody with empathy and kindness because you have no idea what they may have been through and that applies to the football field.
Like you never know what someone may have experienced in their past or even the day before and why they might be the way they are. So everyone deserves to be treated with empathy and I think I definitely carry that with me in my leadership.
“I always try and treat people with kindness and try and be as open and as approachable as I can. But yeah, that was that was definitely a very interesting time in my life. This year is awesome. It’s the first year they’ve actually not worked full time.
“So it’s been great for me to be able to put more of my energy into football and yeah, it’s it’s it’s been an awesome experience for me.”
Rigby also detailed what the job entailed, where she designed and ran a number of recreation programs for the prisoners – describing the year she worked there as a “pretty awesome” experience.
“I develop, design and implement programs that would help give the women a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging, so to help them when they step back into society, to feel like they have some form of connection already,” Rigby said.
“So I was doing everything from running trauma informed yoga to art classes to boxing classes to teaching volleyball, everything recreation, I was helping facilitate in the prison and we also have prisoners that work for us as well.
“So there was a number of prisoners that would work with me every single day. So I found that really interesting as well. It was it was pretty awesome and I think I would have never learned as much as I learned in the year that I worked there… definitely many lessons to take away.”
Canberra United’s Grace Maher has been one of the shining lights in the Liberty A-League season thus far, putting together a solid body of work throughout the opening few weeks of the campaign.
As a result, there has been plenty of outside noise linking her to a call-up to the Matildas squad, especially with the FIFA Women’s World Cup just around the corner.
But Maher isn’t getting too carried away, believing that she still has to develop other areas of her game to reach the demands of international football.
READ: THE LIBERTY A-LEAGUE STARS WHO SHOULD BE ON GUSTAVSSON’S WORLD CUP RADAR
“Obviously we when I was a teenager, I had a really good season with Canberra United under Rae Dower and now, coach Njegosh Popovich and that saw me get my first camp call-up and that was a huge reality check for me with international football, the intensity that it demands,” Maher said on the Players Pod.
I know technically, I’m capable, but I do know that areas of my game in terms of intensity and that capacity of international football might be lacking and I’m preparing myself as best I can every week.
“So that means whenever the opportunity comes, I’m ready but I won’t really know how how close I am or how in touch me and with that international and the Matildas level until I get that opportunity.
“Yeah, so until then I’m putting my head down and putting in as consistent performances for Canberra. Yeah, we’ll see what happens with that.”
