For this week’s WA on Wednesday NPLW WA interview, Balcatta Etna attacker Lucy Jerram speaks to Ben Gilby about her footballing journey that has taken her from WA to NSW and back twice, and how she feels Balcatta are building into the 2024 season (21/8/24).
Above: Lucy Jerram lets fly for Balcatta Etna against Perth RedStar in this year’s Night Series. Photo: JASP Photography
After several years playing on the East coast in both Sydney’s NPLW and the Northern NSW NPLW, explosive attacker Lucy Jerram is back tormenting defences in her home state, and she is thrilled about it.
Jerram’s status as an eye-catching attacker at Home Group Stadium this season is the culmination of many years of hard work, dating back to her early years in Rockingham.
“I started at Port Kennedy Soccer Club. I then moved when I was probably 12 years old to Rockingham City Football Club where I played until under-17s when there wasn’t too much women’s football set up down there at all. When I got selected in a state team when I was 16, I made the move to Melville with a few of the girls I played with in the state team for three years.
“Then when that team folded was around the same time I graduated school and was due to go on an Australian schoolgirls tour of England and I met quite a few girls in that team, and the coach of the team was Sydney-based and really wanted me to try over East, so that was what drove me to move to New South Wales initially. It helped that the team that I was once a part of had split up – that made it easier.
“From there I played at the Emerging Jets Academy which is pretty much the equivalent to the NTC program for New South Wales. It was pretty full-on. I’d never really played academy-level football or trained like that before and it was quite hard not only adjusting to the load but also the fact that I had literally just moved there (almost 4,000 km) was pretty rough to start.
“The second season I was in Sydney and played NPL1 for North Shore Mariners which was good, but the travel definitely got the better of me after not too long, and midway through the season, I moved to Blacktown Spartans and played reserve grade for the remainder of that year.
“I then moved back to Western Australia and had a pretty nasty surgery done on both of my feet which saw me out of the game for two years, but it was nice just to press ‘reset.’ Through word of mouth, I got involved at Broadmeadow Magic in the Northern NSW NPL, and that absolutely flourished and I played my best football in a Magic jersey.”
Jerram sees herself as “one of the most passionate players on the team. I’ve got to wear my heart on my sleeve. People get the wrong idea about it sometimes, they think I’m aggressive, but I just have so much love for the game and so much desire to win and do well for my team.”
That desire for success has also been tinged by the frustration at not yet being given an opportunity to play A-League Women football. Jerram has a number of weapons in her armoury that would make her a potentially dangerous player in the league – the pace, the ability to beat players for fun, and explosive finishing. The attacker reflected on those disappointments saying “(it’s possibly) not tooting my horn as much as I probably should to be able to put myself in the right place and gain opportunities.
“I’ve always thought too highly of people when it comes to putting all my eggs in one basket year after year when I’m trying to find an opportunity with A-League, which is my doing, and also taking people too literally.
“To be told there’s no contract on the table for me one year is OK, but after two or three years it gets a bit…you wonder whether that opportunity is ever going to come. You just have to wait for the right person to come who believes in you to give you an opportunity. I’ve always found it quite hard to be expected to have a certain level of experience when the level of experience I had was not being picked in the first place.”
Jerram has twice moved to the other side of the country in a bid to challenge herself in different standards of competition – and enthused about her spell at Broadmeadow Magic in the Northern NSW NPLW.
“I was pretty lucky being over in New South Wales, I was exposed to the NPL1 competition in Sydney metro itself and then played four years in the Northern New South Wales NPLW and they are quite different in terms of standard. You’ve got more people to choose from and the standard is quite a bit higher in the NPL1.
“The Northern League was still really good. We had four or five A-League Women players coming back to play, so I felt I had a bit more competition across the league rather than just a couple of teams which is good. I’d say that the NPLW WA sits pretty well between the two.”
After honours and great success with Broadmeadow Magic, Jerram returned to Perth for the 2024 season. The attacker revealed that the decision was based solely on family and maturing as a person.
“The main reasons for coming back were quite family-based decisions. Playing in Newcastle (160km north of Sydney), and living over there, it was quite a university sort of town, so it was super fun and there was always stuff going on. There was quite a nice vibe there, but I felt like I had to put my adult pants on and decide what I wanted to achieve in life.
“It’s all well and good to be running around having a great time, but then you have to consider family, and the amount of lost time I’m now trying to make up for – my parents are getting a little bit older – and I have a little niece now too.”
A player with such a reputation was always going to receive a number of offers from clubs in the NPLW WA once it was clear she was returning to Perth. In the end, Jerram opted to sign up to the new-look Balcatta Etna squad. She admits it was a risk, but one she is now thrilled about taking.
“In choosing Balcatta, I noticed a friend of mine had reposted on Instagram that Pete (Rakic) had been appointed head coach for the season-upcoming. Ideally, the location is probably the most inconvenient for me living where I do. I sort of knew a few of the girls there, and I had a bit of a blank canvas having been away for so long, so I really could have gone anywhere and enjoyed it, but I think I’ve really made the right decision.
“The team vibe is really good. I kept on saying to my Mum: ‘I’m not going to know I’ve made the right decision until I make the wrong one,’ so I’m super fortunate I made the right one straight away.
“Everyone seems to be on the same page whether it’s what we want to achieve as a team, or basic visions or values of us as people, which makes a massive difference. It’s really harmonious. Sometimes that goes so much further than the actual quality on the pitch you have.
“Then we have the likes of Jamie-Lee (Gale), Kat (Jukic), Abbey (Meakins), Alyssa (van Heurck) – it’s such a solid spine, and we’re only going to get better with time.”
The squad that has been assembled at Home Group Stadium this season is one that looks will achieve Top Four Cup football – something that the club has been capable of on paper for a number of seasons, but never quite managed to achieve.
Jerram though cautions that in order to bring trophies back to Balcatta, they are going to have to overcome a powerful Perth RedStar side and strong Perth SC and Fremantle City outfits.
“Obviously, every team wants silverware, and that’s something we are very, very capable of – we just have to find a bit more consistency. People are quite demanding of what they are expecting of us so far. They are comparing us to the likes of RedStar who have played together – half a team have played together since before I left (WA), so like, eight, nine years. It’s a bit unrealistic to compare us, but at the same time, I know we are capable.”
However, the attacker believes she knows some of the important facets about RedStar that she believes can help her own team to focus on becoming their equals or betters, this season.
“I think the main thing I’ve picked up about RedStar is something that’s quite similar to the team I played in last year (Broadmeadow Magic in the Northern NSW WNPL) – we were able to play good football, but we were able to identify the things that we were good at, whether it was pretty or ugly. That was what we focussed on, that’s what got us goals, and we won the minor and major (Premierships) last season, and RedStar have been able to do the same thing year in and year out.
“It’s going to be a matter of us at Balcatta perfecting the art of what we are good at and be good at it. We can try and play football around them as much as we like and be possession-based…but at the end of the day, they have a team that are able to get forward and know how to execute. We have to just be better at it than what they are.”
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