Out Bush, It Takes A Lot Of Determination To Realise Your Dreams

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 11, 2009

Archie Thompson

IT WAS once so much harder to be an aspiring soccer player in regional Australia. Although I was born in New Zealand, I spent most of my childhood growing up in small Australian country towns, mostly in Albury-Wodonga and Bathurst. Later, I moved to Gippsland, where I started my professional soccer career.

It was a lot harder to establish myself as a soccer player in the country. I didn't get as many opportunities compared to those living in the city. There were a lot of regional teams, but for some reason many of the youngsters who had quality and potential got lost in the system.

I was fortunate to have my talent recognised, and I really wanted to become a soccer player.

I was selected in Victorian country and representative teams, but when you're in the country and you want to go further, it's more difficult compared to the city. There was Country Victoria and City Victoria. I regularly tried out for City Victoria, but there were a lot of cliques and families who knew the coaches and had grown up playing together, which made it tough for a country boy. It was disappointing because there was some great young talent from the country being constantly overlooked. Now I hope that players are picked on ability and not who their parents know.

The only time I played soccer was at training with my club after school and on the weekend. I never played soccer at school. It was always AFL, or when I was living in Bathurst it was rugby, and cricket. Soccer never really took off in the country. In the city it's different, but in the country it was either AFL or rugby.

It was a challenge living in the country and the support of my family was so important. It was great to have to have parents who believed in me and were willing to make so many sacrifices. In a way, I feel guilty because I come from a big family with six brothers and three sisters, who missed out on a lot because of the amount of time and effort my mum and dad gave to me.

When I was in Bathurst, I played in a NSW academy team, which was based in Sydney, alongside the likes of Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton. My dad would finish work early, pick me up from school early and then we would drive sometimes up to three hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. For him to work hard and then drive his son to Sydney and back was unbelievable.

It's hard. Not just on the players, but the parents who get home at 1am and then get up and do it all again the next day. It takes its toll, but if you work hard the rewards are incredible.

There were times when I didn't enjoy soccer too, but my dad continued to push me.

When I was around 15, I gave the game away and was happy hanging out with my mates. I didn't think I was ready to make all the sacrifices you needed to make to become a professional footballer.

Seeing Kewell on television inspired me to become a footballer and try and work on what my parents had seen in me.

I wanted it so badly after that. I started doing the extra work when I arrived at Gippsland. It was only a country town and the culture was that you played a game, went out on the town that night and waited for training a few days later. But the day after a game I always made sure I went out for a run. If I had a couple of drinks, I made sure I was up even earlier in the morning, working hard and not letting myself go.

Younger country kids today have got so many opportunities and a proper development path, which is great. But they should never take their opportunities for granted. When I was growing up, I worked in an abattoir, a Chinese restaurant, I did labouring and a host of other jobs. That's why it frustrates me so much when I see a kid with so much talent who just dawdles around at training and doesn't put in the hard yards.

Soccer is much more popular now throughout the country. I don't get out to the bush as much as I'd like to, but my family who still live in the country tell me that everyone stops them in the street and says "we read about Archie" or "we saw Archie on television".

My little brother plays soccer on Sundays and these days everyone is buzzing about the game and wants to be part of it. We had a clinic in Geelong recently and three kids had travelled more than three hours from Horsham just to be there. It's great to know that we're reaching out that far.

If we can keep that excitement up, the development of players and the profile of the sport in the regional areas is only going to improve.

© 2009 The Sunday Age

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