Holly McNamara has long been touted as one of the most promising up-and-coming talents in Australian football.
Yet her career has constantly been thrown off course by repeated ACL injuries, which she says have taken a “huge emotional toll”.
The 22-year-old Melbourne City and Matildas attacker has undergone rehab for three ACL injuries within six years.
“Injury is always difficult. You could probably ask most players and they could tell you that… but it has been difficult. I’m very grateful for the people that have kind of gotten me through it,” McNamara told ABC Sport.
“I think when you’re so young and you get injured, you have to learn pretty quickly that football is not everything. It’s not the be all and end all and you can’t really do this for the rest of your life, even though you really want to.”
Helping her find a good balance between life and football is her puppy, a cavoodle named Nala, who she said keeps her very busy.
Loading Instagram content
When McNamara got the call up for the Matildas earlier this year to widespread fan applause for the SheBelieves Cup, it was the first time in three years she featured in the national side.
“The moment that I found out, I was a bit emotional because it has been a long road,” she said.
‘We do score a lot of goals’
McNamara made her long-awaited return to the pitch in December to immediately play a starring role in the league. She has scored 10 goals in her 13 appearances in the ALW, including two hat tricks to lead the race for the Golden Boot, the individual award for most goals scored in a season.
“I’m very lucky to play in the Melbourne City system and team where we do score a lot of goals,” she said. “I’m very lucky to get the service that I have.”
Holly McNamara has scored 10 goals in 13 appearanaces so far this season. (Getty Images: Kelly Defina)
City are undefeated under new coach Michael Matricciani, having won its last 22 games (AWCL + ALW). Over the weekend, it set a new ALW record by going 19 matches unbeaten after McNamara scored a hat-trick in City’s 4-3 win over Adelaide United.
While the team are strong contenders for the premier’s plate and championship, McNamara said they have ambitious goals to be the biggest club in Australia.
Helping to push for that, this Sunday, City is hosting the first Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League match on home soil during the first iteration of the tournament.
“This is a great opportunity for us to show what we can do on a bigger stage,” McNamara said.
City play Taiwanese club Taichung Blue Whale in Melbourne in the quarterfinal. Taichung Blue Whale is in its off-season and hasn’t played a competitive game in around three months.
City won all three of its group games back in October while in a hub in Thailand 2-1, 3-0, 4-0, which McNamara didn’t feature in, as she hadn’t yet returned from her latest ACL.
‘Such a big amount of money’
Should City go all the way, the prize money is close to $2 million for the club.
Holly McNamara returned to the national side to widespread applause. (Getty: Aryanna Frank)
Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Beau Busch also revealed earlier this month that the individual prize money would be as much as $50,000 a player, the equivalent to doubling their salary for a lot of players.
“That would be huge and significant for players,” Busch said.
“For clubs like Melbourne City, this will allow them to continue to attract and retain talent, which ultimately we’re in a battle for.”
McNamara echoed this, who said “it’s such a big amount of money… it has the potential to do so much”.
“It can be really put in areas to grow the game for our club, for a lot of things,” she said.
“Personally, I don’t know how the club is going to use the money or anything like that, but I think moving forward, if we can get more female academies and things like that put up within the clubs, and really to boost the A-League Women’s teams… that could be a huge thing.”
McNamara was one of six A-Leagues stars called up by Matildas’ coach Tom Sermanni for the SheBelieves Cup, alongside Laini Freier, Michelle Heyman, Tameka Yallop, Tash Prior and Chloe Lincolm.
This, alongside City playing the Champions League, was a good reflection of the calibre of players within the domestic competition, she said.
“I think a lot of young players are coming through, proving themselves, and it is good to get them more minutes in this league,” she said.
“I think it’s such a good opportunity for us to be kind of that first team that does it, and we really want to prove a point in doing that.”
