Our Australian centre back celebrates her new deal by looking back on her change in role, assessing her teammates and training her eye on what we need to do to keep moving forward
Six years at Arsenal and you’re not done, Steph. Why did you decide to recommit to the club?
I don’t think too much thought had to go into it, to be honest! For me, it was a no-brainer. At the stage I’m at in my career, the way that I feel about the club, the way that I feel about my life and the relationships that I’ve built here because of Arsenal, it just felt natural.
I feel like I’ve achieved a lot here with the team, but there’s also more I want to give back and more that I want to achieve in terms of trophies, building the squad and leading younger players. I’ve still got that same hunger and desire to better myself and to do better by those around me as I did from the first day I walked through the door. There are so many possibilities and so much to look forward to still.
How do you think you’ve developed as a leader since joining the club?
When I first came to the league, I was a little more introverted because I was just trying to find my feet and I had a lot of injuries when I first got here. Becoming a more vocal leader on the pitch is something I’ve naturally grown into. I’ve always prided myself in communication on the field. As a left back, I was always communicating a lot with my centre back and my left winger, in particular, but the transition to centre back has just allowed me to connect with more people. I think I have more of an outward role these days in terms of my voice and presence, as well as my composure during matches.
I like to be able to control the tempo and make decisions based on how I’m seeing the game. As a centre back, it gives you the right to do that and it’s quite a unique place to be on the football field. As a left back you’re often given the ball and left with one or two options to figure your way out of. I think my transition to centre back just so happened to coincide with me stepping into more of a leadership role at the club, so they went hand in hand.
Does the way you play change slightly depending on who your centre back partner is?
I would say yes. I still bring the exact same traits, but when you get to know your team-mates you learn what makes them a better player and vice versa. I think the biggest change was probably playing with Katie Reid because she was so fresh on the scene and naturally had some nerves coming into these big moments.
You would never have known it from the way she played. She asked me to talk to her throughout and there was a role for me to play in making sure every other detail is covered so that Katie could just focus on her role.
Obviously, that’s a different role to take on when I’m with someone like Leah or Lotte, who are so front-footed and so direct. Sometimes I find that the best thing to do in a game – if Leah’s in a flow, picking passes and hitting lovely long diagonal balls – is to control the tempo and make sure I keep the ball. I’m more of the calm presence to allow her to really express herself. It definitely does change based on the person playing next to you, but there’s something beautiful in all of those partnerships too.
What has it been like to play this role under Renée?
It’s definitely a role that I’ve played pretty steadily throughout my career. I think I ended up playing there for the Matildas at two major tournaments just based on squad availability, but I never thought of it as a position I would play long term. I would say at that point in my career, my brain was set in a way and I didn’t want to be a centre back. I really wanted to just be able to focus on being a full back because I loved attacking and crossing and creating goalscoring opportunities.
Since I started playing as a centre back under Renée, I immediately felt a difference in terms of the belief she had in me in that position. When she highlighted my attributes and said why she thought they would suit the system she wanted to play and the team she was building, it gave me a lot of confidence as well. The more that I played there and the more she picked me, the more I started to believe that this was a position I could grow into and make my own if I knuckled down. Once I did that, I was able to learn the ropes pretty quickly.
If you start as an assistant coach, as Renée did, you’re able to forge such good relationships with players. The head coach role can be quite an intimidating position, but Renée has always been very easy to talk to. She’s got a great insight into the game in so many different ways and we can always sit and talk about tactics. There are lots of players who had those conversations prior to her becoming the head coach, who are still able to have those conversations now that she’s a head coach. Renée definitely hasn’t lost that side of her. A strength of hers is that she is able to home in on other people’s strengths and really big them up to allow them to thrive.
Do you think about yourself as a centre back now?
I see myself as a centre back now, for sure. I think the way my career has gone, this was the natural progression. I just wasn’t aware that it was until it started happening! Now it makes a lot of sense. A lot of the strengths I’ve built over many years of playing at an elite level have put me in a really good position to come in as a centre back who can play at the highest level.
"RENÉE HAS ALWAYS BEEN VERY EASY TO TALK TO. SHE’S GOT A GREAT INSIGHT INTO THE GAME IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS"
How has it been to play alongside our new arrivals this season? Especially someone as young and dynamic as Smilla is?
It’s interesting. I always think back to what I was like at their age and Smilla reminds me a lot of myself. Up and down the sideline, getting crosses in, non-stop running. The big difference is that she’s pure power. It’s been fun watching her come in, find her feet and just play with no fear. She brings a lot of excitement to games and her crossing ability is unreal. Smilla’s definitely going to create lots and lots of goals.
It’s fun to see how each different full back comes in and the way they apply themselves. We have such a variety of players, which is ideal when you have to go up against so many different types of teams and scenarios. The sky’s the limit for these girls and they probably just don’t even know it yet!
How does this Champions League run-in feel different to the last time?
The similarities are crazy, especially playing the same team in the semi-final. Obviously, Lyon’s team has changed a fair bit and they’ve got a different coach. We’re in a different place. We obviously played them at the start of the season, and I don’t think it was a good reflection of our best. That gives us confidence in terms of what we’re able to achieve across this tie, because it still felt like we were in the game for large chunks and created big chances, especially in the first half.
Playing at Emirates Stadium in front of our fans in a Champions League semi-final is a massive occasion. If you can’t get up for a game like that as a footballer you’re probably not going to be excited about much! And we were. I’m really happy with where the team’s at. There’s a lot of confidence and a lot of details have gone into our preparation. In terms of it being different to last year, it doesn’t feel like there’s a huge difference, but there is in the details. There’s also the proof that we can go ahead and win it all.
How do you think we reach a level of consistency to challenge across all competitions next season?
I think once you get a taste of winning the Champions League, it just makes you want more. Domestically, I think we’ve come up short far too often in the last couple of years when we know we’re capable of beating the best. It’s just about consistency and being ready from the first second of the season. We’ve only lost one league game so far, which sums it up really. You need to be ready for every single moment.
I think we’ve made a few of the same mistakes over the last couple of years, so at the end of the season we need to go away and figure out how we can eradicate those to start to dominate domestically. We want to put our names on these trophies, even when we haven’t reached the finals for a while.
If you had told us at the start of last season that we weren’t going to win a domestic trophy, but we would win the Champions League, I think most of the squad would have said, “I’ll take it!” Now we have achieved that and we’re in a position to challenge for the Champions League again. We’re going after that with everything that we have, but it’s definitely with an eye on the fact that we can be so much better in future and compete for more trophies more often