Torpey Enjoying the NPL New South Wales Difference

Copy of FROM FOOTBALLER TO BAKER (3)

For Brisbane Roar star Kaitlyn Torpey, the NPL NSW Women’s competition is providing a great challenge for the W-League off-season.

The 21-year-old made the switch from the Queensland competition to New South Wales’ Sydney University side this season and hasn’t looked back, embracing the challenging nature of the amazing competition.

“So, I obviously haven’t played in the NPL NSW Women’s competition before,” she explained.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, the league itself is amazing and it’s really competitive…every game is hard.

“I was playing in the Queensland NPL, so a bit of a difference in terms of competitiveness. I think he just we have so many more W-League players in the NPL in New South Wales…I think that just it makes such a difference, it just lifts the whole league.

“I think I’ve been doing pretty well, I’m pretty happy.”

“I think the people around me are just making it so much better.

“I’m loving being in a goalscoring position, I think of myself as more an attacker, so I have a lot more creative freedom out there so I’m really enjoying myself playing at the moment.”

While the lockdown has halted the season, Torpey is making the most of the break to work even harder than in-season to improve her game and her fitness.

“I’ve been staying fit really efficiently I think and we’ve been doing sessions nearly every day, sometimes twice a day so I’ve been really enjoying lockdown.

“It’s actually interesting, obviously, it sucks that we can’t play games and I’m really missing that side of things because I think game fitness is the most important fitness, so it’s really hard to replicate that but I’ve been meeting with a couple of W-League players here and we’ve been doing sessions ourselves and like, we get up to 10kms nearly every session like it’s been crazy.

“I think we need to take advantage of every opportunity and I think lockdown is an opportunity.

“When we’re in season, I think a lot of people, myself included, we get worried about being sore the next day or being sore for the game but in lockdown, you don’t have to worry about being sore, so I almost work harder in lockdown.”

Having made the move to Sydney for the NPL NSW Women’s season, Torpey has found herself locked down away from her family, however, living with her partner and keeping in touch with her Sydney University football family has made missing them a little bit easier.

“It’s really hard being away from family and especially in these times where it’s like locked down and everything.

“I think everything happens for a reason, so you just have to make the most of every opportunity and yeah, I’m missing them but it’s good to also be independent here.

“We [Sydney University] have a group chat, where we just kind of check-in, the coach sometimes messages and we always just put some jokes in there and everything like that.

“We did a zoom call last week on Wednesday, actually, and we just did a games night, and it went for like almost an hour and a half, it was so much fun.

“The whole team was on there, and everyone was in such good spirits, so it’s been really good.”

-By Madeline Riley