WHEN she was in Year 12, Carly Isaac was invited to train with Richmond’s AFLW team.
The only issue, as her dad pointed out to the Tigers, was that the talented Boort junior had never played a game of footy.
“Back then it was pretty early days of AFLW, and they were looking more at fitness levels and developing the footy skills as you went along,” Isaac told the Loddon Herald.
Her reputation as an elite runner was already being established, and it didn’t hurt that she won the club’s 2km time trial on her first day at Richmond.
“They were quite interested, but dad put a short stop to that. I wouldn’t say that was a missed opportunity – Dad was right, I needed to go off and play football first.”
That small issue, and the prospect of having to travel to Melbourne twice a week for training, saw an end to that, but Isaac did play for two seasons with the Bendigo Pioneers and Bendigo Thunder.
Her team won the state title in her second year, and about half of the side has gone on to play in the AFLW.
“I don’t regret giving that up – I was more interested in playing netball at Boort, and running,” Isaac said.
Netball and running – they are now sports synonymous with Isaac in the North Central region and beyond.
She is a three-time winner of the Queen of the Mountain race at Wycheproof, hauling a 20kg bag of wheat up the world’s smallest mountain, and she is the A Grade coach and a key player for Boort’s netball team, which finished third this season.
Everything started with a sibling rivalry.
Isaac’s sister Jo is three years older than her, and they used to run eight kilometres or more on the family farm when Carly was just 11 or 12.
“I got addicted to running when I was trying to beat her.”
Jo had finished sixth in Victoria in cross-country running in her mid-teens, and fourth in the state in the 1500m event.
Both sisters were chosen to run for Victoria in national junior championships but declined selection: “It clashed with our netball season, and we were both pretty invested then in the Northern Zone netball academies, so there were big commitments on the table.”
Even at this early age, there was a push-pull going on between netball and athletics. Isaac was encouraged in her running by a teacher at Wedderburn College and rose to finish eighth in the state at the 3km cross-country event.
She was also playing netball for Wedderburn, which she began aged six or seven before switching to fierce rivals Boort at 17 when the Magpies were struggling to field an A Grade team.
Boort ended that season as runners-up to the imperious Redbacks – and Isaac is still hanging out to beat them.
She reckons she’ll keep playing and coaching netball until Boort can knock off Wedderburn for a premiership.
And while she says a cup might be a good note to sign off on, Isaac can’t be sure she would actually be able to pull the pin, and is still juggling with her sporting future.
“I’m obviously very interested in keeping Boort going and trying to get the girls on the path to bringing home a premiership one of these seasons – on the other hand I do want to take my running a lot further.
“I think there is plenty of time for running, and maybe not so much time for netball – so maybe focus on netball and then go more into running in my later years.”
At 24, those “later years” are still a while off but in the meantime, she will continue to chip away at her times running marathons and half-marathons.
Isaac ran a personal best in the recent Melbourne half-marathon, cutting two minutes off her previous record in finishing in 1.22.40, which was good enough to see her end up 30th of 5000 female runners.
Summer used to be for tennis, but now it involves running 110km a week around Boort Lake and at The Granites, a hilly feature near her family’s farm where she spends more than two hours repeatedly running 3km to the top and down again.
A qualified plumber, Isaac is taking leave soon – but forget about rest and recreation.
“I’m driving a header this year for dad, taking a month off work to do that and help out,” she said.
“It’s a bit of fun; I haven’t done it since I was back in year 12 – usually my brothers do it.”
Big sister Jo is now teaching in Karratha in Western Australia, playing state league netball and doing a little running.
“I’m just half of what she can be,” Carly said. “She was A better runner back in the day – I think, hopefully, I can take that off her now. But she’s still got me on netball – she makes me look pretty silly out there.”