THERE will be a quick change of focus for our region’s latest dual-sports superstar, 10-year old Mia Hirst, who was this week selected to represent Victoria’s under-12 girls’ football team at the national carnival.
Selection capped off a big seven days for the Grade 5 student at Swan Hill’s St Mary’s Primary School, who was also a member of the Swan Hill Flyers under-12 girls’ basketball team that competed at last weekend’s National Junior Classic in Melbourne.
While Hirst gave everything for her region last weekend, it will be for the Big V that she will be competing for in Geelong come August.
The talented Swan Hill footballer told The Guardian she one day hoped to emulate the feats of another Swan Hill local.
“I love both sports, they’re definitely my favourite sports, but footy has always been up there,” she said.
“I love kicking the footy with my brother and my dad every night in the backyard, I’m never going to not love playing either football or basketball, I love them both.
“I’ve always wanted to be famous one day for sport and to play AFLW would be great.
“I feel like this experience playing for Victoria will give me a big boost of confidence with my footy and hopefully I can keep getting better.
“I love Alana Woodward, she’s one of my idols because she’s a local, she plays for the Sydney Swans and she plays in the midfield, like me.”
Another idol of Hirst’s is another former Swan Hill sporting star in Tessa Lavey.
Hirst and her basketball teammates got to meet the Australian Opal basketballer and Richmond AFLW footballer last weekend.
As with all talented local juniors, Hirst’s selection hasn’t come without cost.
Mother Renee and father Jon have spent countless hours travelling the highway to Melbourne and back several times over the past month for tryouts and training.
But for Jon, himself a talented footballer for many seasons with Swan Hill and Murrabit, it’s a small sacrifice for the family to make to help their daughter follow her dreams.
“She’s always looking to improve and always wants to have a kick of footy out the back or a shot of basketball, she puts the pressure on me and Renee to keep our end of the deal every night,” he said.
“She just loves her footy and has done since she could walk really, she’s played all her football at Swan Hill and played up in the under-15s this season when she could have still been playing in the under-12.
“We’ve been to Melbourne three times in the last month and then leading up to the nationals in August we’ll have another five trips ov er seven weeks for training, so there’s plenty of kilometres for us to travel, which will mean plenty of dishes for Mia to do to pay us back.”
As if the budding superstar doesn’t have enough on her plate, she will also represent her school at the upcoming Victorian cross country championships, having finished third at the regional titles.
But while Hirst has plenty of pathways to stardom at her disposal, it’s her love of football that keeps dragging her back to the oval ball, especially following her Swans’ loss to arch-rivals Tyntynder in last month’s under-15 girls’ grand final.
“It was tough … but we love to compete against them every time and try to beat them,” she said.
“It was good to come up against some really strong girls and unfortunately we didn’t win, we lost by three points in the end, but we were down by five goals though, so it was a great effort to come back.”
