Mark of SUCCESS
Ellyse Perry. Tayla Harris. Liz Cambage. Charlotte Caslick. They may be some of the biggest names in sport right now, but there’s not an ounce of ego between them.
Heroes of Australia’s favourite pastime – in cricket, AFLW and boxing, basketball and rugby union, respectively – they compete at the very highest levels of their professions.
On game day, they are unflappable, but posing for a few photos was a different story.
Enlisting some of our most successful and prominent female sporting talent, both on-field and off – including FOX SPORTS presenters Tara Rushton and Mel Jones – Foxtel magazine discovered there’s one thing that doesn’t come quite as naturally to these gifted superstars.
“I don’t like looking at this stuff,” Perry admitted as she tentatively approached the monitor to see her photos, despite having appeared perfectly at ease while shooting.
Of course, what unites the stars of our cover story is the fact that they’re all inspirational women making waves in their chosen fields.
Whether competing or reporting from the sidelines, they each play pivotal roles in the sporting sorority – and are champions of one another.
“Workwise [I’m inspired by] the women I work with,” says FOX LEAGUE identity Hannah Hollis of her fellow presenters Yvonne Sampson, Lara Pitt and Jess Yates, who also took part in our shoot.
“I’m sure they’d say that there were women ahead of them that were the trailblazers. [But] moving to FOX SPORTS changed my life. It’s given me the opportunity to work with the women that I do who have become not just professional inspirations but, personally, really good friends.”
Amid the excitement of new and continuing seasons, our featured women speak candidly about their inspirations, their career-defining moments and the role family plays in their success.
Tayla Harris
AFLW and boxing
It’s not easy being a dual athlete – not least as a female competing in what would arguably be considered two male-dominated sports. But Tayla Harris isn’t easily deterred.
At just 22 years old, she has made a name for herself in two very tough disciplines: AFLW and boxing.
Having made her debut for the Brisbane Lions during the inaugural 2017 AFLW season, Harris is now in her third year playing for Carlton.
With eight goals to her name, she finished 2019 as the club’s leading goal kicker and also received the JLT Mark of the Year award for the second consecutive year.
However, all of that was overshadowed when a photo of Harris making an impressive yet pretty standard on-field kick went viral for all the wrong reasons in March 2019. Attracting unwanted attention from online trolls who sexualised the star athlete, Harris didn’t think twice about hitting back.
“That photo has probably been the defining moment in my career,” she acknowledges. “I understand that I’m more known for that photo and what happened after the fact rather than what I’m doing in the photo – which is playing footy. But that’s
