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Lord Sugar, the British business magnate of The Apprentice fame, described it as “one of the biggest mistakes you can make during a job interview”. Ask for time off during one with the former Tottenham chairman and you’d hear “you’re fired!” before you’d even been hired.
Danielle Bradley nevertheless risked the precarious request in June. She had an interview for a position she really wanted. The 29-year-old audaciously asked for time off if she was successful. It wasn’t for medical treatment, a wedding or jury service, but for a girls’ holiday to two paradisiacal places. It wasn’t for a few days or a week, but for six weeks.
Yet Blue Illusion gave her the job and granted her leave of absence. They graciously appreciated the trip’s magnitude. Though the Aucklander will travel from her Melbourne home to meet up with some of her besties in Rio de Janeiro and Metropolitan Manila, it’s not to sip Caipirinhas on the Copacabana or explore Intramuros on a bamboo bike. It’s to train in Brazil and play in the Philippines. To train for and play in, no less, the first FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup™.
The goalkeeper expects to be “super emotional” when New Zealand debut against Japan, but suspects someone else inside PhilSports Arena will be even more so. Sel Bradley, after all, wasn’t just the first futsal coach to his daughter, but also to her team-mates Shivy Anthony-Picken, Maxi Cooper, Hannah Kraakman and Dayna Manak.
Danielle took time out – she did it after work, Blue Illusion, we promise! – to speak to FIFA about the unreal atmosphere at games in the Philippines, the Futsal Ferns’ group-stage opponents and wanting to do New Zealand proud.
Danielle Bradley: It was really exciting. We’d seen the boys go to their qualifiers a couple of times, so it was nice to have that same kind of goal to work towards and have a bit more recognition towards the women’s side of things. Obviously the World Cup is the be-all and end-all of tournaments. Having it gives us even more motivation to invest time into the sport. You know you’re working towards something really big, and that’s super exciting.
It felt great. There were a lot of nerves from the girls going into it. We didn’t know much about the other teams. There was a lot of pressure on us, expectations to perform well. That was daunting because we had to live up to it. You feel the pressure because you obviously want to do the country proud. Fortunately everything went as planned. We came away with wins in all our games and got entry into the World Cup, which was obviously amazing.
I’m definitely a confidence player. If I make a couple of saves to start the game, mindset-wise, I feel really confident. I’m a big communicator and a big organiser. I’ll definitely yell at the girls if they need to get into position and things like that.
Absolutely phenomenal. I’ve played with her for such a long time, which is lucky because we know how each other work. I know what she’s going to do, that she’s going to take care of things out on the court, and she knows what I’m going to do behind her. Even in the Philippines, when she was really unwell on tour, she was one of our standouts. She’s great at creating plays and has such a good understanding of the game. She’s recovered so well from her ACL a few years back to get where she is today. She just loves the sport and you can see it with the way she plays. She’s an absolutely incredible player.
They’re going to be really, really tough. Shivy’s been playing in Japan. She said they’re on another level. They’re faster, they’re quicker, they’re smarter. We have a few Japanese girls in our local team here. Even though they’re on our team, sometimes you just sit back and watch them. They’re so skilful and how they read the game is completely different to us. It’s going to be a bit of a tempo shift for us going against those girls. We’re definitely going to have to keep the D really company to keep them out.
Incredible. I think a lot of the European keepers are so good with their feet and getting involved in a bit of attacking play. She’s super comfortable doing that. She’s obviously great at making saves, but she’s such an outlet with the attacking play. We’ll have to be super careful with her.
I’d probably say to be as competitive as possible. We acknowledge the position we’re in, and that we don’t play professionally here. We all have jobs. The level here is a little bit behind Europe and Asia and South America. It’d be really great to be competitive and really hold our own out there. We’ve been building a lot over the past few years, so it would be nice to implement some of the stuff that we’ve been working on. We’ve got such a positive and good group of girls that I know that will encourage each other all the way through. We’re honestly all just really grateful to get the opportunity to get out there and play against some of the world‘s best. We’ll try and put our best foot forward. We want to do the country proud. I know everyone’s putting in the hard yards with training and fitness and court time and understanding what we need to do.
To be honest, not really! I started a new job in June. At my interview stage, I basically just had to say, I’ve got this potentially coming up. It’s all pending selection. I think I’ve worked out that, if I get selected, I’ll need about six weeks of leave. In less than a month’s time, we go to Brazil. It’s not an easy thing to give someone who has just started, but my employers are super, super understanding and really supportive. They appreciate how big of an event this is, and just want me to go there and have fun and hopefully smash it. I’m so grateful because I know it’s been really tough for some of the girls. Maxi [Cooper] is a doctor and even getting a week or two can be really tough at times.
It was great. The biggest thing I remember from that tournament was that the stadium was filled with supporters and they were drumming the entire time. It was so loud. It was basically impossible to communicate with the team because it was just that loud from the drums and the support. They really got amongst it and cheered for their side. Any opportunity they had or whatnot, the stadium would almost erupt. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like at the World Cup. I’m sure they’re all super excited to host everybody.
Pending selection, my family. My family and my little brother would love to get across and come and support. So they’ve tentatively put the leave in the diary and will come across to the Philippines. We all live in separate areas, so it’s a really nice opportunity to see each other. And I think they just understand the importance of the game to me, and want to be there for that moment to support me and celebrate that. I know some others players have family and friends coming along. Having everyone in the Philippines to support us will be really, really amazing.
I’m genuinely so, so excited. It’s something we’ve been working towards and dreaming about for so long. It’s almost a bit surreal because it’s been such a long time coming. It will be great to see the girls because I’ve not seen them for so long. We will get to see some of our best friends and play together in the World Cup. It really is the stuff of dreams. I think there’ll be a lot of nerves because we really want to make the country proud. I’m always proud to put the Fern on. Doing it at the World Cup, I can’t imagine how proud and emotional I’ll feel.
