MANDURAH athlete Leah Turnbull will play for the Western Australia Angels in the Legends Football League after making it through a tough selection process.
America's fastest growing sports league' LFL (formerly Lingerie Football League) is basically women’s grid iron with full contact and fierce competition.
The LFL inaugural Australia season will commence in December with teams coming from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and of course, WA.
Growing up in Woolagong, 22-year-old Turnbull said she had been around rugby from a young age.
“I’ve always loved full contact sport,” she said.
“I played rugby union in high school and played netball and did Taekwondo for seven years.”
Turnbull said she found her rugby skills would transfer well to LFL.
“I’d throw the NRL ball around on the beach and found I could throw it further than the guys,” she said.
“I heard about LFL in the United States and told my mum I wanted to go over and try-out but that didn’t eventuate.”
In 2012, after moving to WA, Turnbull required keyhole heart surgery.
Turnbull said she found out the day after surgery that tryouts were going to be held for WA’s LFL team 10 days after her surgery.
Turnbull said she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to play the sport she had been interested in growing up so attended the try-outs.
“There were so many talented athletes,” Turnbull said.
“200 were at the first try-outs and 52 got selected from there.
“I knew I was good at certain aspects but gird iron is so different; it’s a crazy game to learn.”
Turnbull made the initial training squad but that squad would have to be cut down to 20.
“When I started training for the Angels there were four girls competing for the position of quarterback, and it was ongoing for around three-four months," she said.
Balancing training and study Turnbull’s talent began to shine through with the Mandurah sportswomen selected in the final squad two weeks ago.
Turnbull will play in the Angels’ first game against Victoria in Melbourne on December 14.
The team’s first home games will be held at NIB Stadium on December 21 and February 1.
WA will also host the grand final on February 8 at NIB Stadium, a game Turnbull believe WA could be a part of.
“We have a shot of winning the championship; we have such great coaches,” she said.
“JR Rogers [the team's head coach] is the assistant coach to the national men’s team.”
For more information go to the Angels Facebook page facebook.com/westernaustraliaangels
