Since receiving her first pair of football boots from her uncle, Hayley Crawford and football have rarely been apart.

The 25 year old has played for her country in the 2003 FIFA World Cup and now has the honour of leading her hometown team in the Newcastle Jets.  We speak with the newly appointed Jets' captain about the new squad and coming home.

Congratulations on the captaincy.  After coming across from Canberra United, you must be pleased with the faith that has been shown?

Yes.  It’s obviously something that I have taken on and it’s a great honour to be able to lead a team.  Basically we have whole new group of girls and new coaching staff so I guess it’s really about building from the ground up this year.

It’s a great honour to come back to my hometown of Newcastle and to be able to lead.  It is something that I hold with high regard and one of the greatest achievements of my football career.

There has been some upheaval following the retirement of Cheryl and Joanne.  What’s the vibe around the club with this new squad?

Basically what we are trying to do is build a new culture.  We are really big on building unity and cohesion with a lot of the new faces and young girls.  We are trying to set some foundations to be sustainable as a club.  Not just this year but leading into the future.

We want to build a culture, an idea or representation of what we want the Newcastle Jets to look like in the future.

With the four sides in New South Wales, there has been some criticism that local players are not being looked at.  Have the Jets managed to do that this season?

There are a lot local girls in the squad like Amber and myself who Newcastle, born and bred.  What Sully [coach Wayne O’Sullivan] did was go out there and look at the local league here in Newcastle and the State League in Sydney.  So he really put himself out there and he wasn’t one to just take names and let them come in.

He gave everyone a fair chance and it was an even playing field.  He went out and had a look himself and let players come and trial and picked the squad from that.

Everyone got a fair go and he wasn’t really big on what you had done in the past and you had to prove yourself from day one.

You are of the same vintage as myself [25] and find yourself as one of the elder statesmen.  How are you finding mentoring some of the younger players?

It’s been good.  We have equality across the board so it is not really the older players/younger players.

We are all footballers so our age doesn’t really matter.  We have a great group of girls and we are all really close.  Even on the plane ride to Adelaide I was sitting next to Tara Andrews.  She is one of our youngest but it was just like sitting next to another 25 year old.

Once we are all out there on the pitch age doesn’t really matter.  It is all about the football quality.

On the weekend you held off Adelaide United in a match where, with some luck, you could have had all 3 points.   How did you find the first match?

Obviously there were a lot of nerves.  I think some of the girls didn’t really know what to expect.

We have had a tough pre-season so to be able to get out there and get that first game under our belt, we will go into the Perth match with a little bit more confidence than that one.

We were a bit nervous but the way we finished off against Adelaide is the way we want to start against Perth.  If we can do that, I think we will reap the rewards.

I’m from Perth and a massive Glory fan.  In saying that, would you like to divulge a few state secrets and let us know who are the players to watch out for from the Jets?

(Laughs) I think, honestly, you have to watch out for everyone.  It’s not just the 11 that take the park; it’s the whole squad.

I personally don’t know what his [O’Sullivan] plans are for the Perth game so it could be anyone to watch out for.

I think Gema Simon is going to have a good year.  She is a flying left back that has a great shot on her and will be hard to stop once she gets going.  We also have some really good young girls to watch out for but I’m not going to divulge too many secrets to you.

How did your love affair with football begin?

I started when I was 10 and started playing because my Uncle played.  He bought me a pair of football boots and from then on I loved the game.

I played in boy’s team up until I was about 14 and then moved onto the Northern New South Wales girl’s team.  I went there with Mark Jones and a lot of the girls that I still play with now and played in the NSW Summer series until that folded.

Then I had two years off in 05/06 and I moved down to Canberra and started playing down there locally.

When the Westfield W-League started up again I thought it would be a great opportunity to start playing again.  I played for Canberra last season and from then on I found my passion again.

I realised that football is a part of me that I can’t give up and can’t be without.

Hayley, thanks for your time.

You can catch Hayley Crawford and the Newcastle Jets on ABC1 this Saturday as their take on Perth Glory at ME Stadium.  Check your local guides for time.

WWL - Round 2: Perth Glory v Newcastle Jets - Saturday, 10 October 2009