‘I was not allowed to play’: Bronwyn Gulden is making up for lost time in footy

Bronwyn Gulden is grappling with what she describes as an “amazing” problem to have over the next few weeks. Her youngest son, Errol, has an AFL finals campaign ahead of him, and her eldest, Adam, is hunting a reserve-grade premiership in the VFL – but she might not be able to watch either journey unfold in person, because she’ll be busy living out a dream of her own she thought had long passed her by.

Most of it will be lived through a group of 32 young women, who on Saturday will be the first Sydney Swans women’s team to take the field in the AFLW, introducing themselves to as many as 10,000 people at North Sydney Oval against St Kilda.

Errol Gulden – mother of emerging Swans star Errol – is on the club’s AFLW coaching staff this season.Credit:Phil Hillyard, Getty

In another lifetime, ‘Bron’ might have been one of them; serving as an AFLW assistant coach will have to do for now.

A self-confessed footy nuffie, most of Gulden’s childhood was spent in and around the Bridgewater Football and Netball Club, with a Sherrin in her grasp. Her father was a fixture on the country footy circuit, and her mum was always helping out in the canteen.

“Growing up in country Victoria, that’s what you did – you followed the local FNC,” she said. “My parents were very much open the gates at 7am and shut them at 7pm, and we were there all day. I just totally grew up around having a footy in my hand. I don’t know, naturally I was always drawn to it.

“But I had to play netball, because I was not allowed to play footy.”

The Gulden family after Errol’s AFL debut last year.

For decades, her footballing instincts were wholly suppressed, and indulged only in the odd scratch match or pre-season game she could sneak her way into with the boys.

When the Guldens moved to Sydney 25 years ago, so her husband could work and study, Bron set about ensuring the family’s footy tradition would continue. When her kids played AusKick, she put her hand up to coach. When they moved to local clubs, like the Maroubra Saints, and then when Errol and daughter Senna came through the Swans’ academy, she did the same thing. It was an accidental apprenticeship, and even Errol was happy to admit earlier this month that his mum’s tips played a “massive role” in his own development.

Bronwyn Gulden made her senior playing debut for the UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs at the age of 55.

“Again, having grown up around footy clubs, that’s just what you did – you went in and helped, and it stemmed from there,” she said. “It’s all about relationship building. And there’s some fantastic humans that you come in contact with at football clubs.”

Last year, Bron managed to scratch that lifelong itch at the UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs, where she is a coach for their premier women’s team. Due to COVID, the reserves team was light on numbers. She sensed an opportunity to cross an item off her bucket list – playing her first competitive game, at the age of 55.

“I said to the coach, look, if you’re really, really desperate,” she laughed.

“I was able to play a couple of games, and I got a goal in my second one. I don’t think they’ve ever seen anyone celebrate like I did – that was probably 40 years of pent-up enthusiasm. Crazy, when I think about it – my husband thinks I’m a lunatic.”

Gulden hasn’t officially retired, but has struggled to find the time to pull on the boots again this season given the magnitude of her latest commitment – handling Sydney’s defensive end under AFLW coach Craig Gowans, her new mentor.

Sydney didn’t apply for a women’s team when the competition first launched six years ago, but this year, it has expanded to the full 18 clubs, and the AFLW season itself has shifted from the peak of summer to the onset of spring. It’s all worked out nicely for the Swans, who have sold more than 7000 memberships – the most in the league, at the first time of asking – and also for Gulden, who is in this coaching caper for the long haul, even if deep down, she wishes all this could have happened a few decades earlier.

“We’ve come in with such a great administration, the perfect culture, and we’ve just got this awesome group of girls,” Gulden said.

“I’m more proud than anything that we’re at that point now with female sport and footy in particular, that we now have this amazing national competition, where the skill level and the athleticism and the professionalism of these girls is on show. Obviously, I’m hugely envious, but happy to live vicariously through the group we’ve got at the moment.

“We’ll see how it goes. But it’s really conflicting as well, too, because I’m still very much wanting to watch the boys play. It’s an exciting few weeks ahead.”

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