By JARROD POTTER
NEVER taking a backwards step, Parkmore’s Charis Ulu Peniata made a brand of hard-edged, unrelenting football her signature this week.
Ulu Peniata, 16, has taken Victorian football by storm this year – her first playing the national game.
For a girl less than 18 months into her football career as a whole – whether locally, in the Academy program or now in the national championship winning side – her journey so far has been amazing.
From Parkmore Youth Girls in the South East Juniors and onto the Sandringham Dragons’ Youth Girls Academy, Ulu Peniata’s potential was immediately visible as she charged through the midfield and shrugged off tackles left, right and especially through the centre.
These performances earned her a call up to the Vic Metro ranks for the national championships – and she seized that opportunity firmly, as Ulu Peniata was sent down back and given some of the hardest team tasks.
Not only did she take the challenges on, but she dominated them – setting aside the rest of the country’s best forwards as she ran everything out of the back-line.
Ulu Peniata became renowned for not rushing behinds – despite standing centimetres away from the opposition goal-line under immense pressure.
But she would harness that burden and turn it into her greatest strengths – surging through pack, sidestepping opponents or just throwing them off her if they dared to tackle her.
“It’s great – it’s actually the first time (winning a national championship) and I’m just really happy,” Ulu Peniata said. “It’s only been one year – everything about it is really different and I’m just so surprised that I made it this far.”
Where does her tenacity and determination come from? Home.
“Lost for words right now – I don’t know – I think it just runs in the family,” she said.
Ulu Peniata wanted to thank friends and family for their support of her football ambitions.
“Like to thank my best friend’s family, without them I wouldn’t be here,” Ulu Peniata said. “The support of the family and friends and without meeting these people I wouldn’t have opened up as more, it’s made me more confident and I hope I can play again.”
Vic Metro coach Wayne Siekman thinks the Parkmore defender’s rise has taken many by surprise but her determination has set her apart from many other footballers in the state.
“She’s come from nowhere, but continues to grow and develop and could be anything in the next two years if she continues to improve her football,” Siekman said.
“As you saw she could have easily conceded a couple of points a couple of times, but she hates losing and hates giving the opposition any sort of advantage – and she’d rather break a tackle on the goal-line than to rush it and give them a point.
“She followed the decisions to spoil the footy and don’t think she was beaten once – in the grand final we played her on Bartlett from WA, who was the leading goal kicker of the tournament before the grand final, and she didn’t get a kick.
“That’s in a nutshell what Charis did in the week – go onto the leading goal kicker and refuse to let her have a touch.”
