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A day in the life — Courtney Gum

The GWS Giants’ Courtney Gum isn’t your average footballer. The AFLW MVP juggles her footballing responsibilities with running her own physiotherapy clinic and motherhood. She details her incredible life outside of the AFLW in an exclusive column.

I started my physiotherapy clinic, Kinetic Balance in South Australia, after moving back there from NSW with my partner Krissie and son Buz who was eight weeks old at the time.

Balancing football and work my life can be pretty hectic, especially when I live away from my family during the season.

It can be really challenging and so it’s important for myself and my family to instill a routine into our lives. Krissie has been instrumental in enabling this and she’s been incredibly supportive.

I wake up between 5am and 5:30am every day before I have breakfast and watch ABC News Breakfast.

My meals are all planned out around guidelines set out by the nutritionist at the Giants.

Breakfast consists of two eggs and some toast, morning tea is yoghurt and berries, lunch is a protein with some vegetables and a carbohydrate and afternoon tea might be some tuna and rye vita biscuits.

A day in the life — Jessica Wuetschner

After eating breakfast and catching up on the news I wake Buz, who is now 3-years-old, and get him ready for the day.

Dressing him is no easy feat. Making sure his shoes are tied up tight enough is important because that seems to be our biggest issue at the moment.

I always make Buz breakfast before we leave for the day but he isn’t a very big eater — rice bubbles and maple syrup is our go-to.

During this time my partner will also wake up before she heads off to work around 7am.

We’re always out the door by 7:30am, I take Buz with me because his daycare is in the same area as my physio clinic.

When we arrive in Noarlunga, I walk Buz around to daycare, drop him off and we play a little game where he stands at the window and scares me, before we say our goodbyes for the day.

When I get back to the clinic it’s time to open so I turn everything on, make sure everything is tidy and the money is balanced from the day before.

From 8:30am to 10:30am I am seeing clients and working but from 10:30am until 11:30am I have allocated myself one hour of time to exercise and fulfil my requirements with my training program.

A day in the life — Isabel Huntington

The clinic is part of a gym which certainly makes life easier.

After my session, I will eat lunch and do some administration work before seeing clients again from 12:30pm until 6pm.

I have cut-down my clinic hours slightly, they are now Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with Tuesdays and Thursdays allocated for admin.

During the netball season I work on Saturday mornings as well offering a free strapping service to the local clubs.

After work I pick Buz up from daycare before we head home.

It’s normally quite late by the time we get home so my partner and I normally get dinner sorted before going through his bedtime routine and reading him books.

By the time 9pm rolls around I am normally ready for bed and to do it all again the next day.

Although life can be stressful and challenging, being in a routine is what de-stresses me.

To be quite honest, I don’t have a lot of time to myself or time with my partner, just the two of us, but we know that is the stage of life we are in at the moment — there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Sometimes it can become more challenging when you’re exhausted but on those days I might choose to not do a gym session and enjoy a walk instead.

Although I am busy, my life is also rich with family.