Hubeek hits ground running at Royals
Mary Hubeek’s stellar performances for the Essendon Royals have earned her the club’s Community Bank Keilor East Women’s Player of the Month for May, in just her second full month at the club.
However, whilst she might be new to the Royals, her goalscoring exploits will surprise no one who is familiar with her work on the futsal scene.
Aside from her accomplished career in Victoria’s State Leagues in outdoor competition, Hubeek has been a revelation in futsal this season and is all set to represent Australia at the International Futsal Alliance World Cup in Spain this September.
The Australian team, which is picked and organised by the Australian Futsal Association, will head to Barcelona for the competition later this year with Hubeek excited to have the opportunity to represent her country, having started her futsal journey as a 15-year-old.
“I played from 15 to 18 and then took a bit of a break to concentrate on my outdoor game, but I recently took it up again,” she said.
“I had the opportunity to play in a national competition at which the organizers of the Australian team from AFA were present and managed to do well over the five or six days of play and earned a selection.
“We fly out to Barcelona on September 6th and then we will be in Barcelona for 10 days, which will be amazing.”
With extremely limited funding available for the sport of futsal, Hubeek will need to foot the bill for her participation in the tournament.
“It’s good to see some progression for the sport of women’s Futsal, and it will be great to have the F-League back up and running soon,” she said.
“It’s frustrating because on top of training you have to work even harder to raise those funds, be it from sponsorship or donations and you need to raise awareness.
“But it’s a great opportunity I didn’t want to pass up so I’m really excited to get there.”
Hubeek has set up a MyCause page to which she is accepting donations to help cover her costs.
Her target of $5000 will simply cover airfares and accommodation.
Hubeek plays her club Futsal with Melbourne Evolution FC.
Hubeek has hit the ground running since signing for the Royals and has been an outstanding addition to the club, not just for her performances on the park but her leadership and personality of it.
Hubeek said Senior Women’s coach Vince Battiato has been extremely supportive of her futsal aspirations and hopes the club’s members can show some support as well.
“The club and coaching staff have been really supportive of me and have really promoted my futsal,” she said.
“They know it doesn’t stop me from playing for the club and I think it’s really enhanced my skills for outdoor as well.
“It takes a lot of training and recovery to maintain both futsal and football schedules. I have a gym in the garage, so I’m doing strength training there a couple of days a week, training at the Royals twice a week plus our games, and then futsal training on Saturday and games on Wednesdays, so it’s a busy schedule.”
With such fierce commitment to both football and futsal, it’s little wonder that Hubeek – who is a teacher by trade – is kicking goals on the park and the court.
Since joining the Royals, she has bagged 10 goals and five assists during our Women’s State League 1 and Nike FC Cup campaigns.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being at the club, it’s one of the best I’ve played at in my 26-odd years from a junior to now,” she said.
“The community and the people from above to the coaching staff, you don’t really see that at a lot of clubs where everyone is pushing for the women and to see the women do well, so it’s been great to be a part of the club.”