South-west cricketer Georgia Wareham opens up to SEAN HARDEMAN about her journey from backyard battles in Mortlake to making Australian women's ICC T20 World Cup squad.
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Georgia Wareham is standing at the end of her mark in the backyard of her family home in Mortlake.
At the other end of the yard is her older brother, Jordan, who is her target.
In her mind however, she is Australian leg-spinning great Shane Warne preparing to bowl a critical spell in front of a huge crowd at an ICC World Cup final.
She begins her bowling approach, wiping the moisture from her right hand, placing the ball in it and begins to build up her pace.
She lets rip and watches as the ball rips off the pitch and spins towards her brother.
Jordan comes forward to hit the ball but the ball beats his bat, hits the middle stump knocking the bails flying and sends him on his way thinking how did she get it past me?.
That was what the many battles between the Wareham siblings from a very young age were like.
My brother and cousins, Isaac and Lachlan, growing up in the backyard we would try to bowl like Shane Warne or run in and bowl as fast as we could like Brett Lee, the 19-year-old said.
My brother and I would have those sorts of battles where we would emulate a cricketer like we have in our imaginary teams.
Cricket has always been a part of Warehams life.
The backyard contests were just the start of her journey from a dream-filled kid to the youngest player in the first season of the Womens Big Bash League in 2015-16, to an international debut with Australia and an ICC World Cup squad call up in 2018.
I grew up watching Test cricket in my great aunts loungeroom when I was quite young. On a hot summer day I would be over there watching the cricket, Wareham said of her introduction to the sport.
The whole family is pretty sporty and we have always grown up watching the footy and cricket. It has just been a part of my life.
At 10 years of age Wareham found herself at her first cricket club, Woorndoo, where she played above her age in the under 16s. Two years later she shifted to her now home club Mortlake and played in the same age group.
She soon found her way into the division three side and was playing against men at age 14. That is where long-time Cats division one captain-coach Todd Lamont first spotted her.
It was two years after her first appearance in the third tier that she rose into Lamonts South West Cricket side and from there he saw something in the youngster as she took 3-36 and made 13 runs on debut in round six of the 2015-16 season against Cobden.
She had more skills than anyone in our side, he said. From the first time she started playing in the div one side we said yeah there is no doubt she will make it far, it's just how long it will take.
The Mortlake leader impacted Wareham, who at that stage was building her repertoire of skills and knowledge.
It was good playing a lot of mens cricket and playing under someone like Todd, she said. He is pretty calm and collected and he takes things as it comes and that has rubbed off on me and how I go about my cricket.
He got me thinking about the game in a different way. Obviously when I was playing division one I was young and just trying to feed off that experience.
At the same time Wareham was featuring in Victorian underage squads, travelling to national carnivals and was part of the Western Waves program under Stephen Field.
Field, who was regional cricket manager at the time and ran the pathway development for the south-wests rising stars, knew when he first came across Wareham that she was destined for the top.
I was asked a question a few years ago who do you think is the most likely person to go on and play for Australia?, he said.
The person I was speaking to thought it was going to be a male and I said no, it's going to be Georgia Wareham, shell be the first person, and at least I was right with that one.
Wareham, playing in the under 14s side, was an integral part of the Waves first state championship victory in 2010-11 and the back-to-back win the next season.
The Western Waves mentor, who spotted the self-motivated youngster at a cricket day at Mortlake primary, said Wareham had to make the difficult decision that every young sportsperson had to eventually make.
She had to make some tough choices as she was also good at football and she had to make the choice between the two, Field said.
Obviously choosing cricket she abandoned another sport and that shows that she has the confidence in her own abilities and the willingness to work hard as it's very difficult for young athletes to make that choice.
Injury and success made the decision easier for Wareham and her love for cricket pushed her to pursue a career in the countrys summer sport.
I played a bit of footy for a while until I was 16 and I injured myself there and put footy aside and focused on cricket, she said.
Before I had a bit of success with footy the cricket success had already been there and my love of the game of cricket has always been there.
Around the same time after Wareham made one difficult decision another popped up. She was over playing junior cricket at Mortlake and was looking for a fresh change.
Long-serving Port Fairy junior coordinator and under 17s coach Brian Medew lured the talented teenager to Averys Paddock in 2016.
Her mum brought her over for some training and she did a couple of sessions, he said.
At that stage she had been playing a lot of cricket and you could see there was talent there, there was no doubt about it.
"I invited her to play the following season and she formed a pair we called the Spin Twins, in Georgia and Rosie Wynd.
"We made grand final that year and they were instrumental in getting us there with their bowling feats.
Medew said Wareham was always a keen student and that her knowledge of the game blew him away.
She was certainly a thinker and ahead of the game by everyone on the team. You could see she was quite strategic and thought about cricket a lot, he said.
I was able to coin into that very quickly that she was advanced. She would plan overs and how she was going to take a wicket for you and that is the whole art of spin bowling.
"If you can be doing that at that age there is something going on.
All her past coaches are still keen fans of the rising star but there is no bigger follower than her mother, Meg.
Mum and dad (Wes) have been really good, she said. Mum in particular driving me to all my games and training sessions.
"Its a credit to her as she has put in a lot of time and effort into my sport and I definitely wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her support.
"Mum tends to get to most games and if she is not there she is definitely watching it on TV and getting score updates from friends or people she knows at games.
Warehams possible World Cup debut in Australias first game against Pakistan on November 9 was a welcome surprise.
Twelve months ago I didn't see this coming and obviously when you grow up you dream of playing for Australia, she said.
But I didn't think it would happen this soon and it has been a dream come true.