SUNS FIND A RARE GEM AS RESILIENT PITTMAN KEEPS DREAM ALIVE
ADVERSITY is a word Emma Pittman knows all too well.
When she was just 15 and living in Mackay, her mother passed away, prompting her to relocate to Brisbane and move in with her sister.
Just weeks after signing her playing contract with the Suns, she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament playing for Coorparoo.
And in January, she suffered a setback in her rehabilitation.
But where adversity is, there is resilience, and Pittman has that in spades.
Her first foray in sport came via soccer as a kid and it continued when she moved to Brisbane.
Playing as a goalkeeper for The Gap, what started as a way to meet people soon turned into a potential pursuit when she was signed by the Brisbane Roar for the 2012-13 W-League season.
But Pittman struggled to balance her sporting and professional career in a time when female athletes were stuck on minimum wages, so she returned to The Gap to play socially, which is when she discovered Aussie rules. “My partner Dania at the time was playing for Coorparoo, so I went to a few training sessions with her but I wasn’t too keen on it at the start,” she said.
“I didn’t know a lot about it at the start but then I slowly became more interested in going to footy sessions than soccer.
“I played both sports for a while so I had the chance to compare them back-to-back and the difference was black and white.”
Pittman spent two years at Coorparoo before following Dania to the University of Queensland, where her star quickly rose and the Brisbane Lions swooped with pick 37 at the 2017 AFLW draft.
When the Suns came knocking after the 2019 AFLW season, the 27-year-old almost immediately rubbished the idea. “My work and life were in Brisbane,” said Pittman, who part-owns the Espresso Engine cafe in the city.
“I drove down and checked out the facilities and everything was there and it had a family feel.
“I feel more included and accepted at the Suns than I have at any other team.”
After injuring her ACL in early 2019, Pittman has taken the chance to try her hand at coaching and has been assisting Andrew Swallow and working with the Suns midfield.