This morning when mums across the nation are being made breakfast in bed, Dianna Haines will be packing her footy bag.
The 34-year-old won’t be sleeping in. She’s not looking forward to any presents.
Today isn’t just Mother’s Day for Haines, it’s game day.
Haines will be playing for Hawthorn’s VFLW side in the club’s season opener against the Northern Territory Thunder.
“Mother’s Day is game day for us,” explains Haines.
“I don’t even know if my husband’s going to remember anything.”
As well as being a footballer, Haines is mother to her two-year-old daughter Lochie.
The secondary school teacher has been playing football for nearly seven times Lochie’s age, starting back when she was at university.
Since then she has played for Surrey Park, Diamond Creek, represented her state, played in a women’s exhibition match in 2014 and is currently in her second year with Hawthorn.
It’s being part of the team that has kept Haines coming back to football all these years.
“I just love the concept of team.
“It’s hard to be an individual in a football team, you get found out pretty quick.”
“During a football game you have to rely on everybody and I love that team dynamic.”
Once Haines gave birth to Lochie in 2017, she was straight back to football three months later.
“There was no choice for me to quit football.
“I was always going to come back, be it at a VFL level or at a local level.
“I think that’s an important lesson that I want to give to Lochie that life doesn’t stop once you’ve had kids.
“It’s important to demonstrate to her that you should have lots of things in your life that make you happy and this (playing football) makes me very happy.”
The birth of Lochie coincided with the birth of AFLW, something that a number of Haines’ Diamond Creek teammates were a part of.
“I was pregnant and had been planning on being pregnant when everything happened with the AFLW.
“There’s always those ‘what-ifs’.
“What if I wasn’t pregnant might I have had the chance to play potentially, at least have one season?
“But at the same time there was no other option for me but to try and have a baby.
“It was something we really wanted.”
Since returning to footy Haines has juggled her football, work and parenting commitments with the help of her husband Scott and the support of her family.
“Although there are a lot of training sessions, I’m super supported by both my family, my husband’s family and my husband.
“They make it easy for me to feel like I am able to give my all as best as I possibly can to the squad.
“Although sometimes it’s just a bit hard when I haven’t got a baby sitter certain nights and Lochie has to attend our training sessions.”
When asked whether Haines would want Lochie following her footsteps onto the football field, Haines answered with an emphatic yes.
“I’d be super excited.
“It would be a great way for her and I to have something to share together.
“I would feel like I’m being rewarded for the effort I put in by being able to watch my daughter play football happily in a fantastic environment where she is encouraged to do what she can with her footy.”
