As she has already hinted this A-League
Women season, the midfielder holds rare attributes that set her apart
With fewer than 60 seconds remaining in regular time of Brisbane Roar’s clash with Melbourne Victory, Natalie Tathem – making her return from a 12-month ACL injury – drove down the right flank before delivering a low cross that Shea Connors, just, reached first to bundle over the goal line. After being 2-0 down at half-time from an own-goal and a fortunate Lynn Williams effort, the Queenslanders were finally on the right side of a late comeback, with a 3-2 lead that soon turned into 4-2 after Norrie added a 96th-minute sealer.
In the aftermath of Connors’s goal, however, as the rest of her teammates moved back into position for kick-off, the lone, diminutive figure of Katrina Gorry hobbled off: spent after putting in a player-of-the-match performance that had not only inspired the Roar to their first win of the season but reminded everyone that, for all the excitement surrounding a new generation of Matildas being brought through by Tony Gustavsson, a potential answer to the national team’s midfield predicament may lie in the re-establishment of the 2014 AFC women’s player of the year.