This month Belmont’s Mel Staunton will compete in the Australian Longboard Titles. She spoke to Matt Hewson about her sporting aspirations and taking hold of life’s opportunities.
At 20 years of age, Mel Staunton is right where she wants to be.
Captain of the Geelong Cats VFLW side, Mel will travel to the Tweed Coast this week to attempt to regain the women’s Australian Longboard national title, which she first won in 2022 as a 17-year-old.
And while she will leave no stone unturned in her quest to discover the limits of her abilities, Mel is making a conscious effort to enjoy the ride.
“To be honest, the last couple of years I’ve been very much destination driven, not process driven,” Mel said.
“The biggest learning over the last couple of years has been to actually enjoy the now, because the destination won’t be worth it if I’m just skipping through all these steps; I have to enjoy what I’m doing.
“That’s been a huge, huge shift in my mindset since being down here (in Geelong), just actually relishing it, enjoying the hiccups, the ups and downs.
“I picture life as kind of like building your Lego house. You’re just placing little blocks down, one by one. So I’m really starting to enjoy just placing those blocks.
“I know that I can be the best of the best. I know I can achieve those dreams. It’s just a matter of enjoying the road there.”
Mel grew up in the town of Ulladulla on NSW’s South Coast, where surfing was a common recreational activity.
“I was given a surfboard when I was about four by my parents for Christmas and that was kind of it,” Mel said.
“Every afternoon after school I just wanted to go surfing, and I just caught the bug.”
Surfing was a male-dominated sport, which Mel found “a little bit daunting” at times, but it wasn’t enough to deter her.
“After joining the Mollymook Longboarders, the female support network grew massively in the surf, which was amazing to see,” she said.
“When I was starting out I’d be the only female out in the surf. Then fast track five, seven years, there would be times where there was one guy out and the water was filled with females, which was incredible.”
Similarly, Mel didn’t let issues of gender keep her away from her other favourite sport, Australian Rules football.
“(Rugby) league is probably a bit more dominant in New South Wales than AFL, but there was a competition running, so I was like, why not?” she said.
“I used to play with the boys from under nines to under 15s, and I loved it. I just wanted to play footy with the boys out on the oval at lunchtime.
“And I think growing up with two brothers definitely helped… one older, one younger. I have been pushed and shoved around from a young age anyway, so it was something that didn’t really faze me much.”
Juggling her twin loves of footy and surfing posed challenges, but Mel did everything she could to make both work.
She remembers her mother with the engine running as she ran out of the surf after finishing a surfing comp heat, jumping in the car and struggling out of her wetsuit as they began the hour-long drive to make it on the footy oval for the second half of a match.
However, like many girls, Mel hit a wall when she turned 15, as support for junior girls footy stopped in her area after under 15s.
For a while she simply focused on surfing, but before too long one of the Ulladulla coaches began driving Mel two and a half hours to Canberra to train.
“That was for about two years, so I could be in a development program with the (Greater Western Sydney) Giants Academy,” she said.
At 17, Mel reached a turning point. She had moved to Sydney to attend the academy, but she also won the national women’s longboarding title, qualifying for the world titles the following year in El Salvador.
She decided instead to commit solely to football, especially since she was entering her draft year, and focused on preparing for the under 18s All Australian game.
“It’s the biggest game of the year… I think the Aussie titles were two weeks before it, so I was pumped up and ready to go,” Mel said.
“I knew it was an opportunity to get under scouters’ eyes, and I just wanted to go out there and have fun and play good footy.”
She did just that, being named best on ground for the match.
Unfortunately, the All Australian match was Mel’s last game for the season, as she struggled with shin splints in both legs, ruling her out of any further games.
“I was affiliated with the Giants Academy, so I worked quite tirelessly under them leading up to the draft, had a lot of interest from clubs, but then come draft night I slipped through the ranks and didn’t get that opportunity,” Mel said.
“That hurt, that was a bit tough, to be honest. I didn’t get that opportunity, but that kind of opened another door for me to move to Victoria.”
Last year Mel was at Carlton as part of the club’s VFLW program, playing six games for the Blues and scoring three goals from the midfield.
She also returned to the national longboard titles in the same year, coming second to champion Tully White. That qualified her for the international titles this year, where she ended up claiming 25th in the world.
Last last year Mel made the move to Geelong, joining the Cats for preseason.
“I think they saw how much potential I had, in terms of I’m a competitor, my physicality around the contest, but also my ability to execute on the scoreboard (as a midfielder),” she said.
“Pre-season was from November to March, and at the time there was no talk of leadership. We just wanted to grow as a group and build that culture and connection.
“It was not my intention to walk in and be captain; I just wanted to have a consistent year, injury free.
“But when leadership popped up, I was fortunate enough to get voted captain by the group. I think that’s the only recognition you need, from your teammates, so I was quite honoured to be given this role.”
Apart from the temperature of the water (“freezing, absolutely freezing”), Mel is enjoying life in Geelong.
She works with aged care company Mercy Health, surfs as often as she can at Point Impossible and 13th Beach, and captains her football side in a city that loves the Cats.
And while Mel is doing her best to live in the now, she has a deep-seated belief in her ability to realise her two biggest dreams.
“When people ask me what I want to achieve in life and I straight up say world champion (longboarder), AFLW, they give a little giggle… but I have so much confidence in myself to be able to achieve those things,” she said.
“Why limit myself? I take what I do quite seriously, because… I never want to be 80, sitting back having a cup of tea and a Scotch Finger biscuit, thinking ‘geez, I wish I did this, I wish I did that’.
“So I’m on a path at the moment where I take every opportunity I get given, relish it, enjoy it and just keep striving to achieve those two things.”
