Describe an average day during the season.

AB: An early wake up from [daughter] Zala, drop her off at family day care at 8am and then go and do my workout, an individual and a weights session. Then pick Zala up at 12pm, relax in the afternoon and back to dropping her off to the nanny the Capitals provide at 3pm, then off to team training at 4pm.

NB: I'll get up at 6.30am and get ready for work at the Lyneham Post Office laundromat, go to work from 8am to 1pm and then do a gym session. I finished university [bachelor of environmental science] two weeks ago. I'd have uni work to do and then go to training.

How do you feel about the media coverage of women's sport?

AB: We're lucky in Canberra with the media coverage we get but in terms of nationwide, definitely people need to have their eyes open about female elite athletes. We do need that coverage in newspapers and TV to give people that understanding about women's sport, the professionalism and what goes on behind the scenes. I think we deserve just as much coverage as anyone else. I'm not sure how you pitch it to them, but a lot of people do appreciate the women's games, it's just a case of getting other people on board.

NB: Often sports stars are portrayed as glamorous and make a lot of money. Not just female athletes but amateur athletes have to have full-time jobs to pay the bills as well. The best way to convince [media] is to continually improve the standard of the league. We're seeing the quality increase in the W-League over the years and we're getting more people interested.

Can you envisage a time where there's enough money in women's sport to be fully professional?

AB: I think it's still a long way away, but I hope that day comes. The majority of the girls work full-time or part-time, or study as well. It's not easy to do that. Some of the girls walk up to training so exhausted after a full day of work. I don't think it's around the corner, but I definitely think in the future it will be happening. The Canberra Capitals are definitely trying to push forward in that direction and make it a professional environment. Some girls at the moment can't do any extras [at training] because they literally work from 6am-3pm and go straight to training. It would be such a wonderful thing for the game, we'd be able to get out in the community a lot more and do other things for other organisations.

NB: I certainly hope so. It gets a bit tough when you've got exams on the go at the same time. You might turn up to training and your mind's elsewhere because you've got a report to submit in three hours and you haven't done it. When I was playing in Sweden a couple of years ago, it was really nice to just concentrate solely on football. I was able to train a lot more and could rest a lot more. I would hope the players, if they're getting a professional wage, would show up with a professional attitude.

Is it frustrating seeing the inequality compared with professional men's sports?

AB: It is, but at the end of the day it's always been like that and it's never going to change in terms of the comparison between male and female pay cheques. If we can bridge the gap a little bit it is going to help us have a foot in the door once they finish basketball. Some girls get paid pocket change, others get a pair of shoes and then some are getting a great salary. Regardless of talent and who's better than who, there still should be a base salary, not one extreme to the other.

NB: There's guys who've gone before and done the hard yards and that's what we should look at. How did they get their sports to the level it's at now? Hopefully in 10 or 15 years' time, the girls following behind us have the same luxury the Brumbies and the Raiders have.

Do you think having a minimum base salary is a good idea?

AB: I think it's really important, it gives them a bit of compensation for all the hard work they do. I hope one day soon that is put in place. As a fully-paid professional athlete I definitely look at all the other girls and wish they were paid on a base salary. There isn't anything like that in the league, but hopefully in the future something like that is put in place. I look at the girls when they come to training exhausted after work and think 'wow, I am lucky'. I've also worked really hard for it but at the same time it's almost unfair. I'm not saying we should all be paid the same, that doesn't make sense, but for some of the girls who get paid a pair of shoes for all the hard work they put in, it's no different to all the hard work I put in. At the end of the day it's not my fault, hopefully something can be put in place so it's fairer. I definitely know there's a couple of girls who get a gym membership and a pair of shoes, from the top to the bottom it's quite extreme.

NB: It's all dependent on what each club can provide, because they're all different. There's some W-League clubs who pay every player the same amount of money and there's others who pay in tier brackets. There's also some kids in there who wouldn't get anything. We're not really at a stage where we can have a base. But with consistent seasons we can get to a competitive level of football where wages could be our next point of call. Heather [Reid, ✓Capital Football boss] is pretty good in how she takes care of experienced players and also doesn't like to leave the young players wanting. When I was growing up you always got a little bit in your pocket to cover costs. As you put in the hard yards and contribute more to the team, you generally get rewarded for that. Again, it's not huge amounts of money but everything counts. It's always good to have that bit extra to cover petrol to get to training.

How will cuts to ABC coverage of women's sport affect it? How important is broadcasting of your leagues?

AB: Obviously it's really big. People won't want to sponsor us if they can't get their brand out there. We've been lucky to have the ABC on board for so many years and it's devastating for the sport. One person watches a TV game and they fall in love with it and come to the games. It's about people seeing the product and getting more people involved in the game. If there's less money the WNBL's not going to attract as many high-quality players we have in the league at the moment. Not having TV where we can get sponsors is only going to be a burden for us and the league. You can't play basketball forever and you've got to try and set yourself up. I'd do what's best for Zala and myself at the time, and if the money wasn't right here I'd have to go offshore. I love playing in Canberra and I hope we can get picked up by another TV station.

NB: It's very important, especially for the W-League. Working at the post office you get so many customers who say 'I watched the game on the ABC'. It'd be great to get people down to the game, but not everyone wants to watch a full game of women's football. The fact there's no live streaming hurts us. There's no global exposure to it. The ABC's been fantastic for us, but can we start exposing it not to Australia, but everywhere else? You may attract more international players to come play, you might not, it'd be interesting to see.

Do you think ABC will reconsider if ratings improve?

AB: Scrolling through my Facebook feed I've seen so many sharing the articles and there's a petition to sign up. We want everyone to tune into the ABC and watch the soccer girls on Sunday to prove a point. It's sad, but at the same time there will be other positives come out of it.

NB: 100 per cent. We've got a product to sell and the more people watch, the more TV companies who see the numbers will know there's people who watch the product.

SUNDAY

WNBL: Canberra Capitals v Melbourne Boomers at Tuggeranong Basketball Stadium, 1pm

W-League: Canberra United v Perth Glory at Viking Park, Tuggeranong, 3pm