{"id":364881,"date":"2024-02-02T10:05:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T11:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364881"},"modified":"2024-02-02T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T23:04:09","slug":"grand-daughter-of-ex-league-star-lighting-up-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364881","title":{"rendered":"Grand-daughter of ex-league star lighting up football"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grand-daughter of tragic 1970s rugby league<\/a> star Paul Hayward is keeping the family sporting tradition alive – but in the round-ball game.<\/p>\n

Paige Hayward has been starring for the Central Coast Mariners<\/a> and scored her first goal for the club last Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

But ironically, Paige, 28, wanted to follow in her grand-dad's footsteps and play league – but was barred by her parents.<\/p>\n

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\"Paige<\/p>\n

"I'm too young to have known my grandfather but I saw him on some old videos and he looked a really good player," Paige told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"My two brothers played league and I was desperate to do the same \u2026 I begged my parents \u2026 but the pathway wasn't as good for girls back then, so I turned my hand to soccer – and here I am."<\/p>\n

Paul Hayward was a classy five-eighth for the Newtown Jets in the 1970s but made world headlines for all the wrong reasons in 1978 when he was found guilty by a Thai court of attempting to smuggle heroin back to Australia. Hayward, then at the peak of his league career, received a 30-year sentence, but was released in 1989 after receiving a royal pardon. He was allowed to return to Australia.<\/p>\n

Tragically, he died from an alleged heroin overdose in Sydney in 1992, aged just 38.<\/p>\n

"It's sad what happened to him – and I never got to know him," Paige said.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

A skilled midfielder, Paige has had a busy time making it to the A-League Women<\/a> competition.<\/p>\n

She played college football in Texas for five years, then honed her skills in Europe and was with Adelaide United last season.<\/p>\n

"I've moved around a lot and it's great to be back closer to family and friends in Sydney," Paige said.<\/p>\n

"The Mariners have been great and scoring my first goal this week was exciting.<\/p>\n

"We are in fifth place at the moment and the top six go through to the finals so we have to keep winning. The pressure is on."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The grand-daughter of tragic 1970s rugby league star Paul Hayward is keeping the family sporting tradition alive – but in the round-ball game. Paige Hayward […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=364881"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364886,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364881\/revisions\/364886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/364883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}