Lilian Reynolds moves to Queensland to chase her soccer dream

The 14-year-old moved to Queensland earlier this year, joining her sister Amelia in the Sunshine State after being accepted into Kelvin Grove State College and Brisbane City Football Club.

"In July last year, I came up to see my sister and I did a training session at Kelvin Grove. I was told it was a really good school for this football program," Lilian said.

"I decided to trial there and almost immediately they offered me a spot, so that was really exciting.

"After a lot of consideration, I decided I wanted to come up and it was a huge decision."

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It was a decision that the former Launceston Grammar student didn't think she'd ever make, describing it as "heartbreaking" to leave her friends behind but Lilian knows she has their support.

"If you'd asked me in grade six or seven whether I wanted to come up when Amelia moved up to train in ballet, I would have been like 'absolutely not'.

"But now, with Mum and Amelia's support here, it's just been so much easier - I couldn't do it without them.

"I'm very grateful that they are up here and Dad, we FaceTime all the time still."

Kelvin Grove's Football Excellence Program sees Lilian train four times a week during school time as an elective subject, while her Brisbane City commitments are three nights a week, with games to be played on weekends.

Playing for City in NPL Queensland's under-16 pre-season games, she is ready to tackle her schedule.

"It's been pretty jam-packed this week starting the football program at Kelvin Grove," she said.

"So far my body is doing alright, I think I'll be able to manage, I'll just have to eat really well.

"I'm thankful that I started training and playing a game at Brisbane City before I trained at Kelvin Grove because I got my fitness back into check and eased me back into it before having a big workload."

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Setting her goals for the season as training hard, working hard and progressing, the Oceania Cup-winning NTJSA representative is also studying the game regularly

Having the A-League on hand to view has already been crucial for the up-and-comer's game sense.

"I've already watched one night, they had a A-League Women's game followed by a Men's and just watching in person is very different to the TV, so it's really good to be able to watch one player," she said

"I noticed one of the men, he was constantly checking behind his shoulder heaps, and that's something my coaches have been telling me so I can relate that back to when I'm watching these players and it's definitely going to be a big part of my development, to be studying the game a lot more."

The mainland move marks the next step in a soccer journey that's already been storied despite Lilian's young age.

Starting in under-6s, she played many sports to find her passion before identifying soccer as the main love at the end of grade four, where basketball and AFL went to the wayside.

Training almost every night of the week then, she became the first female player to win the Northern Tasmanian Junior Soccer Association's Tom Strickland Scholarship Award in 2019 and followed that up by winning the Youth Girls player of the camp at a four-day session in Canberra.

Last year was meant to see her represent Tasmania on the national stage at the under-14 championships but as COVID intervened, she had to settle for an intrastate representative game for the North and North-West side which went down to the Southern team 3-1 in October.

Having met and been coached by plenty of people around Tasmania, Lilian was quick to thank them.

"I'm so incredibly thankful for all the people that have coached and supported me over the years and I still talk to many of them - I like to consider them mentors," she said.

"Having Tassie behind my back is incredible and I know that, with all their support, I can reach my potential."

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