Ellyse Perry

You think so?

I think sport's always been part of my life.

Mum and dad were both incredibly sporty growing up and just, you know, active lifestyles, I suppose.

So I've got an older brother and, you know, from earliest memories, my childhood was just being outdoors at a local park, learning to ride a bike, climbing trees, you know, throwing and catching and kicking a ball, all those kinds of things, but mainly just for fun and enjoyment and, you know, as a part of our family life rather than anything else.

Which part of Australia?

Mostly on the North Shore of Sydney.

I think about the conscious effort that my parents would have made, which I think at the time I certainly wasn't aware of, just how much time and energy mum and dad spent making sure that we were outdoors and being active and also being involved with us.

My dad taught me how to...

to catch and throw and kick.

Um, you know, he used to take me to the nets down at the local park with my brother and show me how to, how to bat as well.

It's something that, you know, I've done all the way through my life with dad.

Um, so I think like they were very conscious of us, like learning to use our bodies and, um,

be physically active and mum worked pretty hard and long hours, but she'd get home and the first thing she'd do would put some running shoes on and like take us down to the park with our bikes or something like that.

So I think, yeah, in some respects it was just a choice that they made or, you know, something that was really important to their values.

I mean, I think it's certainly, to what you're saying there, inherently linked with our culture in many respects.

I think we're also incredibly fortunate with the environment and temperature that we have most of the year round, but the natural landscape.

But there definitely seems to be a psyche part of that as well, I think, in terms of the way that we compete and play in sport, much the same as New Zealand in a lot of respects.

Yeah.

There is something about when we step on a field that I think, as an Australian, you just have this psyche of wanting to compete, to be gritty, to be amongst it.

There's definitely that sense, I think.