Football Ferns youngster Claudia Bunge makes the jump to W-League

“After we came home from that World Cup, my main goal was to make the Football Ferns and it’s something that I worked on every day, and I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to come here [to Melbourne] and I’m just really grateful to be here.”

Bunge was one of four players from the starting XI versus France to land their first professional contract in Australia’s W-League this season, joining Canberra United’s Paige Satchell and Perth Glory duo Liz Anton and Malia Steinmetz by signing for Victory.

Victory assistant Gareth Turnbull coached New Zealand at the 2018 World Cup and recommended Bunge to the club’s head coach Jeff Hopkins on the back of her breakout 12 months, after the 21-year-old made her Football Ferns debut and was recognised as NZ Football’s women’s young player of the year last year.

“I guess I’ve got him to thank for that,” she said.

“With everything going on in the world right now, the W-League isn’t getting the usual internationals that they would be getting from America, so my connection with Gareth has really worked in my favour, and the current state with Covid-19 has allowed not just me but there’s six or seven other girls from New Zealand over here at the moment.”

Bunge has been an ever-present figure in Victory’s starting XI in her first season, after overcoming a pre-existing quad complaint. She has played every minute of the team’s first six games, three of which they have won.

She even managed to score her first goal in a 4-2 win over Newcastle Jets last weekend, but only just.

The goalkeeper got a glove to it, but the ball had already dribbled across the line from Bunge’s far post header.

“I’m just glad it went over the line because the previous week we had something similar happen in Adelaide and they didn’t give us the goal. I headed it and just watched it go over the line, and we were all screaming. But I’m just glad they gave it to us.

“More often than not I score with my head rather than my feet but that was my first professional goal which was kind of cool. It was a good feeling when all the girls were getting around me.”

Bunge played for Glenfield Rovers and Northern Lights in Auckland prior to joining Victory and said the speed of the W-League has been the most noticeable difference from the amateur game in New Zealand.

“It’s a massive step up. I remember saying to Flea [Kiwi team-mate Annalie Longo] ‘wow I feel like I’ve just played an international game’. It’s really fast-paced and the thing I’ve noticed the most is across the whole 90 minutes, it’s fast the whole time.

“Back home you’d get a few spells where it’d be a bit more relaxed but here the full 90 it’s all go.”

Turnbull first coached Bunge in the New Zealand under-17 team, when she played right-back, and said her willingness to improve was evident early on in her career.

He said she has really begun to flourish as a centre-back and has the ground running in the W-League, just like she did on her international debut for the Football Ferns in 2019.