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On the back of Friday’s AFLW Rookie Draft, the husband and wife duo of Marc and Lisa Webb quickly became Freo’s new power couple.
Lisa, an elite runner who’s quickly taken to the game, has joined Fremantle’s senior development coach Marc at Fremantle, and will be looking to build in her first season of football where she won the best first year player award at the Coastal Titans.
But there’s a case to say that neither Lisa or Marc are the most-footy obsessed member in their family, with two and a half year old Ollie already taking to the game.
“Marc and I play kick-to-kick and he already tries to chase us and run us down,” Lisa Webb said.
“He loves football. He goes ‘mama football’ and it’s just part of the vocab now for him.
“He loves going to footy. If he sees me pick up my training bag and leave, he thinks he’s missing out.”
To an outsider, Ollie seems like a regular two-year-old, but a carefree childhood wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Telethon Speech and Hearing.
Through the organisation’s support, Ollie was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss three days after birth and 15 months later with Pendred Syndrome.
Lisa spoke to Regina Titelius of The Sunday Times about the crucial role Telethon Speech and Hearing have played in enabling Ollie to grow up with as few restrictions from his condition as possible.
“They’re fantastic with their support of us, we go there every week and they help us with all of his needs, which is really good,” Webb said.
“If we didn’t have their support, Ollie wouldn’t have been diagnosed.
“If he didn’t have that, which was the case five or ten years ago, to get that early intervention was absolutely pivotal for Ollie and his development at such a young age.”
Outside of playing football with his parents, Lisa says her son is enjoying socialising and making friends with kids his age.
“He’s dealing remarkably well. He’s at day-care and he lives a pretty normal life,” Webb said.
“He’s very charismatic and very cheeky. He’s an energetic little two and a half year old, he’s coming along and hitting all of his milestones and then some.
“He’s got a great little personality, a couple of days a week at UWA early learning and he thrives in that environment with his friends and he’s got great support and he just loves it.”