Ruth Wallace has had an incredibly diverse sporting career and between these commitments, has also found time to study teaching at Flinders University and mentor Aboriginal youth in state schools. 

In 2008 and 2009, Wallace played soccer for the “Junior Matildas” (u/16s). In one game against Singapore, she scored a hat trick for Australia. In the same game, current Australian Matilda and Arsenal player Caitlin Foord scored six goals for Australia. Wallace also played in the W-League for Adelaide United’s “Lady Reds” between 2008-2014. 

In 2014, at the age of 21, Wallace became the first SA indigenous athlete of the Indigenous Marathon Project, to run at the iconic New York Marathon. In the same year, she was also appointed as Adelaide United’s first Central Australian Ambassador. 

Wallace then switched codes from soccer to football, along with other soccer converts at Norwood including Marijana Rajcic, Cassie Tsoumbris and Kristi Harvey. In 2016, Wallace started playing football at the Adelaide University Football Club. In her second year, Wallace was a member of the Adelaide University Women’s Division 1 Premiership Team in the Adelaide Football League, playing alongside many other Norwood footballers including her Norwood premiership team mates Sophie Li, Nicola Burns, Matilda Van Riel, Whitney Benson, Kayla Edwards, Georgia Taylor, Ruth Wallace and Ebony O’Dea. Norwood Assistant Coach Tess Baxter was also an Assistant Coach of Adelaide University. Wallace won the Best on Ground medal in the 2016 Grand Final, and was the Leading Goalkicker for the whole competition in that season too (33 goals).

Wallace then joined Norwood in 2017. A quick half forward who could also be swung into a half back role, Wallace played in Norwood’s first game which was also the SANFLW competition’s first game. A proud member of the Wuthathi people of Cape York, Wallace also became the first female Indigenous footballer for Norwood and the SANFLW, a premiership player for Norwood that year, and was the leading goalkicker for both Norwood and the SANFLW with 11 goals. 

At the end of 2017, Wallace was drafted by the Adelaide Football Club for the 2018 season. That year, she shared club’s goalkicking title with Erin Phillips. Unfortunately, Wallace had to sit out the 2019 and 2020 football seasons for personal reasons, and then she retired.

Wallace returned to football with Blackfriars OS in Women’s Division 3 in 2021, and Division 2 in 2022. She last played football back at her original club at Adelaide University in 2023, once more in Division 1. 

Chris Brown, October 2024