From World Championships to Hollingsworth's fearless leap into football

07/07/2026

For most athletes, representing Australia would be the pinnacle of a sporting career. For Sunday Hollingsworth, it became the beginning of an entirely new one.

Long before she was pulling on the Sandringham Zebras jumper in the VFLW, Hollingsworth was wearing the green and gold as one of Australia's top trampolinists, competing at two World Championships after years of dedication to a sport that demanded almost everything she had.

Today, she’s still learning the nuances of Australian Rules football, but her rapid rise from local football at Beaumaris in the VAFA to the VFLW has been remarkable.

Ironically, football had always been on her radar.

“I'd always loved footy and always wanted to play, but with trampolining, my training and competition schedule meant I couldn't commit to a club,” Hollingsworth said.

“I was training on Saturdays, so there was never really an opportunity. I played a little bit through school, but because I was competing at a high level, getting injured wasn't an option.”

After spending almost her entire childhood trampolining, Hollingsworth reached a point where she felt ready to move on.

Having started the sport as a five-year-old, she eventually stepped away after achieving the goals she had set herself, taking a year away from organised sport altogether before a friend convinced her to give football a try.

“One of my friends played at Beaumaris and told me to come down because it was relaxed and there wasn't a huge commitment,” she said.
“I went along and realised I genuinely loved it.”

That relaxed environment was exactly what she needed after years of elite competition. Towards the end of her trampolining career, Hollingsworth was training up to nine sessions each week, juggling gym work, morning and afternoon sessions, study and work.

“It became pretty full-on. By the end I was training nine times a week. It was basically my whole life,” Hollingsworth said.

“I was ready for a fresh start, so being able to play local footy just for fun, with friends and without that constant pressure was something I really enjoyed."

Those years of sacrifice, however, had already delivered experiences few athletes ever achieve.

Hollingsworth represented Australia twice at the World Championships, first as a 14-year-old in Russia, before returning years later to compete in Birmingham.

“Getting selected for Australia was surreal. I couldn't believe I'd qualified, let alone making the finals and thinking ‘this is crazy!’” she recalled.

“Wearing the green and gold, travelling overseas with the Australian team and competing against the best in the world is something I'll always be proud of."

While an Olympic campaign was never a realistic expectation Hollingsworth set on herself, competing on the world stage fulfilled her ambitions.

“Representing Australia at the World Championships was always one of my biggest goals,” she said.

“Once I'd done that, I felt like I'd achieved what I wanted to achieve and it was the right time to move on.”

Although she’s left trampolining behind, the sport continues to influence her football. The explosive strength developed over years of elite training has translated well, even if endurance initially proved another challenge entirely.

“Trampolining gave me a really strong strength and power base. I could accelerate and tackle, but my running definitely needed work; I'd sprint for ten metres and then be completely exhausted. Footy is such an aerobic sport, so that's been one of the biggest adjustments,” she explained.

The technical skills may not have transferred directly, but the athletic foundation certainly has.

"My core strength helps and I feel really confident physically when I'm tackling, but otherwise it's been a matter of learning a completely new sport."
That learning curve has been steep. When Hollingsworth first arrived at Beaumaris, she described herself as "pretty ordinary", having only played a handful of school games but as her confidence grew, so too did her ambition.

“In my second season I started improving a lot and my mindset changed,” Hollingsworth said.

“I stopped thinking I was just there to have fun and started thinking that maybe I could become an elite athlete again, just in a different sport.”

That change in mentality quickly paid off. When Sandringham offered her a VFLW contract, she was stunned.

“I was over the moon. To go from only playing footy for a couple of years to being offered a spot in a VFLW program was incredibly exciting. It made me want to work even harder because I felt like they believed I deserved to be there,” Hollingsworth said.

Now surrounded by experienced teammates and coaches, the midfielder credits the environment for accelerating her development: “It's such a great culture. Everyone genuinely wants to help each other improve, and training has real purpose and intensity. Being around players at this level has made me a much better footballer.”

Her first VFLW goal recently became another milestone in an already unusual sporting journey.

“I just grabbed the ball and thought, 'I'm in range, I'm going to have a shot.' I got tackled as I kicked it, so I didn't even see whether it went through,” Hollingsworth reflected on the momentous occasion.

“I got up and everyone was hugging me, and I realised I'd actually kicked it. It was such a cool moment.”

Perhaps the biggest adjustment has been moving from an individual sport, where every result rested solely on her own performance, to the shared responsibility of football.

“In trampolining, if you made a mistake, it was completely on you. If you did well, that was also on you,” Hollingsworth said.

“Sometimes I still catch myself thinking like that in footy, but I'm learning that it's a team game. We're all in it together and everyone contributes.”

For someone who once thought her elite sporting career had ended, Hollingsworth is only just getting started.

With every game, every contest and every training session, the former world championship trampolinist continues proving that talent, resilience and a willingness to embrace something new can take an athlete much further than they ever imagined.

Written by Casey McGuire - Sandringham FC Media