Georgia Brougham, captain of Nottingham Forest, was paired with one team-mate after another, asked the same gentle question each time: "What does your partner bring to the team?" It was speed-dating, of a sort — but no romance involved. Instead, Manchester was thousands of miles away as the squad bonded in Canada during their pre-season camp, and one Swedish newcomer told Brougham she had gained "a sister." She felt safe, she said, and free to just be herself.
This is the quieter, stranger side of women's football: the pre-season trips where clubs build teams not with drills and tactics, but with waterfalls, forests, and the occasional mistaken shark. Across the Women's Super League 2, clubs have found wonderfully creative ways to make new signings feel at home before a single league match kicks off.
Sheffield United spent a day playing "Hunted" — a real-life version of the Channel 4 reality show where people work together to avoid being caught in the woods. "We just kind of ran around after each other in the Peak District," laughed Joy Ralph. "It's very similar to the TV show. It was fun!"
At Sunderland, new goalkeeper Fran Stenson, who moved from Southampton this summer, was exploring the coast when she spotted a large fin slicing through the water. She convinced herself it was a shark. "I was like: 'no, am I seeing it right?'" she recalled. Then a man beside her told her to watch the sea properly — and she realised a pod of dolphins was playing in the shallows. It happened on one of her first days at the club, a moment she will not forget.
Wolves took a different route, heading to the Lake District — and there were rumours the players would be plastered in mud. Their manager is in the RAF, and goalkeeper Emily Orman admits everyone feared a punishing military trip. Instead, they abseiled down a waterfall, did a little fitness work, and gathered around campfires. "Some people were concerned about their skin care routine," Orman grinned.
Off the pitch, players are chasing other passions. Orman, on loan from London City Lionesses, has been "indoctrinated" into video games by her boyfriend, who bought her a new computer to lure her in. More seriously, she is developing a love of documentary filmmaking, sparked while she recovered from a wrist injury last season. She spent time as a co-commentator, started a YouTube channel, and now dreams of one day telling stories about women in sport, inspired by Louis Theroux and Stacey Dooley.
These are the moments that quietly build a team: a shared joke in the woods, a pod of dolphins mistaken for sharks, a waterfall conquered together. Long before the serious business of the season, these clubs have already learned something just as important — who their teammates really are.