Joanne Butland is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n who has played association football, Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 and international rules football

International rules football

International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....

.

Club career

Butland played in the Women's National Soccer League

Women's National Soccer League

The Women’s National Soccer League was Australia's top women's football league and was the breeding ground of many of Australia's world-class players....

 for Canberra Eclipse and QAS Sting.

International career

She played four matches for the Australia women's national association football team

Australia women's national association football team

The Australia women's national association football team, nicknamed the Matildas , represents Australia in international women's association football and is governed by Football Federation Australia . The team has regularly qualified for both the Women's World Cup and the Olympics although has won...

 in 1999 and 2000.

Australian rules football

After changing sports at the suggestion of her sister-in-law she soon became a star for North Cairns in the AFL Cairns Women's League. She was the league Best and Fairest

Best and Fairest

Best and Fairest is the term commonly used in Australian sport to describe the player adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition while not receiving a suspension for misconduct or breaching the rules during that season.In the...

 four times in five years between 2003 and 2008. She was selected in the All-Australian team between 2005 and 2007. She was, as of 2009, player-coach of North Cairns.

International rules football

In 2006 she was part of the first Australian women's international rules football

International rules football

International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....

 team to tour Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.