Hana Lowry: Why player-controlled highlights are becoming more important

About the author
Hana Lowry, 22, is a midfielder for A-League Women side Sydney FC. During her recovery from an ACL injury, Lowry began working with PFA Australia to edit highlight reels for fellow professional players.

By Hana Lowry

When you’re out for a long period with an ACL injury, football doesn’t just stop physically. You can feel disconnected from the game completely.

Rehab takes up so much of your life. Mentally it can be just as challenging as the physical side. During that time, I was looking for ways to stay involved in football and that’s when I started editing highlight reels for players through PFA Australia.

It came from something simple: I saw an article from the PFA about an A-League men’s player who was helping them make highlight videos and I thought it would be something I’d enjoy. I’ve always been interested in video editing, as well as the analytical side of football, so I reached out and asked if there were any opportunities to help.

I ended up doing a lot of the A-League Women’s players and a few men’s players as well. It was the first actual work I’d done with the PFA, even though we already had a lot of communication as players, especially during my rehab with things like insurance and support.

Most of the highlight reels are longer-form videos for players to send to clubs and some are also used on YouTube. At the start of each video there’s a short bio with the player’s club history, appearances and position, and then the video is usually about five minutes long. The clip order depends on position: defenders’ reels begin with defensive actions, while forwards’ begin with attacking ones.

The process starts when a player reaches out to the PFA requesting a highlight reel as part of their union membership. The PFA uses a system that cuts every touch the player gets on the ball and they send me the whole file. Sometimes it could be a couple of hundred clips.

From there, I sort everything into attacking and defensive moments, then into folders I call “yes”, “no” and “maybe”. At the end, I edit the “yes” clips into a highlight video.

The first thing I always look at is the player’s position. From there, I think about what attributes matter most in that role and what that player is like: what their strengths are, what makes them unique. If a coach or scout is watching, you want them to see what kind of player they’re actually getting.

As a midfielder, I think it helps having a footballer do the editing. You understand what makes a clip good, and what might not look flashy but is impressive from a football point of view.

In modern football especially, clubs value both attacking and defensive qualities. Sometimes it’s the smaller details that are most important – awareness, first touch, recovery runs, positioning – things that might not seem highlight-worthy to a general audience but really show a player’s quality.

Stats don’t always tell the full story either. As a midfielder, you might not get as much attention if you’re not getting assists, but you could have played 10 passes in behind that should’ve resulted in goals. A highlight video can show everything in a way numbers can’t.

That’s why I think player-controlled highlights are becoming more important.

With social media now, certain players and positions naturally get more attention: usually the ones scoring goals. Others can be doing important on-pitch work that doesn’t get seen.

Highlight reels allow players to express their qualities that might not show up in media coverage or statistics. It gives players a way to tell their own football story.

I didn’t realise earlier in my career how much control players can actually have.

I used to think it was always clubs reaching out or you needed an agent to find you a team. But now a lot of players are taking it into their own hands: getting highlight packages made and sending them directly to clubs.

Younger players especially are becoming proactive in that space. I know people who clip their games every week, so when they need a highlight video, they’ve already got one ready to go. It’s becoming bigger.

I also think it makes a difference that a footballer is putting these reels together. A generic editor might just look for goals or flashy moments, but players appreciate the smaller details. If I were getting a highlight reel of myself and it only showed goals and assists, I’d feel like it wasn’t fully capturing me as a player. Including those little things in the edit shows a much more accurate picture.

Doing this work was especially meaningful during my ACL recovery. When you’re out for such a long time, you can feel disconnected from football. Editing highlights helped me stay connected to the league and made me feel like I was still helping players even though I wasn’t on the pitch.

It was also perfect around rehab because it was flexible. All I needed was my laptop and I could do it whenever I had free time.

My ACL recovery taught me a lot. Physically, I tried to use it as an opportunity to get stronger. During a normal season you’re mostly maintaining but having that long period gave me time to really work on myself and come back better.

Mentally, it taught me to celebrate small wins. When you’re injured, things like walking again, running again and jumping again feel huge. Almost like scoring a goal.

It also helped me find balance off the pitch. I got to spend more time with family and realised there are a lot of things outside football too. Editing highlight reels became part of that balance. For me, it turned a tough period into something positive, while helping other players take more control over their careers.

Football is changing. Players don’t have to wait to be seen anymore. They can show exactly who they are, what they’re good at and what they bring to a team.

All it takes is five minutes of the right moments, put together by someone who understands the game, to potentially open the next door in a career.