Swifts star’s unconventional ‘dream’

By Matt Fotia

Schoolies is an Australian rite of passage.  

A week-long period set aside for end of schoolers to let their hair down and celebrate finishing 12 to 13 years of arduous education. 

It’s a week of late nights, early mornings, new friendships, and partying. Not exactly an environment where you rediscover your childhood love of food, fresh produce, and cooking. 

But for associate nutritionist and NSW Swifts defender Teigan O’Shannassy the end of year celebrations did exactly that. 

“I went to schoolies, and I ended up staying with my uncle afterwards, who lived in Byron Bay, and that spark came back,” O’Shannassy said. 

“He grew all his own food, took me to all these farmers markets and I forgot how much that I used to love cooking and nutrition.” 

O’Shannassy had spent a large chunk of her childhood wanting to be a chef. Her aunties showered her with cookbooks and other culinary gifts for her birthdays, but in her teenage years her desire to cook waned. 

Those post-schoolies farmers markets visit have now become a regular feature of O’Shannassy’s life. 

“I love local produce, I love farmers markets and I love the people who go there. It’s a cool environment to be around,” she said. 

“In (netball) season it is obviously harder to go to those farmers markets, but in the off season I’m so excited to go. 

“It’s cool because they do just seasonal produce, which is something I love learning more about. 

“When to use certain foods and trying to be more sustainable.” 

O’Shannassy explained she has spent many a night drifting off to sleep with recipe ideas rolling through her mind. 

“I would always see different recipes and would want to try it, so I would end up cooking dinner most nights at home,” O’Shannassy said of her return to the kitchen. 

“A lot of the time I would make stuff and it would suck, but I would always go to bed thinking about the different recipes I could try.” 

It’s not just other recipes that interest her. Other cultures and methods of cooking sit on her culinary bucket list. 

“I would love to go to Sri Lanka or India and learn about those cooking cultures,” she said. 

“I want to do some more cooking classes, because my actual skills in the kitchen are probably not that good. 

“I just wing things so to learn more about specific cooking styles would be interesting.” 

Like many sports obsessed teenagers, O’Shannassy was drawn towards a Sports Science degree when deciding her next educational step.  

And like a lot of them she discovered the word science does a lot of heavy lifting in that course description. 

“I didn’t like it,” she said. 

“The only subject I really enjoyed was the nutrition one. 

“I had a year off before coming back to study a bachelor of food and nutrition.” 

The move has obviously paid off, but the circle defender couldn’t completely escape the world of science, calling upon a more medically minded teammate to help her through it. 

“I really struggled with all the science aspects,” she said. 

“Kiera Austin used to help me a lot when we were at the GIANTS together, so I owe her for me passing those subjects. 

“I know now that I do still love all the nutritional aspects of it all, especially knowing how to fuel for training and post training. 

“The deep, deep science aspect of it still interests me, but it’s not the main reason I love food.” 

La Trobe University’s Food and Nutrition degree takes three years to complete as a full-time student. It took O’Shannassy five.  

That’s common for athletes, especially ones who are looking to break into the professional system for the majority of their degree, but that balancing act, and a global pandemic, has actually helped O’Shannassy learn more about her own learning styles. 

“It was a definitely a struggle,” she said. 

“During Covid my course was predominantly online which I found a lot easier, I feel like I’m definitely a self-driven learner.  

“We joke about that on the netball court, I really like to walk through drills, rather than someone just telling me something.” 

Being a professional athlete has been a major help when it comes to real world experience for the burgeoning nutritionist, with the Swifts school holiday programs and alike offering O’Shannassy a chance to hone her nutritional craft. 

The 25-year-old holds educational talks for the clubs ‘Train like a Swift’ program, regularly brings in homemade slices and other baked goods for her teammates and works closely with the club dietician.  

Still her relationship with food differs to most of her teammates, who look at food as fuel, rather than a creative outlet. 

“A couple (of Swifts) aren’t the greatest cooks,” jokes O’Shannassy. 

“They can cook, but they don’t love it. 

“I get so excited to go food shopping and make all my meals and I find it funny that other people don’t like doing that. 

“I love cooking and creating recipes. 

“If I meal prep at the beginning of the week, I’ll end up not feeling like that (meal) anymore, so sometimes I end up going to shops multiple times during the week, which probably isn’t the best habit to have.” 

O’Shannassy'S current foray into the world of food-based social media isn’t her first. She and a friend had been operating their own Instagram page dedicated to their favourite dining spots and dishes ever since schoolies. 

Late last year O’Shannassy had begun thinking about producing content for her own personal pages, finally making the jump thanks to a little push from her skipper. 

“At the beginning of last year, I started to think about transitioning onto my own social media, because it was definitely something I wanted to do,” she said. 

“Maddy Proud was encouraging me, telling me: ‘if this is what you want to do, you’ve just got to do it.’ 

Her previous food content had been exclusively imagery. This time around O’Shannassy was keen to dip her toes into the world of video production.  

Armed with a new iPhone she took the plunge and put together her first reel. 

She’s come a long way in her own eyes. 

“I was nervous. I didn’t know how to make the videos and I wasn’t confident about having myself in them,” O’Shannassy said. 

“My first reel I posted was a carrot cake-loaf recipe. 

“I watched it back recently and it wasn’t too bad, but the transitions weren’t very good, and I had the same angle every time.” 

She’s improved her film-making skills, but is always on the lookout for ways to improve her art.  

“I like watching other people’s videos and seeing how they change the camera angles and other aspects, which I’m trying to put into my content as well,” she explained. 

“I’m trying to get myself into the videos more, mixing up between doing a voiceover or using a song.” 

She must be doing something right because her followers continue to grow.  

Her Instagram page recently clicked over 7000 and her TikTok is closing on 2000. 

“People actually like them (the videos), and I wasn’t really expecting that. My following did really kind of jump up when I started posting them,” she said. 

“Helen Housby always shares my content which is helpful because she has such a big presence on social media. 

“I would love to grow my following more and hopefully that will come.” 

Her next artistic step is to show a more realistic side to being a home cook, becoming comfortable with producing a dish that doesn’t always come out looking like a picture. 

“Sometimes I’ll make something, and it won’t look right so I won’t want to post it, but I want to be a bit more real with it and post a few more normal recipes,” O’Shannassy said. 

“At the beginning I was trying to make everything look so good and try and make it all perfect. 

“I want to be a bit more realistic and if I’m just throwing things together just show it how it is and not freaking out it if it doesn’t look good.”  

What is clear in all the Australian Fast5 representative's content is her unbridled love for cooking, and while there are other athletes in the same market, O’Shannassy’s added authority as an accredited nutritionist allows her to cut through with a different angle, adding an athlete's spin to her inner foodie. 

“I feel very creative with that recipe kind of content,” O’Shannassy said. 

“I have an obsession with buying cookbooks. I love just flicking through them, even on Instagram and TikTok, I’ll just scroll through. 

“If I see a few things, I’m like I could make that, but I could change this or I could add that in, so I always get inspired by other people. 

“I look at some recipes and think that would be good, but there’s no protein, or it might be something very low carb. 

“If I’m going to make something like that, obviously I’m an athlete I need carbs, I need protein, so I’ll try and cater to me as a human and as an athlete. 

“I try and explain, I’m having this before training because of x, y, z and after training because of x, y, z. 

“It’s a good spin that I have on it, that I have a nutrition background and lived experience as an athlete.” 

Her nutritional empire continues to grow. She recently launched her website tossed together. 

The website allows visitors to book O’Shannassy for one-on-one nutritional consults, group presentations, netball coaching or an all-inclusive package. You’ll also find a list of recipes for her personal performance snacks and meals. 

“At the end of last year, I was like next year I really want to try and make a website,” she said. 

“(After) graduating, I felt like I could use my nutrition (degree) more seriously. 

“I wanted to have that as an option on my website, where people can book a nutritional consultation or presentation for their local representative team. 

“But I can also share my recipes on there and I just thought it would be cool to have a platform just about me.” 

A snack-based eBook will also be available for purchase soon. 

“I’d seen a lot of other people doing eBooks, so it became something I thought I could do,” she said. 

“It’s been so fiddly. I’m definitely not good at technology, so I’ve had a couple of friends helping me.” 

The website build and eBook development have been a welcome distraction for O’Shannassy during a hectic 2024 season. 

“I love being able to come home and cook or work on my website,” she said. 

“Every time we go to the airport, I’m working on my website, or my eBook and I feel like having that is nice, to be able to do something that I’ll hopefully be doing for a long time. 

“I’m really lucky that I love doing what I’m doing and it’s definitely an escape.” 

Netball is still the number one focus for O’Shannassy, but her off-court dreams are starting to become just as achievable. 

“The big dream would be having a café, selling my cookbook, and doing some nutrition consult works in the background. 

“But definitely having my own cookbook with a hard cover, that would be the dream.”