A couple of converts

Neither of my parents knew anything about footy, especially my dad. He knew nothing.

Mum didn’t really care when I told her I wanted to start playing footy – she was like 'do whatever you want' – but dad was probably less keen. I don’t think he really understood at that stage, so he gave me a bit of stick, but he’s come around now.

He’s very into basketball so he uses a lot of that language and tries to relate everything back to that – zones, positions, all that. It often sounds like he’s talking about a basketball game, but it’s footy!

Mum is actually a bit of a fanatic now. She never used to follow it, but during lockdown I caught her watching a lot of the men’s games and she’s always reading the articles about the girls.

She often is more up to date than me about what’s happening in the AFLW – she knew who we were playing before I even did for Round 3.

A fine balancing act

When I was in primary school, we had a girls’ footy competition. I always played in it, and for inter-school sport I played in the boys’ team. I always wanted to play footy at a club growing up, but I was never really allowed to.

Once I finished school and I had my license, one of my friends had taken up footy so I decided to join her at St Kilda Sharks.

I was doing my best to balance it with my basketball – I was playing in the Big V Youth League at the same time – so I’d play footy when I could fit it around my basketball games.

It was strange, but I would play in whatever team didn’t have a game the same day as basketball. If none of them did, I wouldn’t play that week.

From there, I fluked it and then got drafted to Carlton, really.

Delisted, passed, signed (eventually)

Tell you what, I was very surprised when I got picked for the first ever AFLW game in 2017. I'd only played seven games at any level before getting the call-up for Round 1.

Back when I was at the Blues, I would get home at about 11 o’clock at night coming all the way back from Ikon Park to home. I probably told mum and dad when they were half-asleep in bed!

I played seven more games before being delisted. I went back to the Sharks in the VFLW, but all the licenses were going to other clubs and the Sharks ended up losing theirs at the end of the year.

I ended up being one of the only ones – there weren’t many – who ended up playing VFLW for the Southern Saints. I remember going down and having a meeting with Peta Searle, and I couldn’t decide which club I wanted to play for – I’d spoken to a few.

In the end, I put all the different club names all on bowls full of food and let my dog, Indi, pick which one I’d go to. I would have gone to the Saints regardless, that was just more of a funny thing that I did.

I had a pretty good season and got invited to the draft and didn’t get picked, and then a few weeks later it got called into this Southern Saints meeting with Pete and Jamie Cox…

I thought I was getting delisted again.

Making history

Pete had texted me. It was really mysterious saying if I could come into a meeting before training, and I could immediately tell something was a bit suss.

I remember getting there and I was a little bit late – no reason, was just a little late – and they were already sitting down in the room waiting. They were a bit more dressed up and put together than usual, and Coxy – our Head of Women’s Football – was in there.

After being delisted at Carlton and then missing out on the draft, my mind just went to the worst-case scenario.

They were talking for so long as well, just recapping my career and talking about everything that I’d done.

I was thinking ‘this is like a eulogy’, but it ended up being alright when I was told I was going to be the first AFLW player signed to St Kilda.

The whole thing was being filmed with a GoPro in the corner of the room and I didn’t realise. I was so awkward watching back, just saying ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ the whole time thinking ‘get to the point!’.

Now I’ve always got my eye out for GoPros in the corners...

The second-chance Saint

I was a bit blown away at how far the competition had come in the two years I didn’t play.

I would often think ‘gees they’re giving us so much more than what we got in this first year’ and getting to do it with a great group of girls made it that little bit more special.

To again play again – let alone in the Saints’ first game – was super cool. You wouldn’t expect that it would come close to playing the first ever game at Ikon Park against Collingwood in 2017, but gees, it did.

The other thing that sticks out would be beating Melbourne for our first win in Round 3. The siren went and me and Priesty jumped on each other and had a hug and then the whole team was just… it was so exciting.

Everyone in the crowd were super excited as well, and then in the weeks after, people back in the media would be saying ‘they’re an up-and-coming team, there’s something good about the Saints’ and stuff, so that was pretty cool.

Willow the Weimaraner

I’d been on a waiting list for six months, and the week before we went into lockdown – just by coincidence – I got my pup, Willow.

We had an older dog Indi. She was 16 and she passed away a few months ago... you definitely feel a bit of a gap in your life. Without Willow, we’d all have been pretty lonely.

Willow didn’t miss a day’s walk for the first nine months of her life. When I had to go back to work, she had so much energy I just couldn’t tire her out.

Nadia got her dog, Norman, right after I got Willow, so we used to see each other when they were pups and we’ve caught up for walks regularly ever since.

We went camping a few weeks ago and took the dogs, and they’re all best friends… well, Willow’s a bit scared of Nacho...

A special bond

I mainly hang around Kate, Nadia and Poppy. We all live in the same area, so we often catch up and walk the dogs. The defenders are a really tight crew too, so I think we’ve all got a bit of a special bond with each other.

Tilly’s been one of my friends since the Sharks, then there’s Rhi who has been my mate since the first season.

And I love Mato (Jess Matin), she’s just such a legend getting to know her this season as well.

I could sit here all day and list everyone as a legend. It’s been that way since day one.