AFTER a couple of self-proclaimed “frustrating” years, Sturt Women’s captain Maya Rigter is hoping for a bit more luck in 2022. Having battled an ongoing foot injury across the last couple of seasons, Rigter now hopes the worst is behind her, and she can regain the form she showed prior to injury. Having only turned 21 in July, Rigter still has aspirations to reach the top level.

“It’s really awesome and it’s definitely something I aspire to, and especially with Port coming in,” Rigter said. “I really want to get my body right because I’ve had a nasty foot injury so couple of surgeries later and I really want to have a big year. “Everything happens for a reason so it’s given me a chance to focus on other things and set up from here.”

Those other things include co-captaining the club with Georgia Bevan – before Bevan was promoted back to the top level at the Gold Coast Suns – and now being voted outright captain for the 2022 season. Initially Rigter earned a spot in the leadership group still in her teenage years, but her combination of on and off-field leadership – and battling a foot injury – has earned the respect of her teammates.

“It was 2019 I was voted into the leadership group as an 18-year-old at the time,” Rigter said. “So I was quite young, and then only the next year to be voted co-captain at 19-years-old, I was pretty young. “It was a really good experience and I’ve learnt heaps. “The last year and now this year we’ve just done our leadership vote and going around captain again. “It’s a big responsibility but it’s something that I’ve thrived off.”

Rigter’s journey started in her 16th year playing local football, then progressed through the state programs and became a well-known junior in South Australia prior to the SANFL Women’s taking off.

“I started off in 2016 at Morphettville Park, so footy wasn’t actually really a big thing,” Rigter said. “That was the year before it all blew up. “But went down and trained with a few of the senior girls there, then played Under 18s for a couple of years. “Did the state program 2018 I think it was. “Then in the midst of that 2017 did Juniors at Sturt and then was lucky enough to get asked to be part of the League team in 2018, and this will be my fifth year of League now. “That’s where I’ve been ever since.”

Aside from Bevan getting called up to the Suns, Rigter also witnessed Jess Good earn a spot on Carlton‘s list off the back of terrific form coming in from basketball. Then there was teenage prodigy Zoe Prowse who has long been touted as one of the most talented young rucks going around, making her way to Adelaide.

Whilst Rigter said it was fantastic to see all the players deservingly get an opportunity, she admitted it left the ruck stocks a little thin with Good and Prowse’s departures.

“Yeah that’s a good one, that’s what we’ve been asking ourselves, but yeah we’ve got Alex (Pearce) has come from basketball,” Rigter said. “We’ve got a girl come from basketball, so she’ll probably be one of the rucks in the mix, and we’ve also got Amy Brooks as well, so we’ve got a few talls in the mix.

“But you’re right, we did lose a fair bit of height to the draft, and obviously they’re both very good players to be drafted, and quality humans as well. “So we’re going to miss them, but that will be an area that we’re definitely working on.”

Naturally Rigter lists her main strength as her leadership, and no one would disagree. She has worked hard on ensuring the team was at the forefront of her mind at all times. But aside from that, Rigter said she loved the hard ball and would love to get back to her form of prior years where she excelled in an inside role.

“I feel like my tackle pressure and contested ball so I like getting in and doing the hard yards,” she said. “It might not be the cleanest stuff but i don’t mind being bottom of the pack, tackling people down and staying down on them, so that’s what I consider my strength.”

For Rigter, getting her body right was the “number one thing” for her heading into 2022. Whilst aiming to also improve her overhead marking, Rigter said she needed to have some luck with a clean run from injury.

“I’ve been very fortunate enough to have a very good surgeon, very good physio, very good med team looking after me,” she said. “Get my body right and then in for a big season, and definitely need to work on my overhead marking, that’s a big one for me.”

Sturt is now the only team established in the first two seasons of the SANFLW yet to reach finals. Having consistently avoided the wooden spoon but won three, two, two and three games in their four seasons, the Double Blues players want to breakthough for finals.

“We’ve been saying that for the last few years, but we’re at the point now where we don’t want to talk about it anymore, let’s just go out and do it. It’s all well and good saying it, but let’s actually put it into action.”

– Maya Rigter on Sturt’s finals aspirations.

“We had a bit of a culture session so that’s what we talked about,” Rigter said. “It all starts with us, it’s not even up to the coaches, it’s what do we want to get out of ourselves as players, and it starts with training hard and doing all the right things off-field as well. Diet, sleep, all that recovery and this year we really want to make finals.

It is not surprising that after a couple of frustrating years, Rigter is just hoping for a consistent individual season, and be able to lead Sturt into its maiden finals series.

“I can’t seem to get any luck with injury,” Rigter said. “It’s literally just one injury in my foot, but anyone that’s had a foot injury will understand that it’s quite frustrating, but like I said before just to get back playing and play consistently without pain.

“That would actually be the biggest thing for me personally, and as a team we really want to win more than three games, which is the maximum amount of games we’ve won the last four seasons. “We want to win more than that and make finals.”