FORMER Hawk turned Southern Saint Nicole Cormack is certainly making up for lost time, and has her sights set on going even further with her footy career and getting to the AFLW.  

Her love of footy originally started at school, but she had to wait a while to be able to play the sport competitively.

“I always played at school, just at recess and lunch with the boys,” she said.

“I was a classic tomboy so I just played with the boys, but I did not start until I was 18. So I was originally a basketballer, always wanted to play footy but there was never the pathway, and then obviously once the pathway sort of came up I jumped on it.”

Thanks to a cross-code trial day, Cormack entered the footy pathway program and really has never looked back.

“So as I said, I was originally a basketballer, and then went to a trial day which was for people who had never played footy before down at Eastern Ranges, and then got in there which was great,” she said.

“Didn’t really know how to play the game at all, I just knew how to kick the ball, and then played all the games there and then Hawthorn picked me up in the VFL and then played with them 2019, 2021 and then moved to the Saints last year.

“They actually got rid of me at Hawthorn, which sucked but I think in the end it was definitely a massive silver lining. It’s made my love for footy grow so much more moving to the Saints, it’s such a great club here.

“When I was deciding where to go I reached out to Dale [Robinson, former Southern Saints coach] because I just heard such good things about Saints, and so she told me to come down to the trial day and she said I had a spot.”

Her love for running has played a significant part in Cormack becoming the midfielder she is today.

“So last year I was playing pretty much on the wing and I sometimes played inside mid and sometimes in forward,” she said.

“I just like to run so the wing sort of helps out with that, and I like to be an outside sort of player rather than the one that goes in. So being on the wing you can get that outside switch, and use my strengths, using the skills I guess.”

Cormack was a part of the Saints side that was on the losing end of the 2022 VFLW Grand Final, but despite the result she had nothing but positive things to say about the experience.

“Oh it was incredible,” she said.

“It was such a good feeling.

“Just the atmosphere running out was crazy. It was just, a day that I probably won’t forget. It was awesome.”