A RISING star in the netball world, Yasmeen Janschek got a taste for what Australian rules football had to offer and has instead opted to pursue the code professionally. A member of the New South Wales Under 19s squad and talented defender, Janschek ran out for the Giants Academy, Sandringham VFLW, North Shore Bombers and Allies this year to get her “sport fix”.

“Halfway through this year I was playing like our netball comp in New South Wales called Premier League,” Janschek said. “This was after New South Wales 19s ended, and things just happened really quickly.

“All of a sudden a player manager approached me and got me in contact with a VFL club and I ended up going there in my uni break to play a few games of VFL, which even more like I feel like I was like gaining momentum and then I broke my finger, which was not great, but that’s sort of what preceded Allies and all of that.

“It’s gotten to the point where I’m putting netball on hold and really focusing on footy now.”

It is a feel-good story, not for what netball may have lost, but for what football may have gained. Janschek, an ultra-athletic tall said she only really looked into the code on a whim when one of the “netball mums” raised a benchmarks trial day at the Swans with the tall defender and her friends.

“She saw the Swans put out an article about their Academy looking for cross coders,” Janschek said. “She put it out to us and was like, ‘oh, maybe the girls could just like go and try’ because obviously we’re all pretty tall, we’ve got transferrable skills from netball.

“Anyway we went to that trial and I don’t know, I guess what we did was enough because we got into the Swans Academy and when I tell you I’ve never been more shocked in my life, I was like, ‘wow, okay’.”

Describing her own skills as “not being able to kick to save my life”, Janschek was beyond surprised that she had made the Swans Academy, but wanted to pursue the opportunity further. All of a sudden the cogs started turning and the odds of playing a sport professionally started to weigh in the newer code’s favour.

“I wanted to see if I had potential in the sport, because obviously the netball pathway’s pretty tricky,” Janschek said. “Like there are nowhere near as many teams as in the W, and there are not as many players in the team. “There’s 10 people on a list, maybe 11 if you’re lucky. “Whereas in footy there’s around 30.

“I guess that was the reasoning behind going. “I just wanted to see if I had potential in it, then maybe I could play some club. “But we got into the Swans Academy, so that was kind of crazy.”

At first, Janschek attempted to juggle the two sports, but it proved too difficult with the recent Swans addition unable to play any games for the Academy due to her netball commitments and her original code being her “top priority”.

Though she did not get out in the park in 2024, Janschek was not done with football. She instead crossed to the Giants Academy for 2025 in what would be her over-age season.

“I reckon that’s when I really started to go, ‘oh, I really am loving this’. “I’ve started to put in lots of extra work with my skills. “I would get to training early and the coaches were just like incredible. They would do extra skills with me before and after training, and that’s when I started to grow in the sport.

“After Netball Nationals this year, Coates League was after that for Giants, which was great, so I got to play all games for that. “I think gradually as I was doing that I’ve gone ‘wow, like. I just love this sport’.

“I think for me as well, I’m the type of person who really likes to learn and likes the challenge. “So learning how to kick and how to handball and, you know, all sort of the footy IQ stuff, that’s been tricky, but it’s been really fun to do.”

Changes had to be made in order for Janschek to truly “focus on footy” and she opted to dial back the study as well as “put netball on hold” in order to chase her AFL Women’s dream.

“I went part-time in uni for the first semester this year, which I guess gave me a bit of time back to do that. But I think the decision behind putting netball on hold for now was a bit of ‘let’s see where footy can take me’. “Like, let’s see how far I can actually go with this.

“Because my dream since I was a kid was to play sport professionally and to just love doing it, and I’m just loving footy. “I think maybe it got to the point where I’m happy to have a bit of a change. “At the moment I’m happy with putting netball to the side to see where this goes.

“But I do miss it (netball) a little bit. “I do miss playing it, but I’m kind of getting my sport fix through footy anyway.”

>> Part 2 of Yasmeen Janschek’s journey coming next week