IN OUR new series, we take a look at a potentially exciting AFL Women’s head-to-head set to take place over the weekend, and how the match-up may transpire on game day.

Note: The match-up of course subject to the selection of both players in their respective sides.

Except this week’s head to head is a little different. We are not going to compare the pair, we are going to get to know the pair.

It’s a pair of defenders both having stellar seasons and are on their way to All-Australian selection – Carlton’s Vaomua Laloifi and Richmond’s Eilish Sheerin.

Upon reflecting about how Season 7 has gone for her Blues, Laloifi pointed out some areas where she believes things have not quite gone right for her side.

“We are in the process of just building up chemistry I think,” she said. In a short turnaround and players leaving and just the change of list, I think a lot it has just been trying to build chemistry and you see it in some of the games and that it is a bit inconsistent, so the more that we’re playing the more chemistry that we’re building as a young squad. But yeah last week showed a bit of what we wanted to do as a club and as a football team, so hopefully that carries on this weekend.”

She noted how the short turnaround between seasons has had an impact on the team.

“I think in some way,” Laloifi said. Some of us are a bit older so we kind of new our program and our bodies adjusted well to a shorter break to coming into another preseason, whereas some of our players that have just come into the league felt the rush of getting their bodies right and getting fit and sometimes that just takes time. For some players the short turnaround didn’t help, but for players like myself I think short preseason’s always nice”

Laloifi is in stellar form this season, and credits her great season to a team off the field.

“I think just the help and support from our strength and conditioning squad. They’ve been so great in the offseason and I think it was a building process, my first year I needed to run a little but more so I think just going back and focusing on your weaknesses as such to help the team and better your role. Credit to the boys and the medical staff. Without their programs I wouldn’t have pulled up for preseason as fit or as strong.”

For Laloifi and her Blues, they are well aware of the challenge they face tonight in Sheerin’s Tigers.

“Oh they’re on a hot streak at the moment so as a team we’ve had a really good week on the track, so we’re excited to put what we’re need to hopefully have a good contest against Richmond. “They’re a very skilful side, and very experienced in a lot of their areas, but I think if we carry on the momentum from last week against St Kilda, I think we’ll be ok.”

Meanwhile it is Sheerin’s first year in the system, and her path to Richmond was certainly a unique one. Originally training on with GWS back in her native Sydney, GWS had told her they would draft her but she had heard through the grapevine that Richmond was interested in picking her up.

When she was deciding what to do with her football career, she was given what she calls “a universal signal” that she should head to Richmond. Her car that she had bought from a car dealer had a CD player in it, and after bumping it one time she discovered that the one track the CD had in there was the Richmond theme song. That same night Richmond reached out to her so she took it as a sign to come down and see what Richmond was all about.

As one of the older draftees who has had to wait her time to get a shot at AFLW level, making the most of the opportunity was “absolutely” a large part of Sheerin’s mindset this season.

“You know I think there was a whole lot of team of people that were able to get me through the doors at Richmond,” Sheerin said. Friends, family, people who have supported my rehab, former team mates, so I think getting here and being provided that opportunity just makes me want to repay that belief and that support I’ve been shown.

“But then also I’ve been so lucky in the fact that Richmond like the wider club, the team, the coaching staff have just been able to provide me with a wonderful environment to excel and perform and to play to my strengths, and that’s one of the big things at Richmond, play to your strengths and being able to just go out there and play on natural instinct has been a big part of that.”

For Sheerin and her Tigers tonight, the focus is more on themselves and not the opposition.

“Carlton is a great team, strong history. They’ve obviously come off a good win, but what we do is we respect that. Any established team in this competition can come out and beat any other team,” Sheerin said.

“I think we proved that when we beat Brisbane, so you’ve got to respect that, respect what they can do but also it just comes back to us. We don’t really prioritise the opposition, we focus on what we need to do to get the best out of ourselves so that we can perform.

“It’ll just be going back to the learnings from the previous week’s games. What can we focus on? What can we bring in terms of our individual strengths to ensure that we can have synergy as a team to perform on the night. It’s just really understanding our method and being able to deliver when we need to.”