EAST Fremantle tall Anjelique Raison is an AFL Women’s draft hopeful for 2023, having forged a promising career over the last few seasons. Having represented not only her club at WAFL Women’s level, but also her state at national level. Raison has provided a special insight into her journey so far and in the fourth part of her Player Diary, discussed the national carnival, as well as the highs and lows of football.

STORY SO FAR:
>> PART 1
>> PART 2
>> PART 3

ANJELIQUE RAISON PLAYER DIARY: PART 4

It’s been a while since my last diary post, as I have had a bit going on.  It has been a bit of an up and down time with some highs and also some not so highs, quite often all on the same day.

Winning a premiership with East Fremantle

Firstly, winning the WAFLW premiership with East Fremantle was obviously a high. Weirdly, the fact a lot of things didn’t go smoothly for us this year I think made us better prepared for grand final day.  All year we didn’t have a home ground. I think I trained at five different places and during the season were sharing a community oval with a softball team (including dodging softballs flying into our training).

The constant change made us able to just roll with whatever the next hurdle was. Even though our regular season was a bit hit and miss, all year I think we just knew that we were good enough if we put it all together, and I guess what better time to do that than in the three finals games.

Reflection on own season

Overall I was somewhat happy with my own season, but there’s a lot I can improve on. Being able to kick goals in 12 out of 15 games was good, but the finals games were a bit of a challenge after I tore ligaments in my right thumb in the last round against Peel.

It meant for the finals I had to play in a cast and through a fair bit of pain. I couldn’t hold the ball properly so my set shots were a bit all over the place, but I’m still happy I was able to contribute and you would’ve had to cut my arm off to stop me playing. It also ended my basketball season just as I had started to put some NBL1 games together which was frustrating.

AFLW Under 18 Championships

As far as nationals go, it was a fun ride with a great bunch of girls even though we didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be. Looking back at the SA game, on a personal note, even though we lost, it was a day I’ll remember. Being captain for the first time and leading the team out was such an honour.

After the SA game we had a long break and then rejoined after the WAFLW season finished. We had a lead up game against a combined WA Country Women’s team at Optus Stadium which was a good way to get ourselves back into it. 

Our game against the Allies was a big win and we got to show a bit of what we could do. Again the high of the win vs the Allies came with some frustration as I got sick on the way over to Sydney and during the game was a mess.  The flight home wasn’t fun as I was vomiting and struggling to breathe (more on that later).   

The final game vs Vic Country was really tight all game and we again showed glimpses of what we can do, but I think a lot of the team were just a bit flat coming off the travel and six-day break and we couldn’t quite get over the line. Credit to Vic Country, they were able to execute better than us when it counted, where we just made a few mistakes that cost us.

Injury strikes

During the week of that game I was still feeling pretty average but again just pushed it aside because there was only one game left and I was desperate to play. The day after the game I ended up in hospital.  After a bunch of tests they ended up figuring out that I had a pretty big perforation in my intestine and my stomach contents had been leaking into the rest of my system.

Not ideal (and kind of explains why I’d not been feeling great for a while). I ended up having surgery and spent a week in hospital with six different tubes coming in and out of me. I was in a pretty bad way, but I’m home now and still sore, but improving slowly.  My off-season training plan is now on hold because I’m not allowed to exercise for at least two months, so that also isn’t ideal, but I’m alive so that’s a win.  On the upside, it all happened when footy was pretty much finished, rather than earlier which might’ve meant I missed the grand final and nationals.  

A rough week came with some good news which was that Mackenzie Webb was being picked up by West Coast. Her and I were backline buddies in last year’s state team and this year we played on each other every training and every time East Freo plays Claremont. Anyone who played on her this year will tell you how hard it is and she is so deserving of getting the opportunity. I’m looking forward to watching her make someone else’s life difficult for a change.

For now I’ll be lying low for a while. A weird end to the season, but got a decent war story and a premiership medal out of it I guess, so its not all bad.