Saxon-Jones ready for the next step
FOR Western Jets’ Cleo Saxon-Jones, the journey through to the big league has been a bumpy road with plenty of footy action along the way. Despite starting Auskick at a young age like a lot of other Aussie kids, she explored other sporting avenues before ultimately coming back to where it all began. “I started […]
Family support inspires Zanker-Close to footy pathway
HAVING so many footballers in the family certainly helps. It is even more beneficial when one family member has reached the elite level of AFL Women’s football. For Queensland AFL Women’s Under-18 representative, Emmii-Lee Zanker-Close, she has been surrounded by footballers and always seemed destined to cross into the sport from her chosen code of […]
Hickie dives into football pathway
MANY AFL Women’s Under-18 Championships players have played other sports at some point in their life before ultimately choosing Australian rules football. But for Tahlia Hickie, she had a few less talked about individual sports, partaking in gymnastics and diving, and then getting involved in Oztag which proved to be a transition sport into her […]
Injury leads Moore to the footy field
QUEENSLAND’S Hayley Moore had a different start to her Aussie Rules career, eventually finding her way to the sport after a brief stint at netball. “I was playing netball and then girls from school that were in my netball academy started to play AFL. One time the team just needed an extra player and they […]
Code-crosser Garnett grateful for the journey
TWO years was all it took for Georgia Garnett to be recognised on football’s national stage. Growing up in the rugby league heartland of Western Sydney, Garnett was naturally taken in and down the rugby path through Oztag and touch footy. But when her footballing father took her out for a kick of the oblong […]
Wide-eyed Newton guns for draft
IT has been a mammoth year for Gabby Newton. Captain of the premiership winning Northern Knights team, a key player in Vic Metro’s undefeated national carnival run, and now a welcome addition to Carlton’s VFLW squad – all while juggling school commitments and national basketball representation. Even still, the potential high draft selection remains humble […]
Grant following in father’s footsteps
FOR 17-year-old Isabella Grant, the path to football has been a little bit different with a big interest in basketball shaping a lot of her junior sporting journey, while her father Chris Grant played 341 games for Western Bulldogs over a 17-year period. “I initially played basketball for the majority of my primary school and […]
Horne opts for big switch
LIKE a number of other burgeoning AFL Women’s athletes, Emma Horne came across from another sport having not played Aussie Rules as a junior. While soccer took up plenty of her time, it was Australian rules football that caught her eye. While many NAB League players were scouted from another club, Horne got her start […]
Former basketballer soaring to new heights
MOLLY Denahy Maloney is one of a number of dual sport athletes who found love for Australian rules football and has run with it ever since. The 180cm Sandringham Dragons draft prospect started the year determined to improve her kicking skills and play as well as she possibly could. By year’s end, Denahy Maloney made […]
From a break to a break open VFLW game; Brett rises in football landscape
AFTER having time off from the game due to a limited female football pathway, it would have been hard for Murray Bushrangers star Teagan Brett to picture herself booting three goals on debut for Richmond’s Victorian Football League (VFL) Women’s side in the Tigers’ massive win over Carlton a few weeks ago. The tough midfielder […]
