STRENGTHS:

+ Strength
+ Defensive pressure
+ Competitiveness
+ Inside game
+ Leadership
+ Footy IQ

IMPROVEMENTS:

- Speed 
- Clean hands

PROFILE:

McCabe is a strong defensive player, with many of her best traits surrounding those aspects. Since she burst onto the scene at an elite junior level with the Suns Academy, she showed herself to be a strong contested ball-winner and tackling player. Throughout her career, she has averaged no less than four tackles per game at any level, and for the Suns Academy, that number was 10 across four matches.

In her Under 16s year, McCabe held her own rolling through both midfield and up forward against the Lions Academy as a bottom-ager in the Under 17 Championships. A year later, she got out on the park at the national carnival, albeit briefly, before going down with injury in the opening match against Vic Metro.

Though she missed the remaining two games of that carnival, she returned bigger and better than ever to compete for the Suns Academy, and then Queensland, captaining both teams. Her leadership and character shine through, and McCabe is a popular player amongst teammates and coaches alike.

From a footballing perspective, McCabe is clever with ball-in-hand and boasts impressive footy IQ. It holds her in good stead to win the ball and extract it quickly by hand or foot. Though she is not quick in terms of leg speed, McCabe does have some nice power behind her and can breakthrough tackles with sheer strength to get it free to a teammate.

Aside from her speed, another area that McCabe identified as an improvement was tidying up her clean hands at times - as she can rush with ball-in-hand when under pressure - which will also help her going forward. Given she reads the play well and gets into the right spots, she naturally can find her fair share of the ball, and increasing her hurt factor with each possession will only elevate her game further.

A point of difference McCabe has compared to a number of other inside midfielders is her ability to play forward and compete well. Strong overhead as well as at ground level, she reads the ball in flight and can react quicker than her opposing defender which can result in hitting the scoreboard or setting up a player in a better position for goal. Another reason why sharpening up that one-touch play will only further improve her game.

As a whole, McCabe has plenty of likeable traits, and is a well-equipped contested player with smarts that will help her influence games at the coalface. Despite having areas of improvement that might see others ahead of her, the Queensland captain has plenty of elements that set her aside and could be a good fit for a number of teams.