{"id":36595,"date":"2018-06-29T12:31:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T02:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=36595"},"modified":"2021-11-10T14:03:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T04:03:03","slug":"warburton-makes-the-most-of-her-football-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/06\/29\/warburton-makes-the-most-of-her-football-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Warburton makes the most of her football opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

FROM not knowing what the AFLW Academy or Calder Cannons was to being a part of both programs, <\/span>Molly Warburton <\/b>has come a long way since she first picked up a football. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Calder Cannons defender first started playing Aussie Rules in Year 9 when she played school football, and loved it immediately. This prompted her to give away her long junior career of netball, which spanned over nine years. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the intensity and everything about it (footy) I guess,\u201d Warburton said. \u201cNetball I felt was the same all the time and I just wanted a change-up. \u201cThen I played footy and loved it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After that, Warburton devoted her time to football and was rewarded with a place in the Calder Cannons program. The defender says she was thrilled to get selected for the side. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t describe it, I didn\u2019t even know Youth Girls was a thing! \u201cThen getting picked for all these other academies and stuff was pretty cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before she knew it, Warburton was selected to be a member of the AFLW Academy, which is another program she did not know she was able to access.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea what that was,\u201d the 17 year-old admitted. \u201cOn the way back from Nationals, I got a State of Origin letter and then a letter to the Academy and I was blown away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Warburton is enjoying playing in the AFLW Academy alongside some of the TAC Cup Girls players that she often comes up against. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved it so much,\u201d she said. \u201cPlaying with the girls that we play against here, just the bonds you make with them has been awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She also thrives off the skills of Cannons teammates, <\/span>Maddy Prespakis <\/b>and <\/span>Georgia Patrikios<\/b> when she trains and plays with Calder. The trio have been long-term Calder players and have developed a close bond since being involved in the program. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good having those girls by your side,\u201d Warburton said. \u201cI\u2019m really close with those two so just having them obviously pushes me to be better and just get around each other a bit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While she has enjoyed playing football in many different jumpers, Warburton admits that there are some long days in her week. Amidst Year 12, she has to juggle different training sessions as well as her own gym sessions, which can be taxing on the Gisborne local. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo school\u2019s obviously Monday to Friday,\u201d Warburton said. \u201cTuesday and Thursday nights is Essendon training for VFL. \u201cSo pretty much as soon as I get home from school, I don\u2019t get home until 9.30 or 10 o\u2019clock. \u201cI\u2019ve got to fit study in usually with that. \u201cThen there\u2019s other days, maybe Wednesday or Fridays I can do a gym session or just like a body awareness type recovery as well and study. \u201cThen the weekend\u2019s footy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although she has added training with Essendon\u2019s VFLW side to her week, Warburton is really enjoying her time at the new club. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve absolutely loved it,\u201d the 17 year-old said. \u201cThere\u2019s good vibes down at the club. \u201cThe girls are amazing, the coaches are really good so it\u2019s been good fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Calder defender made her debut for the Bombers on Sunday, alongside Cannons teammate, <\/span>Carla Rendelmann. <\/b>Next on her list of commitments is heading to the Gold Coast to represent Vic Metro at the AFL Women\u2019s National Under 18 Championships. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is Warburton\u2019s second consecutive year pulling on the big \u2018V\u2019 and she is looking forward to playing against some of the girls she played with in the AFLW Academy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait (for Nationals), it\u2019ll be good,\u201d she said. \u201cI think having good people around you makes it all better. \u201cI\u2019ve played Academy so I\u2019ll tell them I\u2019ll look out for you at Nationals!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM not knowing what the AFLW Academy or Calder Cannons was to being a part of both programs, Molly Warburton has come a long way since she first picked up a football. The Calder Cannons defender first started playing Aussie Rules in Year 9 when she played school football, and loved it immediately. This prompted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":36335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11587,18214,278,7950,17,8,137],"tags":[5590,3343,47,3761,4776,3288,5350,3287,11653,9539,1880],"class_list":["post-36595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-calder-cannons","category-calder-cannons-girls","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league-girls","category-national-championships","category-news","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-national-under-18-championships","tag-aflw-academy","tag-calder-cannons","tag-carla-rendelmann","tag-essendon-vflw","tag-georgia-patrikios","tag-maddy-prespakis","tag-molly-warburton","tag-molly-warburton-feature","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-vic-metro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87890,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36595\/revisions\/87890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}