{"id":37797,"date":"2018-07-23T13:35:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T03:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=37797"},"modified":"2021-10-06T06:22:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:22:06","slug":"morrisons-remarkable-rise-from-beginner-to-national-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/07\/23\/morrisons-remarkable-rise-from-beginner-to-national-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Morrison’s remarkable rise from beginner to national MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR many that followed the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, it would be hard to believe that one of the overall tournament Most Valuable Players (MVPs) and indeed Vic Country\u2019s MVP, had only taken up the sport a couple of years earlier. But for the equally quick and tough\u00a0Nina Morrison<\/strong>, that is exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I played footy was about two years ago, there was a Talent ID day down at Deakin which dad said I should get down to and should give it a try,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know much about it or what it was going to involve but from there got asked to join the (Geelong) Falcons and it\u2019s just escalated from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison has been one of the biggest improvers over the past two years, shooting from a virtual beginner, to one of the top players in the competition, showing off her trademark pace and physical presence around the ground for both Geelong and Vic Country. She said she has always enjoyed the physical aspects that football brings, as well as the team bonding which the sport allows when the group of girls run out together each week. Morrison has been developing her fundamentals and looking to become the most complete player she can, working on her non-dominant side, and her cleanliness at ground level.<\/p>\n

When asked earlier in the year, Morrison was just looking forward to playing her role at the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, it is fair to say she did that and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting (getting selected for Vic Country),\u201d she said pre-carnival. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to play some good footy at the Championships and then progress after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her form at the national carnival has certainly seen her progress in many people\u2019s eyes and she has also thanked those at the Falcons and AFL Women\u2019s Academy, who have really honed in on her abilities and worked on the areas she hopes to build.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing exposed to that elite environment (AFL Women\u2019s Academy). \u201cThe support networks you have through that and the mentor coaches and that are such as high calibre there, it\u2019s really cool and really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison said the goal was to get drafted, but she also kept a level head when it came to her future, understanding how the system worked, and that there were always opportunities in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah it would be really cool to get drafted at the end of the year if that was to happen,\u201d she said. \u201cBut obviously there\u2019s opportunities to be in the system still after that and get drafted in future years, but that would be the ultimate goal (this year).\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a memorable year for Morrison, who prior to her success at the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, celebrated a premiership with the Geelong Falcons. The Falcons went undefeated after dropping just the one game last year, and Morrison said the amount of talent at the club was testament to the quality of female footballers coming through the area, and the development within the walls at Geelong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really good season this year,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cCompared to last season we\u2019ve just improved even more and I think we\u2019ve got a really solid core, so we don\u2019t just rely on a few players, we have really solid depth which I think has allowed us to get where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it is a bit of a waiting game for Morrison leading up to this year\u2019s AFL Women\u2019s draft, but after a big season which brought many accolades and accomplishments both individually and as a team, it will just be a matter of continuing to develop in any way she can to be the best possible footballer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR many that followed the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, it would be hard to believe that one of the overall tournament Most Valuable Players (MVPs) and indeed Vic Country\u2019s MVP, had only taken up the sport a couple of years earlier. But for the equally quick and tough\u00a0Nina Morrison, that is exactly what happened. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":35056,"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":[278,11590,7950,8,137],"tags":[5351,2964,49,9539,3326,11649,138],"class_list":["post-37797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-geelong-falcons","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-feature","tag-geelong-falcons","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-nina-morrison","tag-nina-morrison-feature","tag-tac-cup-girls"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37797","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\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87886,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37797\/revisions\/87886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}