{"id":37955,"date":"2018-08-21T20:47:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T10:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=37955"},"modified":"2021-10-06T06:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:22:03","slug":"walmsley-grabs-opportunity-with-both-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/21\/walmsley-grabs-opportunity-with-both-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmsley grabs opportunity with both hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT was no surprise that Geelong Falcons\u2019\u00a0Sophie Walmsley<\/strong>\u00a0took to Australian Rules without much work, having already rowed, played local netball and school soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started last year, I was playing netball with Newtown & Chilwell and I was in Year 12 and the girls that were playing footy on Sunday just said \u2018come have a kick\u2019 so that\u2019s where it sort of started,\u201d Walmsley said. \u201cThen the season went and I just loved it and it was sort of my not-as-competitive sport because I was new to it. \u201cThen just got a call from Jase (Jason Armistead<\/strong>, Geelong Falcons Girls coach) in October and then just came down to Falcons and it\u2019s taken off from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmsley is no stranger to switching codes, but why choose Australian Rules?<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably just the fact it was a new sport and something I hadn\u2019t done before and there was lots of opportunities going around and Falcons is probably the top level I\u2019ve been involved in a sport,\u201d Walmsley said. \u201cThe community was really good and I just thought I\u2019m going to take this opportunity and see where it goes to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike many others in the TAC Cup Girls, Walmsley has not had the pressure of her final school year weighing down on her, instead focusing on her university studies and enjoying the freedom of football on the weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah I\u2019ve really loved Falcons,\u201d Walmsley said. \u201cIt\u2019s my first year at uni up at Melbourne, so it was sort of just new, footy was new, uni was new too. \u201cIt was just a good way to get involved and it\u2019s been great and I\u2019ve been lucky enough to play all the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmsley was only nine days away from being a top-age player this season, and while Vic Country could only take one overage player to the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships (Rene Caris<\/strong>), the Falcons\u2019 utility has enjoyed every opportunity thrown her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really lucky in that there\u2019s lots of girls who have been in Falcons for a while that are so experienced and play very mature and act very mature,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess I was just lucky I\u2019ve been involved with sport for a while so I\u2019ve been able to know how to step through it all, but just for every other girl that\u2019s young, just have a crack. \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone else stop you, there\u2019s so many other opportunities and pathways. \u201cGirls footy is a prime example. \u201cWho knew that there\u2019d be an AFLW team now there\u2019s VFL teams, there\u2019s TAC Cup which is amazing. \u201cWe\u2019re being included in so much. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely good for me I\u2019ve been able to get involved with it being older, but for everyone else there\u2019s so many opportunities to take from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having joined the Western Bulldogs in the Victorian Football League (VFL) Women\u2019s competition, Walmsley could hardly believe her luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so super excited about that,\u201d she said post- TAC Cup Girls season. \u201cI really didn\u2019t know much about footy since it was my first year and then\u00a0Katie<\/strong>\u00a0(Geerings<\/strong>, Geelong Falcons Female Talent Manager) and Jase have really got me through TAC Cup and have talked to me about the possibilities and then now starting joining with the Bulldogs is just really exciting. Just happy to see where it takes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A super athlete, Walmsley said her fitness has helped her adapt to the new sport, and having supportive teammates has been a bonus.<\/p>\n

Mainly endurance has really helped me being consistent across the game,\u201d she said. \u201cJust being able to sit back and watch and get into it, has helped me understand that being in the sport my first year, it doesn\u2019t always come first round, you don\u2019t always have the best game but as we got more into the season I\u2019ve been a lot happier with how I\u2019ve been going. \u201cIt\u2019s still new, you\u2019ve just got to accept that and lots of the other girls have helped me realise just how to play it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of trying to do too much, the Falcons coaching staff have kept it simple for Walmsley, something she has enjoyed while trying to develop the fundamentals and improve.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019m) Just learning how to play the position and accepting that sometimes your role is just to play a position and not really so effective on every single ball you get,\u201d Walmsley said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just focusing on understanding at these levels that\u2019s just how you go about your game, but (all the) coaches have been so helpful with that and helped me understand that it\u2019s the best you can do and all you need to do to play your position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmsley is taking it one step at the time and as a sports addict she enjoys playing football in the winter and rowing in the summer. In her own words, \u201cSport is my main hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT was no surprise that Geelong Falcons\u2019\u00a0Sophie Walmsley\u00a0took to Australian Rules without much work, having already rowed, played local netball and school soccer. \u201cIt started last year, I was playing netball with Newtown & Chilwell and I was in Year 12 and the girls that were playing footy on Sunday just said \u2018come have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":33153,"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":[278,11590,7950,8,3121,137],"tags":[49,3329,3330,9539,3348,3327,6193],"class_list":["post-37955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-geelong-falcons","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-vflw","category-womens","tag-geelong-falcons","tag-jason-armistead","tag-katie-geerings","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-rene-caris","tag-sophie-walmsley","tag-western-bulldogs-vflw"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37955","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=37955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87874,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37955\/revisions\/87874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}