{"id":37962,"date":"2018-08-06T18:28:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T08:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=37962"},"modified":"2021-11-12T06:38:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T20:38:24","slug":"country-girl-caris-passing-on-lessons-from-amazing-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/06\/country-girl-caris-passing-on-lessons-from-amazing-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Country girl Caris passing on lessons from “amazing experiences”"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHEN the siren sounded at the end of last year\u2019s Herald Sun Shield Grand Final, Ballarat Grammar\u2019s\u00a0Rene Caris<\/strong>\u00a0joined her teammates in rejoicing the win. It was not just a one-point victory, it was the result of many years of hard work and a close bond between the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first started when I moved away to boarding school in Year 10 and then a few of us all us boarders from farms in the country, we all just decided to start playing footy,\u201d Caris said. \u201cSo we just joined the footy team at school, it wasn\u2019t very high standard or anything but we just did it for a bit of fun. \u201cWhen we were in Year 12 and we worked for three years to win the Herald Sun Shield and I was with all my best friends that I\u2019d been in the boarding house with, and we ended up winning that game by a point \u2013 that was probably one of my most favourite experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hailing from Quantong, a small town 15km west of Horsham, Caris knows the challenges associated with living in a rural area more than most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did Auskick as a kid obviously,\u201d she said. \u201cDad was the coach so I went along to that, but kind of stopped when I was about 12 I think. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t obviously play girls footy past 14 so obviously that limits a lot of opportunities but yeah moving to Ballarat was the next best step I think so now I\u2019ve eventually moved to Melbourne and there\u2019s even more opportunities there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caris is using the experience of playing with the Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels, Vic Country and the AFL Women\u2019s Academy to help teach others how to improve and play to their full potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing experience,\u201d Caris said. \u201cI\u2019ve learnt so much and I think it\u2019s just great how us three girls from the Academy (Caris,\u00a0Sophie Van De Heuvel<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Georgia Clarke<\/strong>) can learn stuff at such a high level and teach these girls when we come back. \u201cEven take it even further back when we go back to our clubs at home, like in Horsham. \u201cSo I feel like the word about playing girls footy has spread out a bit which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strength in girls football is improving rapidly, and Caris cannot help but smile at how many aspiring female footballers are taking up the sport at her home club.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah definitely (it\u2019s improving),\u201d Caris said. \u201cLast year I was part of Horsham girls. \u201cHorsham Saints had a team, and you can already see how much the girls love it, they want to play, but there just really isn\u2019t much of an opportunity and now there is. \u201cThere\u2019s so many little Year 7s running around, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caris is an athletic ruck who has stood out since returning from a back injury that kept her out of the early games in the TAC Cup Girls season. She played for the AFL Women\u2019s Academy against Geelong Victorian Football League (VFL) Women\u2019s side at GMHBA Stadium, and represents Carlton in the same league.<\/p>\n

The 19 year-old recalls her first training session at Ikon Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be incredible (playing for Carlton),\u201d she said. \u201cJust been at the trainings, I was already star-struck with\u00a0Darcy Vescio<\/strong>\u00a0being my training partner in the warm-up. It\u2019s going to be incredible to learn from these girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a successful stint as Vic Country\u2019s ruck at the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, and showing off her versatility around the ground, Caris is hoping to finish the year on a high and improve her strength and marking, something she admits will come \u201chand-in-hand\u201d.<\/p>\n

With height and athleticism at a premium in the AFL Women\u2019s, like every talented Victorian representative, everyone will be keeping a close eye on the country girl who is turning heads in the big smoke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHEN the siren sounded at the end of last year\u2019s Herald Sun Shield Grand Final, Ballarat Grammar\u2019s\u00a0Rene Caris\u00a0joined her teammates in rejoicing the win. It was not just a one-point victory, it was the result of many years of hard work and a close bond between the players. \u201cI first started when I moved away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":33854,"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":[278,11592,18219,7950,8,3121,137],"tags":[3343,6194,3004,3345,103,44,9539,3348,3392,1879],"class_list":["post-37962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-gwv-rebels","category-gwv-rebels-girls","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-vflw","category-womens","tag-aflw-academy","tag-carlton-vflw","tag-darcy-vescio","tag-georgia-clarke","tag-greater-western-victoria-rebels","tag-gwv-rebels","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-rene-caris","tag-sophie-van-de-heuvel","tag-vic-country"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37962","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=37962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87879,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37962\/revisions\/87879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}