{"id":37965,"date":"2018-08-08T19:33:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T09:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=37965"},"modified":"2021-11-12T07:21:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T21:21:03","slug":"passionate-mclaren-leads-by-example-in-football-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/08\/passionate-mclaren-leads-by-example-in-football-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Passionate McLaren leads by example in football journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PERSEVERANCE and grasping opportunities have helped Oakleigh Chargers captain,\u00a0Hannah McLaren<\/strong>\u00a0reach the highest level of her junior football career. From somewhat sulking on the sidelines at Auskick, to leading the TAC Cup Girls side out each week, McLaren is a player who has grown throughout her football journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing Auskick,\u201d she said. \u201cI used to stand on the sidelines and watch my brother and I was so jealous. \u201cMum used to give me a sausage just to make me be quiet. \u201cBut I said to her \u2018I want to be out there\u2019 so I started playing Auskick with him and then all through juniors we played together and then finally it got to the stage I couldn\u2019t play anymore and I was devastated. \u201cThen finally my club got a girls team together so I was lucky enough to be able to play with Surrey Park for a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren recalls the moment she joined the Chargers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually got a call from\u00a0Luke<\/strong>\u00a0(O\u2019Shannessy<\/strong>, Oakleigh Chargers Girls coach) and he said \u2018we\u2019d like to have you on our list\u2019 and I said \u2018that sounds like a great opportunity to grow as a person, grow as a footballer\u2019 and that\u2019s how it all started really,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve loved it (captaining). \u201cIt was a good opportunity to grow as a leader, as a person, I found it coming into this year I was a bit nervous, but yeah really settled down and was able to lead the girls out for the nine games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her performances throughout the TAC Cup Girls season warranted selection in the Vic Metro squad, earning her place in the final 24-player side which travelled to the Gold Coast for the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, something she was looking forward to in the lead-up to the championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does mean a lot (Vic Metro selection),\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited. \u201cThe group of girls we\u2019ve got this year is absolutely fantastic. I think we will do really well this year. Hopefully we will just keep ticking by the training sessions and see how it all goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren credits her parents for giving her the opportunities to play at the level she does.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally I wouldn\u2019t be able to play footy without my parents, you know Mum drives me absolutely everywhere just to play the game I love,\u201d McLaren said. \u201cDad (Scott McLaren, AFL umpire) watching him growing up, I always loved watching him on the MCG umpiring. \u201cIt is a bit different playing, but I always had that goal to be at that elite level.\u201d<\/p>\n

While when she was younger the pathway was not what it is today, McLaren always aspired to play at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019ve) always had footy there,\u201d McLaren said. \u201cI\u2019ve played it constantly through my junior years so it\u2019s only now that the opportunity can arise. \u201cFor girls now my age and younger, have all got that to aspire to in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren has also noticed the clear rise in quality in the TAC Cup Girls competition as players improve and clubs build depth in the ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah absolutely, the standard the TAC lifted a lot this year,\u201d McLaren said. \u201cI think from where it was last year, it\u2019s higher intensity, it\u2019s a lot faster and the talent is growing just incredibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now McLaren is focusing on her studies as she comes to the end of her 13-year school journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am studying Year 12 at the moment, so it\u2019s a good balance between the two,\u201d McLaren said. \u201cI am looking to study at university next year, hopefully paramedicine or nursing, so that\u2019s a little goal of mine, but it\u2019s obviously a little difficult to balance the two, but I do think having footy there does keep me on top of my school work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of Collingwood\u2019s Victorian Football League (VFL) Women\u2019s side, McLaren has already tasted senior action early in the year and is looking forward to more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really good, I absolutely loved it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was good intensity and the group at Collingwood they really get around the new girls so it was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PERSEVERANCE and grasping opportunities have helped Oakleigh Chargers captain,\u00a0Hannah McLaren\u00a0reach the highest level of her junior football career. From somewhat sulking on the sidelines at Auskick, to leading the TAC Cup Girls side out each week, McLaren is a player who has grown throughout her football journey. \u201cI started playing Auskick,\u201d she said. \u201cI used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":31905,"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":[278,7950,8,11595,18222,137],"tags":[3299,3300,3297,9539,48,3396,1880],"class_list":["post-37965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-oakleigh-chargers","category-oakleigh-chargers-girls","category-womens","tag-collingwood-vflw","tag-hannah-mclaren","tag-luke-oshannessy","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-oakleigh-chargers","tag-scott-mclaren","tag-vic-metro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965","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=37965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87878,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965\/revisions\/87878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}