EIGHTEEN year-old,\u00a0Lauren Stevenson\u00a0<\/b>thought she would not have the opportunity to represent the Eastern Allies in 2018.<\/p>\n
She was told by her coaches to give the younger girls a chance, which she was completely accepted. But then her coaches backflipped in the most pleasing way she could imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went and played for Tasmania against NSW\/ACT and yeah I don\u2019t know, they just had a meeting apparently and they changed their mind on the rule and they said \u2018we want you to come up and play in the Eastern Allies\u2019,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cI was over the moon, I was shocked, I was not expecting it because I\u2019d finally accepted that I couldn\u2019t go away but you know that\u2019s fine, give the other girls an opportunity. \u201cThen when I got that phone call, I was at work and I was buzzing at work. \u201cI\u2019m so fortunate and lucky to get another opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that opportunity, Stevenson revolutionised her game, thanks to the help of AFLW players,\u00a0Alicia Eva\u00a0<\/b>and\u00a0Nicola Barr.\u00a0<\/b>The Greater Western Sydney (GWS) duo coached the Eastern Allies in the 2018 AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships and Stevenson believes their advice was invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tournament, Alicia (Eva) and Nicola (Barr), who\u2019s the back coach, have asked me to play behind the player this time and mix it up and just spoil,\u201d the 18 year-old said. \u201cSo I\u2019ve changed my game a bit which has been different, but I have learnt a lot from playing a totally different game. \u201cI can\u2019t thank them enough for helping me and showing me the vision of what I did right and what I did wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back home at Latrobe in Tasmania, Stevenson thrives off the advice of her Dad, who was a keen footballer. When she was younger, she did whatever she could to be involved in football because like many other girls, she was told she was not allowed to play football after finishing off Auskick.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Dad was a really good footballer when he was younger and stuff and he\u2019s telling me all about his football,\u201d the Eastern Allies defender said. \u201cI\u2019d always go and help him at his club and run water for them or umpire, get around the footy boys and loved it there. \u201cAnything I could do to help, I was happy to because I just loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her father repays the support now, as does the rest of her family, who travelled up to the Gold Coast to watch Stevenson take the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole family\u2019s really supportive and really invested into my football,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mum\u2019s up here at the moment and Pop\u2019s watching me which is really good [this interview was conducted at the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships at Gold Coast]. \u201cDad\u2019s really helped me with wanting to go for a kick, he\u2019s more than happy to come help me with a kick, come to as many games as possible, same as my mum and my sister. \u201cThey\u2019ve all really helped me a lot with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevenson currently works with her Dad as a stable hand, which means very early starts to the day. But despite this, the 18 year-old maintains a full focus on footy, using most of her day after work to perfect her skills and fitness levels. Her typical routine is by no means a light one, as she describes how she balances work with footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the morning, it depends on when the jockeys come in as well what time we start, but 5am start, get to the track, take the horses in, work them all, do all the usual stuff, then we will finish at around 11-12pm,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cI picked up another training session, so Mondays I\u2019d finish up at the track, come back and do a speed session and then finish that off, have a little downtime, then I have football training that night so I\u2019d go to that. \u201cThe next day, the same things, get up early, finish at 12, then I have a strength session that night at the gym. \u201cThere\u2019s training on every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to her extra training, the 18 year-old is also a part of North Melbourne\u2019s senior academy. She has participated in many other training programs which add to her impressive football accolades as well, showing how determined she is to succeed in the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gone through the AFL Tasmania program which has been great,\u201d the defender said. \u201cI\u2019m doing all the TIS (Tasmanian Institute of Sport) testing, going through all the carnivals and all that jazz but now that North Melbourne came in and they\u2019re affiliated with Tasmania, they started up a senior academy. \u201cI think there\u2019s about 20 girls in it in the senior academy in Tasmania. \u201cWe all got strength and conditioning programs that we work with in our coaches and our regions and everything like that. \u201cEvery week you feel you\u2019re improving in your strengths and in your power, your speed and your endurance. \u201cIt has helped me a lot and I wouldn\u2019t be where I am now without those programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only has she been able to develop her skills, but being in the academy has also allowed her to narrow down her options in terms of picking an AFLW team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll nominate for North Melbourne,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201c I would love to play for North Melbourne, I\u2019ve barracked for them since I was little so I would love to pull on their jumper. \u201cBut if that doesn\u2019t happen, I\u2019d love to just play for any AFL club really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EIGHTEEN year-old,\u00a0Lauren Stevenson\u00a0thought she would not have the opportunity to represent the Eastern Allies in 2018. She was told by her coaches to give the younger girls a chance, which she was completely accepted. But then her coaches backflipped in the most pleasing way she could imagine. \u201cI went and played for Tasmania against NSW\/ACT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":37812,"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":[278,8,3133,11597,137],"tags":[3594,5351,3006,5905,5857,3012,6253,11643,6254],"class_list":["post-38100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-tasmania","category-tasmania-devils","category-womens","tag-afl-tasmania","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-alicia-eva","tag-eastern-allies","tag-lauren-stevenson","tag-nicola-barr","tag-north-melbourne-aflw","tag-tasmania-feature","tag-tasmanian-institute-of-sport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38100","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=38100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}