{"id":38616,"date":"2018-08-09T19:49:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T09:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=38616"},"modified":"2021-11-12T07:28:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T21:28:25","slug":"fathers-influence-inspired-jemma-owens-love-for-aussie-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/09\/fathers-influence-inspired-jemma-owens-love-for-aussie-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Father’s influence inspired Jemma Owen\u2019s love for Aussie Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEING the daughter of a man that has played and coached over 500 games in Melbourne\u2019s south east region is no easy feat to live up to. <\/span><\/p>\n

Throw in an uncle who is a former Victorian Football Association (VFA) player for Oakleigh, and you have one talented football family. But perhaps the most talented of them all is Sandringham Dragons captain, <\/span>Jemma Owen. <\/b><\/p>\n

Owen\u2019s name became well-known when she booted a bag of 16 goals for her local team, Highett, and since that moment, has grown in leaps and bounds. The 18 year-old credits her improvement to the dedication of her late father, Kevin. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo I got into footy through my dad,\u201d Owen said. \u201cMy dad coached and played over 500 games. \u201cJust going down to the ground with him and watching the boys play, I was like that\u2019s what I want to do when I grow up, I want to play footy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Owen first picked up a football in a competitive environment at Auskick, where many TAC Cup Girls players discovered their love for the game. After playing with the boys for many years, the Sandringham skipper grasped the rising opportunities for females at the time, and reflected on how the pathway has grown over the years. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely coming through the ranks and going through Auskick and everything to playing with the boys, they\u2019re kind of like oh there\u2019s a girl!,\u201d Owen said. \u201cNow seeing that there\u2019s so many girls playing and having the opportunity to come through is really great.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before she started to take her opportunities in football, Owen did athletics for 11 years. She competed in discus and loved playing that sport, as well as many other sports, but football was always in the back of her mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do every sport under the sun,\u201d Owen said. \u201cAthletics was always there and I wasn\u2019t bad at it, my thing was discus. \u201cObviously as I got older, the body started to get bigger and I was still small, and so I couldn\u2019t compete at that level so definitely footy was the big thing for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, Owen has been able to grasp an opportunity that not many players get to have. After four years playing in Dragons colours, she led the side in 2018 and was thrilled to do so. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very honoured to be picked as captain,\u201d Owen said. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing with Sandringham for four years and finally getting the chance to captain them and playing under awesome captains is definitely a proud moment for me and definitely one I\u2019ll remember.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another memorable moment for Owen came this year when she was selected in Vic Metro\u2019s AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships squad. Owen featured in Metro\u2019s match against Vic Country at GMHBA Stadium and was just glad to be selected in the first place. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a massive honour (being selected),\u201d the Dragons captain said. \u201cI\u2019ve probably worked for four years to have this opportunity and to be selected to play. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity and something I\u2019ve wished for for a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The hard work has paid off as Owen is now a member of the Southern Saints’ Victorian Football League (VFL) Women\u2019s team. The 18 year-old has played six games for the Saints this season and has thoroughly enjoyed the transition to VFLW.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an awesome opportunity,\u201d Owen said. \u201cThe girls down there have been really great. \u201cThey\u2019re really supportive of the TAC girls coming down. \u201cIt\u2019s been an awesome opportunity to play at that elite level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEING the daughter of a man that has played and coached over 500 games in Melbourne\u2019s south east region is no easy feat to live up to. Throw in an uncle who is a former Victorian Football Association (VFA) player for Oakleigh, and you have one talented football family. But perhaps the most talented of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":32905,"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":[278,7950,8,11596,18223,3121,137],"tags":[5351,3306,6488,9539,42,4717,2802,1880],"class_list":["post-38616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-sandringham-dragons","category-sandringham-dragons-girls","category-vflw","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-jemma-owen","tag-kevin-owen","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-sandringham-dragons","tag-southern-saints","tag-vflw","tag-vic-metro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38616","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=38616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87877,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38616\/revisions\/87877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}