{"id":38772,"date":"2018-08-14T19:08:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T08:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=38772"},"modified":"2021-10-06T06:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:22:03","slug":"aflw-dream-burning-bright-for-degiacomi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/14\/aflw-dream-burning-bright-for-degiacomi\/","title":{"rendered":"AFLW dream burning bright for DeGiacomi"},"content":{"rendered":"

A LATECOMER to the sport, Geelong Falcons\u2019 key forward\u00a0Sachi DeGiacomi<\/strong>\u00a0has come a long way in a few years since taking up Aussie Rules, and now she cannot let it go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started football in Year 9,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen one of my friends asked me to come play at a club and originally my parents said no, but then they finally let me play. \u201cSo I started for a bit of fun. \u201cThen after about four weeks of playing, I got chosen to play interleague and then I\u2019ve just taken \u00a0footy a bit more serious from then.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGiacomi said she was not exactly sure how she made her way to the Falcons \u2013 no doubt found through her performances at a local level \u2013 but she is glad she did. DeGiacomi spoke of overcoming adversity and growing stronger as a group to propel themselves into the grand final, and take out the premiership on the back of an unbeaten year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that last year we faced a lot of hurdles together I guess you could say,\u201d she said. \u201cIt definitely brought us closer as a team and it\u2019s given us a lot of motivation to do well. \u201cI\u2019ve loved every minute of it, it\u2019s been just a great experience. \u201cEspecially the girls. \u201cThey\u2019re the best group of girls this year, and last year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The centre-half forward became a mainstay in the Falcons forward line, occasionally pushing up the ground, but became the main target inside 50. Her efforts throughout the year earned her the Leading Goalkicker Award, something she is proud to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty good feeling to win the leading goal kicker,\u201d DeGiacomi said. \u201cIt was alright that I could help get score on the board for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was the other award she won \u2013\u00a0Amy Gorell #30 Award<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 that she cherished the most. The award was established this year after\u00a0Amy Gorell<\/strong>, a Falcon last year was tragically killed in a car accident last year. It was to be awarded to a top-age player who demonstrates the behaviours that Gorell displayed as a player and leader of the Geelong Falcons: Commitment to the team\u2019s success; relentless in their pursuit to getting the best out of themselves; lead by example on and off the field; positively add to the team\u2019s culture; and constantly look for ways to improve as a player and leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so privileged to be able to be the first person to win that award,\u201d DeGiacomi said. \u201cTo know that the coaches see the same characteristics in me as they saw in Amy as a player, makes me extremely humbled. \u201cI also want to say thanks to the Gorell family for sharing the award with us, and have that, because it\u2019s a really great way to honour Amy.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGiacomi said through the tragedy, the group had grown stronger and formed a close bond throughout 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah definitely (it made us closer), you could tell the way we played together this year,\u201d she said. \u201cWe definitely played like we cared for each other and I guess that really came to show in all the wins, and us taking out the premiership as well. \u201cThe big situation brought us all together and made us appreciate each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

For DeGiacomi, she missed out on making Vic Country\u2019s squad for the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, but it has not slowed her desire to make the most of her football career at the highest possible level.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah I\u2019d love to keep taking my footy further and hopefully play a few more games in the VFL, or hopefully look to play AFL in the next couple of years,\u201d DeGiacomi said.<\/p>\n

The Geelong Falcons forward has been pleased with her contested marking and goalkicking ability in 2018, focusing on building her confidence and improving her decision making this season. DeGiacomi said she felt her development has not only come on the field, but off the field as well thanks to the club\u2019s development staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah heaps of development,\u201d she said. \u201cI think just even just as a person. I think\u00a0Jason<\/strong>\u00a0(Armistead<\/strong>, TAC Cup Girls coach) focused on building us as a person, not just as a footballer. \u201cI guess that really helped just with every day life. \u201cI thought I really developed as a footballer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Year 12 student has also been carefully balancing her workload, able to focus on her studies now the football season is coming to a close.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been alright (the workload),\u201d DeGiacomi said. \u201cThe Falcons was more towards the start of the year, so now that footy has backed off a little bit, I can focus more on school towards the end of the year, and exams and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGiacomi said her passion in sport transcended her on-field exploits and she hoped to get into the sporting industry and give back to the sport that she loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love just anything in sport really,\u201d she said. \u201cI did gymnastics for 12 years outside of footy and played basketball and I\u2019d probably like to be a physio at a footy club once I finish playing footy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might have seemed like an impossible career when she was young, but now her sights are firmly set on making the AFL Women\u2019s in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been supporting footy with my dad and always thought it would be great to play,\u201d DeGiacomi said. \u201cBut I never even really played at a local level so once I started doing that in Year 9, and then I started to take footy seriously. \u201cI think it was maybe a few years ago when all the talk of the AFL Women\u2019s league came about, I thought that it would actually be possible and then I really aspired to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A LATECOMER to the sport, Geelong Falcons\u2019 key forward\u00a0Sachi DeGiacomi\u00a0has come a long way in a few years since taking up Aussie Rules, and now she cannot let it go. \u201cI started football in Year 9,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen one of my friends asked me to come play at a club and originally my parents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":38822,"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":[7950,8,137],"tags":[6600,49,3329,3451],"class_list":["post-38772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-womens","tag-amy-gorell","tag-geelong-falcons","tag-jason-armistead","tag-sachi-degiacomi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38772","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=38772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87875,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38772\/revisions\/87875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}