{"id":38866,"date":"2018-08-17T16:19:46","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T06:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=38866"},"modified":"2020-04-23T07:02:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T21:02:29","slug":"juggling-multiple-sports-no-problem-for-passionate-rachel-dunstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/08\/17\/juggling-multiple-sports-no-problem-for-passionate-rachel-dunstan\/","title":{"rendered":"Juggling multiple sports no problem for passionate Rachel Dunstan"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTH Australia Under 18 representative, <\/span>Rachel Dunstan <\/b>has always played netball and basketball. After seeing an online registration link for the Under 18 South Australian football side last year, she thought she would add another sport to her belt. Little did she know that she would discover a love for the sport and face a difficult decision to give away her other sports in pursuit of an AFLW contract. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just love lots of different sports,\u201d Dunstan said. \u201cIt was hard to quit one so I always just tried to play as much as I could. \u201cFooty was never a thing that I really looked into much. \u201cBut then in SA, because they didn\u2019t have many teams or anything, they put out a registration form and it got cut from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dunstan was fortunate enough to make the final cut for the state side last year in her first ever year of football. Now that she has backed up her performance this year with a spot in the South Australian and Central Allies outfits, the 18 year-old admits that she has found a new belief in herself to progress further with football. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to start thinking about taking it further,\u201d Dunstan said. \u201cI\u2019m looking to get drafted. \u201cThis year is obviously my top-age year but I feel like I\u2019ve come in so late so I\u2019ve got so much more to learn. \u201cIt would be a bonus if I got drafted this year but I think with a good pre-season behind me, learning more and sticking to one position, I\u2019ll be ready to go for next season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But at the moment, Dunstan is content with balancing football, netball and basketball due to her passion for the sports. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone told me I\u2019m crazy to do both this year with everything going on but I live in a really small community town and just know everyone, my whole family\u2019s there so I just can\u2019t give away that whole day on a Saturday because the boys footy and girls netball are at the same venue every week,\u201d Dunstan said. \u201cI absolutely love it, I just couldn\u2019t give up playing netball yet even though I\u2019m trying to balance them both.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the middle of this trifecta of sports is her Year 12 studies. Dunstan admits she doesn\u2019t have much time on her plate, as she describes a typical week. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo normally a week would be four trainings a week and that\u2019s netball, basketball and footy,\u201d she said. \u201cThen there\u2019s games on a weekend, normally state trainings would be on a Sunday morning then I play netball on Saturdays. \u201cThen club footy is either a Friday night or a Sunday. \u201cI don\u2019t have much time and I really have to make sure I get it (homework) done at school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment, Dunstan is busy studying the game of Australian Rules, admitting that she has an analytical side, which she has had since childhood. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just love it (footy) so I would watch most games, all the boys every weekend, and I\u2019m pretty analytic so I know exactly what\u2019s going on,\u201d she said. \u201c I\u2019m good at just reading the play and identifying things in the game even though I probably couldn\u2019t do it in the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To improve her craft in the game, Dunstan is playing her first year of local football for the South Australian Women\u2019s Football League (SAWFL) Under 18 side, Morphettville Park. Even though it was hard to land at a club, the 18 year-old is glad that she did, as it has given her an opportunity to develop her skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year was my first SANFL Women\u2019s,\u201d she said. \u201cMy zone didn\u2019t have one (a team) so the state talent managers really had to get me at a different club and that was about an hour and a half away from where I live. \u201cIt was two trainings a week. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really close but yeah I\u2019m loving playing club this year. \u201cIt\u2019s good to just practice things there as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dunstan says her football skills have been progressing since she was a child, as she explains her love for the local club football environment. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just always grown up around a footy at the local footy club and kicking it around,\u201d the Central Allies representative said. \u201cI obviously kicked the footy with all the A Grade boys when I was younger so that just made me love it. \u201cI played state last year and this is my first proper year at a local club so yeah it\u2019s been good but lots of improvement to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as appearing for South Australia and the Central Allies in the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships, Dunstan has been named in the best for Morphettville Park\u2019s Under 18 side five times in eight games. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOUTH Australia Under 18 representative, Rachel Dunstan has always played netball and basketball. After seeing an online registration link for the Under 18 South Australian football side last year, she thought she would add another sport to her belt. Little did she know that she would discover a love for the sport and face a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":37576,"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":[278,8,3130,11604,137,11606],"tags":[5351,157,5904,5993,5289,6453,234,11631,1747,9823],"class_list":["post-38866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-south-australia","category-sturt","category-womens","category-wwt-eagles","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-aflw","tag-central-allies","tag-morphettville-park","tag-rachel-dunstan","tag-sawfl","tag-south-australia","tag-south-australia-features","tag-sturt","tag-wwt-eagles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38866","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=38866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}