WHEN\u00a0Ella Smith\u00a0<\/b>began playing football, she was playing in a three-team competition.<\/p>\n
Prior to this, she was the only girl kicking the footy around with the boys in a small town in Western Australia (WA). It is safe to say that Smith did not predict being on the verge of an opportunity to play AFL Women\u2019s as an 18 year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so crazy how fast it\u2019s happened,\u201d Smith said about the development of the AFL Women\u2019s competition. \u201cWe literally had three teams in my comp (competition). \u201cI didn\u2019t think by this time, we would have AFL Women\u2019s, like I think it\u2019s something to motivate us, something to look forward to at the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the AFL Women\u2019s came about, Smith did athletics for a long period of time, but wanted a change. The change spurred her love for football and since then, she has grown in leaps and bounds in the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did athletics since I was like 11 then just kind of progressed and it was just athletics and basketball,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut I kind of got a bit tired of it so I went over to play footy. \u201cI don\u2019t know, it just kind of got repetitive. \u201cI just wanted to do something different so I found footy.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she found footy, she headed straight off to her local Youth Girls competition and progressed from there into representing her state at the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships. Smith said her father and older brothers have had a big influence on her decision to take up the sport competitively.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up with older brothers and my dad had a big influence so I kind of just got into it when I first started high school,\u201d she said. \u201cI just started out at Youth Girls down at a small town in WA away from Perth. \u201cSo I played at Souths (South Bunbury) there for probably three years doing juniors and then moved up to Perth and started playing for a WAFL (Western Australian Football League) club called South Fremantle. \u201cNow I\u2019m playing league down in Bunbury for Souths (South Bunbury) again. \u201cThis is my second year of 18s as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Smith first got selected to play for Western Australia, she was overcome with many different feelings. Once the tournament was over, she realised it was one of the most memorable experiences in her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was probably the best thing I\u2019ve done in my whole life,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI can say for all the girls, we all worked so hard and then to finally find out that you\u2019re going to Queensland, it was crazy. \u201cI can\u2019t even explain it really, it was just a wave of all emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith continues to work hard outside of the Championships, using football to relieve the stress of Year 12 studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get up early and go to the gym some days and then go straight to school, come home and study, and then go training or go gym or go to work,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve got no time, no social life but social life is my footy. \u201cIn a way, it\u2019s kind of good, it keeps you really focused. \u201cI think with school being so hard, footy\u2019s my outlet. \u201cI think it\u2019s healthy for anyone with any sport, it\u2019s a healthy thing to do outlet-wise. \u201cEven though it\u2019s really busy, I think it\u2019s really good for me that I am busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith hopes to develop both in her studies and her football as she gets older. Once she finishes high school, she would like to study early childhood teaching. In terms of football, she just wants to keep learning in order to make her name known within elite footy circles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 18, but just because I\u2019m still developing a lot and I think playing with a bunch of girls that are all just really really good, I think it brings me up as well,\u201d the West Australian said. \u201cI\u2019m learning so much still. \u201cI\u2019m in my second year and I\u2019ve learnt so much more than I had last year, being a first-timer. \u201cLearning how elite programs work, it\u2019s kind of a little taste of AFLW, like something to look forward to. \u201cIt keeps you motivated by just learning heaps and continuing to develop. \u201cYou can\u2019t not get better if that makes sense, you\u2019ve just got so much to still develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Smith will continue playing for South Bunbury in the South West Football League, where she has kicked 10 goals from nine games. Her side plays in the semi-final this weekend against Bunbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHEN\u00a0Ella Smith\u00a0began playing football, she was playing in a three-team competition. Prior to this, she was the only girl kicking the footy around with the boys in a small town in Western Australia (WA). It is safe to say that Smith did not predict being on the verge of an opportunity to play AFL Women\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":38213,"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":[278,8,11614,3131,137],"tags":[5351,157,4834,6787,1715,6788,1921,11630],"class_list":["post-39515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-south-fremantle","category-western-australia","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-aflw","tag-ella-smith","tag-south-bunbury","tag-south-fremantle","tag-south-west-football-league","tag-western-australia","tag-western-australia-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39515","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=39515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}