{"id":41423,"date":"2018-10-24T14:24:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T04:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=41423"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:49:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:49:36","slug":"first-pick-morrison-super-excited-to-play-for-geelong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/10\/24\/first-pick-morrison-super-excited-to-play-for-geelong\/","title":{"rendered":"First pick, Morrison \u201csuper excited\u201d to play for Geelong"},"content":{"rendered":"

TWO years ago, Geelong Falcons midfielder, <\/span>Nina Morrison <\/b>had never played football. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, in the midst of Year 12 studies, the 18 year-old has been the first player selected to play for Geelong\u2019s first AFL Women\u2019s side. She is looking forward to starting at her new club and says other players should be honoured to be selected as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get into pre-season, meet all the other girls and just get stuck into it really,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cBut at the same time, I think it\u2019s important to recognise that with all the different regions and states you can nominate, there\u2019s effectively quite a few girls going at pick one for their region so it\u2019s a big honour for those girls as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those girls that got picked first in their region was Calder Cannons captain, <\/span>Madison Prespakis. <\/b>Prespakis was selected at pick three and went to Carlton. She was the first metropolitan player selected in the draft. Morrison and Prespakis have shared a lot of awards this year, both taking home the TAC Cup Girls Best and Fairest as well as the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championships Most Valuable Player (MVP). Morrison says Prespakis motivated her to improve her game. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Maddy and I shared quite a bit this year,\u201d she said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get the chance to play together too often, I think we only played together in one game at Adelaide. \u201cBut yeah, she\u2019s obviously a really talented player and works really hard on her game so it\u2019s good to be able to sort of push yourself off her. \u201cShe deserves everything that comes her way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prespakis and Morrison also shared the pressure of being touted as the number one draft pick. The Geelong Falcons midfielder felt it more so after Prespakis nominated for the Victorian metropolitan region, ruling her out of being the first pick of the AFL Women’s Draft. Morrison admits that she had to divert from thinking about being picked at number one and focus on her game. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ve just got to push it (pressure) to the the side a little bit, not take it too seriously,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cEspecially earlier in the year, I just focused on playing some good footy, working hard on my game and then just sort of not read too much into it I suppose. \u201cI\u2019m just super excited to get picked up and I wasn\u2019t really too fussed whether I went one or not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Morrison, a lifelong Geelong supporter, is starstruck about playing in the AFL Women\u2019s competition. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty weird sort of thing to consider,\u201d she said. \u201cLike two years ago and even at the start of this year, I would\u2019ve never thought I\u2019d be in the sort of position that I am. \u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing to wrap your head around but I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 18 year-old has always been involved in sports, admitting it\u2019s something that has always featured in her life. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom when I was younger, I\u2019ve always played a lot of sports,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cI\u2019ve done Nippers and swimming, tennis, soccer, so yeah I\u2019ve been very sporty all my life but only recently got into football. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always had a passion for sports. \u201cIt\u2019s always been part of my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her passion for football would have never come to fruition if her Dad did not send her to a talent ID day. She was in Year 10 at the time and admits she may have to thank him for his deed. Morrison also says her TAC Cup Girls team, the Geelong Falcons, have played a huge role in her development.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started down at a talent ID day at Deakin when I was in Year 10,\u201d she said. \u201cBasically from there, just got asked to play Falcons and played that for the last couple of years and that\u2019s been really important in my development. \u201cI couldn\u2019t speak more highly of everyone at the Falcons.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, moving onto the next chapter of her life, Morrison explains to Cats fans what she has to offer. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI provide a lot of outside run and I work really hard so I\u2019ve got a really good work ethic,\u201d she said. \u201cSecond efforts and intensity is a big part of my game.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TWO years ago, Geelong Falcons midfielder, Nina Morrison had never played football. Now, in the midst of Year 12 studies, the 18 year-old has been the first player selected to play for Geelong\u2019s first AFL Women\u2019s side. She is looking forward to starting at her new club and says other players should be honoured to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":34804,"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":[3115,278,11590,8],"tags":[6502,2763,5351,784,49,158,9539,3326],"class_list":["post-41423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw","category-feature-articles","category-geelong-falcons","category-news","tag-afl-womens-draft","tag-afl-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-geelong-cats","tag-geelong-falcons","tag-madison-prespakis","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-nina-morrison"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41423","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=41423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}