{"id":41442,"date":"2018-10-25T13:03:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T03:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=41442"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:48:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:48:37","slug":"lifelong-footballer-prespakis-finally-gets-to-pull-on-an-aflw-jumper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/10\/25\/lifelong-footballer-prespakis-finally-gets-to-pull-on-an-aflw-jumper\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifelong footballer Prespakis finally gets to pull on an AFLW jumper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madison Prespakis<\/b>\u2019 football journey began at her local club, Romsey as a four year-old. <\/span><\/p>\n

She played Australian Rules with the boys from Auskick level up to Under 14s, where she was told she had to stop playing football. Now, Prespakis has grasped an opportunity she never thought she would receive. She was selected at pick three in the AFL Women\u2019s Draft, and was the first metropolitan player selected. Prespakis is over the moon to be playing at Carlton, admitting this opportunity looked dead and gone four years ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming and for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought my career was going to be cut short with the boys. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get this opportunity. \u201cNow that it\u2019s come ahead, I really jumped at it with both hands and worked as hard as I could. \u201cDreams come true, it\u2019s not fake because it actually happens and for me, it\u2019s come true. \u201cI\u2019m just so happy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prespakis admits she still remembers her time at Romsey, and is thankful for not only her experience at that club, but all of her junior clubs. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI reflect on those days a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cI went down there (Romsey) a few weeks ago. \u201cFor me, that was my home and I was always down there playing with the boys and yeah, I just love everything about that club. \u201cI\u2019m very thankful for them and thankful for every pathway I\u2019ve had to come through to get where I am today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since playing at Romsey, Prespakis has enjoyed time at the Sunbury Lions and the Calder Cannons, excelling at both clubs. At the Lions, she was named best-on-ground in her last Under-18 premiership with the club, while at the Calder Cannons, she won the Best and Fairest this year. Prespakis’ family has been there all the way through, and she is extremely grateful for their support through her football journey. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor my family, I think it\u2019d mean everything to them to see me achieve the dream that I\u2019ve always really wanted to since I was a little girl,\u201d Prespakis said. \u201cI know my Dad will be so proud of me. \u201cHe\u2019s been there from the start to now and unfortunately for my Dad, he has to take that little step back and let me do what I\u2019m doing but it\u2019s all thanks to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her family was also the reason why she decided to nominate for the Victorian metropolitan region. The decision knocked back her chances of being selected at number one to head to Geelong, but Prespakis says she doesn\u2019t regret her decision. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGeelong did obviously come into talk and for me, my family comes first,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me to be close to the home, I felt that I had to be in a Melbourne-based team. \u201cAfter nominating metropolitan for the draft, I didn\u2019t have any regrets. \u201cNow I\u2019m a ‘blue bagger’ so I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The player that did get selected at pick number one, <\/span>Nina Morrison, <\/b>has been right up there with Prespakis all year. The pair were the joint winners of the TAC Cup Girls Best and Fairest and shared the AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Prespakis couldn\u2019t speak more highly of the Geelong midfielder, and believes she will excel at the Cats. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we go back to back with a few things together,\u201d the Vic Metro midfielder said. \u201cShe\u2019s a package player. \u201cShe is where she is today because of hard work and yeah, she deserves everything that comes her way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Focusing on her own football future, Prespakis wants to keep playing her style of football in Carlton colours. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose just for me, I just want to play good footy and keep playing the footy I play and play my role,\u201d she said. \u201cMy first goal probably now is to get through pre-season and hopefully tick off Round 1.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madison Prespakis\u2019 football journey began at her local club, Romsey as a four year-old. She played Australian Rules with the boys from Auskick level up to Under 14s, where she was told she had to stop playing football. Now, Prespakis has grasped an opportunity she never thought she would receive. She was selected at pick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":37510,"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":[3115,11587,278,8],"tags":[5351,47,55,158,9539,3326,7319,7320,138],"class_list":["post-41442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw","category-calder-cannons","category-feature-articles","category-news","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-calder-cannons","tag-carlton","tag-madison-prespakis","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-nina-morrison","tag-romsey","tag-sunbury-lions","tag-tac-cup-girls"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41442","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=41442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}