{"id":56545,"date":"2019-08-22T18:03:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T08:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=56545"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:40:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:40:43","slug":"passion-and-determination-drives-doyle-to-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/08\/22\/passion-and-determination-drives-doyle-to-succeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Passion and determination drives Doyle to succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

AT only 17-years-old, Lillian Doyle<\/strong> has plenty of talent and passion to boot, playing for Eastern Allies in the AFL Women\u2019s U18 Championships and giving both soccer and rugby a try before making the switch to footy, having always been interested in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kicking the soccer ball over at the AFL oval across from my home one time and I had one of the AFL coaches come up to me and say ‘oh you have a hectic left foot, do you want to come and play AFL with the boys’,” Doyle said. I\u2019d grown up with a whole bunch of boys so I was a bit of a tomboy myself and I\u2019d always wanted to play footy. \u201cI grew up playing rugby when I was younger but I hit 12 and then I couldn\u2019t play anymore. I was 13 when they (AFL coaches) picked me up actually, and they said I was allowed to play with the boys so obviously I snatched that opportunity up and here I am five years later still playing footy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle has a wealth of experience, playing with the SUNS Academy prior to joining Eastern Allies and showcasing her versatility with a willingness to shake up her position on the field when needed, such as being thrown back during the AFLW Under-18 Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I actually played with the Suns Academy quite a few years back before I played with the NSW side, and we trained there (at Metricon Stadium) quite a few times and every time we go there it blows me away, it\u2019s just such an amazing field and it\u2019s amazing that they actually allow us to play on it every year,” she said. “I think it\u2019s a really good opportunity to at least showcase to the other girls who are coming into the AFL academies that, you know, this is where you can come to one day and what you might be playing on one day.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thrown in back quite a few times, I think when coaches have a few they can throw up forward \u2026 it\u2019s good to experience something different and just to give it a go, I\u2019m more of a flexible player I suppose in that regard and yeah nah it was awesome I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her second year with the Eastern Allies, Doyle says the standard of the competition has lifted immensely with plenty of talent coming through the ranks and in the coaching staff, ensuring players hit their full potential. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe development has been great, the amount of talent that I\u2019ve seen come through this system is just remarkable,” Doyle said. “Jess Whelan<\/strong> is one of the youngest and she\u2019s an absolute star, she\u2019s just such a standout and just to see these girls come through and show their talent – I just can\u2019t wait to meet them in the AFLW one day, it\u2019s going to be amazing. \u201cAlicia Eva<\/strong> has been our coach for a couple years, she\u2019s definitely somebody that I idolise, she\u2019s just been an amazing support throughout the years and even having her in this academy – it\u2019s been very rewarding for all of us girls, she\u2019s someone I really look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the skill of her teammates has lifted, Doyle\u2019s own strengths have become more apparent too with quick hands and a left foot some of her trademark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m really good at attacking the ball,” she said. “I think one of the things I can showcase is my hands and apart from that probably my left foot, not many girls in the competition have a left foot so that\u2019s something that\u2019s a little bit different and unique. \u201cProbably something I can work on would be my cardio, I think that I\u2019ve got a lot to work on with my sprints and my long distance but I mean there\u2019s always stuff to work on, always things to improve. AFL is a sport where you can always develop and you\u2019ve always got things to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her 2018 AFLW Under-18 Championships run saw her put out a match-saving performance against the Central Allies, kicking two final quarter goals to cement victory for Eastern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable, that was the peak of my career I believe at that point in time,” Doyle said. “It was amazing and I remember like it was yesterday actually, I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been a year already but yeah I think I actually snatched one off the ground that bounced back up to me and I got a goal so that was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Doyle\u2019s football journey alone has been big, the massive travel time getting to and from training and games is a testament to how important football is for Doyle, proving that love, talent and drive to play the sport is worth every moment of travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo since I\u2019m from Grafton it\u2019s a six hour drive – or one and a half hour flight, so it\u2019s quite a trek to get down to NSW when we do train,\u201d she said. \u201cI actually play for Coolangatta up here (Gold Coast) so I travel up here once a week to train and then back up the highway once again we go on a Saturday to play. So I\u2019m quite used to the travel by now and definitely get sick of it quite fast but it\u2019s something I don\u2019t mind doing because I love footy that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle says the ultimate goal for her football journey is to make AFLW and get to the highest level possible. However she doesn\u2019t want to put too much pressure on herself, maintaining that it was something she came into because it was fun and exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of girls put a lot of pressure on themselves just to make it into the AFLW \u2026 I\u2019d love to make AFLW, that\u2019s something I aspire to achieve and hope to make the draft at the end of the year, fingers crossed. But yeah I think a lot of girls put a lot of pressure on themselves so I\u2019m just trying not to put a lot of pressure on myself as well, just take it as it comes and hopefully make the draft, that would be amazing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AT only 17-years-old, Lillian Doyle has plenty of talent and passion to boot, playing for Eastern Allies in the AFL Women\u2019s U18 Championships and giving both soccer and rugby a try before making the switch to footy, having always been interested in the sport. \u201cI was kicking the soccer ball over at the AFL oval […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":56553,"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":[5603,278,8,3129,137],"tags":[3006,9681,5362,9685,9684,11627],"class_list":["post-56545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-nsw-act","category-womens","tag-alicia-eva","tag-jess-whelan","tag-lillian-doyle","tag-lillian-doyle-eastern-allies-feature","tag-lillian-doyle-feature","tag-nsw-act-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56545","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\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}