{"id":58969,"date":"2019-10-03T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T07:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=58969"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:21:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:21:54","slug":"decorated-abbott-reaching-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/10\/03\/decorated-abbott-reaching-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Decorated Abbott reaching new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

AT only 18-years-old Shoneeka Abbott<\/a><\/strong> has been dealt her fair share of obstacles in her football journey, but come out better than ever with plenty of high praise despite her age. <\/p>\n

Abbott represented Central Allies in the 2019 AFL Women\u2019s Under-18 Championships, earning a debut for NT Thunder VFL Women’s and awarded the CAFL Rising Star Award in August for her efforts in the Central Australian Football League.<\/p>\n

The Alice Springs local was not allowed to play football during her junior years despite plenty of begging on her part, not getting a real opportunity to put boot to ball until moving to Darwin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually like four or five years ago, I couldn\u2019t play AFL Women\u2019s back at home because I was too young so I had to go through school, but it was even difficult going through there because I was still too young,” Abbott said. “So I begged them to let me play and then it all started from there and girl\u2019s academy, and then that\u2019s when I went away to Darwin and that\u2019s when I got noticed. \u201cI was in Year 7, so I was so young and they wouldn\u2019t let me, and I had to beg, beg, beg until they let me.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many would have taken that to heart the defender was unwilling to give up, proving everyone wrong when she was finally able to prove herself on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always played back in state and all that but when I\u2019m back home I switch back to the middle\u2026 I like to support the players at the back and blocking the goals, it\u2019s fun, the back line is so important, but I find every position important,” Abbott said. \u201cIt was a little bit later, after I came back from Darwin, the local team – like my mother\u2019s team, noticed like \u2018oh hey you look pretty good, you can handle it\u2019 and I was like \u2018yeah that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been saying!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old started out as a basketballer along with some junior netball experience, but had plenty of love for footy despite not being allowed to play for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of my family, sort of. My grandpa played it, my uncles, cause I usually grew up with fellas around me so it was always about football, football, basketball and so yeah it\u2019s just always been part of me,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cI\u2019d been playing basketball all my life so I was like, I just need to lay off basketball for a little bit, and just focus on football and see where I go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with making the switch from basketball, Abbott also made the switch from her home town of Alice Springs to Darwin, moving away from family and friends to play a higher level of footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually pretty shocked,” she said. “Because it was my first time and I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t be this good!\u2019. “I was actually pretty scared because I\u2019ve really not travelled that far before, like I\u2019d been away for basketball and always to Darwin but this was a different sport, a different team and people and I just felt really nervous and scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was family that got her through however, with plenty of support back home spurring her on both in Darwin and when representing Northern Territory in the Central Allies. Abbott was the only Alice Springs player selected, proving her real potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple of times where I thought about giving up because of the difficulties, cause I\u2019m from Alice Springs and I can\u2019t communicate from Darwin that well,” Abbott said. “Yeah definitely my uncle, my mum, just everyone telling me not to give up and keep on going,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cI still live in Alice, so it\u2019s still difficult for me because I\u2019m the only Alice girl here. I think just to make everyone proud at home, all the family and stuff. “Sometimes I find it difficult because like, Darwin girls have got each other and then there\u2019s Adelaide girls that have got each other, and then there\u2019s just me, one Alice girl!\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott said representing the Allies was an honour, with the defender remarking that she would definitely like to get drafted as the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I\u2019m from, it\u2019s like a big honour,” she said. “Just representing both states, SA and the Territory is just amazing,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cI think (my strengths) would be my ground ball and my one percenters, just going in there, trying to handpass it to the back or front\u2026 I can\u2019t really run a whole field, that\u2019s why I love the back but yeah, running I need to improve on a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AT only 18-years-old Shoneeka Abbott has been dealt her fair share of obstacles in her football journey, but come out better than ever with plenty of high praise despite her age. Abbott represented Central Allies in the 2019 AFL Women\u2019s Under-18 Championships, earning a debut for NT Thunder VFL Women’s and awarded the CAFL Rising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":58940,"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":[5603,278,7232,137],"tags":[11632,9032,10047,10048,10045,10046],"class_list":["post-58969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-feature-articles","category-northern-territory","category-womens","tag-northern-territory-features","tag-shoneeka-abbott","tag-shoneeka-abbott-aflw-feature","tag-shoneeka-abbott-aflw-u18s","tag-shoneeka-abbott-central-allies","tag-shoneeka-abbott-northern-territory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58969","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=58969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}