{"id":68277,"date":"2020-06-09T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=68277"},"modified":"2020-06-09T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T05:49:09","slug":"qa-nyengela-mwajuma-brisbane-lions-academy-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2020\/06\/09\/qa-nyengela-mwajuma-brisbane-lions-academy-queensland\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Nyengela Mwajuma (Brisbane Lions Academy\/Queensland)"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last week, we head back to the pre-season where we chatted to a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central<\/em>‘s Taylah Melki<\/em><\/strong> chatted with Queensland’s Nyengela Mwajuma\u00a0<\/strong>at the state testing day hosted by Rookie Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q&A:<\/strong><\/h5>\n


\nTM: Nyengela,<\/strong> how did you get into footy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NM: “I think I got into footy through my teacher. We had a gala day and no one wanted to do it, but he just encouraged me and my friends to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We said) ‘Well okay’, we did it and it was actually really good, we were winning every game. These (recruiters) came to school to talk to us about preseason and training and I guess that’s how I got into it.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How old were you at that point?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It was primary school, I think I was in Grade 5.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That’s a long time, how have you found the evolution from then to now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I keep improving every year which is really good. At the beginning I was like ‘Do I really want to do this?’ but then my friends kept doing it and I thought that I might as well keep doing it.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is it that you love about footy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I guess making friends and travelling as well, because you do get to go to a lot of places. Just the skills that you learn throughout as well, life skills and how to keep healthy.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a particular area you’re hoping to improve on this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Probably my defending. Most times I just get carried away with following the ball and I forget that I have to go back and defend when the ball gets switched.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the flip side, what are some of your strengths?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Probably running. I’m really consistent with running, I make an effort to get to the ball every time.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are your hopes for 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I haven’t really thought about my hopes for 2020 but probably to make the next level in the Academy.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How are you finding being part of the Brisbane Lions Academy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Really good, because this is my first year and I felt really welcomed. I feel like I belong and I’m improving as training goes on.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is the training a bit more intense that what you’re used to, how have you found it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yes. At local (football) I play for the women’s team because there’s no Under 17 team and there’s a big jump, there’s a different age range so we have to adjust to the women. But here it’s more intense, it’s hard, it’s consistent.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a particular position you like to play on the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I like playing midfield.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I’ve just always played midfield. When I play other positions I don’t play my best like I do when I play in midfield.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have any AFL Women’s heroes or inspirations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“No, I don’t really watch AFL. I don’t really watch the game, I just play.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And how has the preseason been overall?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I feel like I gained a bit of weight over the holidays and preseason’s up there, (it\u2019s) really good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last week, we head back to the pre-season where we chatted to a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central‘s Taylah Melki chatted with Queensland’s Nyengela Mwajuma\u00a0at the state testing day hosted by Rookie Me. — Q&A: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":68281,"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":[5603,11616,278,8,3132,137],"tags":[74,3763,3615,2964,12427,11583,11827,12428,11744],"class_list":["post-68277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-brisbane-lions-academy","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-queensland","category-womens","tag-brisbane-lions-academy","tag-brisbane-lions-aflw","tag-brisbane-womens","tag-feature","tag-nyengela-mwajuma","tag-qa","tag-qna","tag-queensland-girls","tag-queensland-under-18"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68277","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}