South Adelaide forward Jorja Rowe travels more than 800km a week just to play in the SANFLW

Jorja Rowe travels more than 800km a week in a car just to play football with South Adelaide in the SANFLW.

South Adelaide SANFLW rising star Jorja Rowe (pictured at Noarlunga) travels from Mildura to Adelaide once a week for training and games. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette.

SHE travels more than 800km a week in a car just to play football.

But Jorja Rowe says making the four-hour-plus trip from Mildura to Adelaide for training and games with South Adelaide’s SANFLW side is like driving home.

“It (the drive) is definitely very demanding at times,” Rowe, 20, says.

“But now, the way the girls have come together and the way the club gets around us, it’s like a second home.”

Rowe’s reason for spending long hours driving to play in the state league women’s competition goes even deeper than just wanting to forge an AFLW career.

The forward’s grandfather, Wally Keeble, was a legend at South Mildura Football Club, playing more than 400 games for the Bulldogs.

Keeble, who had a change room and the wing at South Mildura named after him, died of pancreatic cancer, aged 74, in February last year.

Rowe has a special message from him tattooed on her wrist – to honour him and help her push through tough times both on and off the football field.

“I got Pop to write ‘I love you, pawdy’ on a piece of paper,” she says.

“He used to call me ‘pawdy-pie’.

“Then I got it tattooed on my wrist and I always look up at the sky or, when I kick a goal, point to it.

“What makes me want to pursue it (football) a bit more is that someone invested in me and was interested in my dream and I want to live it out and make him proud.”

Rowe, who also plays with Werrimull Magpies in Mildura’s Sunraysia Women’s Football League, shares car trips to Adelaide with Panthers teammate Elly Davison.

Davison, also from Mildura, is Rowe’s foe on the field back home as she plays for the Gol Gol Hawks.

They are two of 23 players within the SANFLW who drive from rural or country SA – from as far afield as Mount Gambier, Nuriootpa, Coomandook and Barmera – to feature in the competition.

Rowe is able to attend only one training session a week and says South Adelaide coach Krissie Steen is fully supportive.

“It’s a dream come true, playing at this level and being surrounded by elite coaching staff,” Rowe says.