Former GWS player Stephanie Walker is over her injuries and ready to fly with the Eagles in their inaugural SANFLW campaign
An ex-GWS player is hoping to reignite her career with Woodville-West Torrens in the club’s inaugural SANFLW season.
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INJURIES have derailed much of Stephanie Walker’s football career, leading the ex-Greater Western Sydney forward to lose confidence and start to fall out of love with the game.
The 24-year-old only managed three matches for the Giants in 2017, mainly due to recurring shoulder complaints, before being delisted at the end of their inaugural campaign.
Walker hopes lining up with Woodville-West Torrens this coming SANFLW season, beginning next month, will help reignite her passion for the sport and lead to another AFLW opportunity.
“I’ve been a bit injury-prone, so I didn’t put my name up (for AFLW) this year,” Walker, of Pooraka, says.
“I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play for GWS after I had a shoulder reconstruction.
“I came back from surgery and not much later I was playing for the Giants.
“But I wanted to get myself mentally prepared again, which is why I decided to try and play SANFL.
“I just wanted to get back into the groove of things and get a bit of love for the game again.
“But playing AFLW again would be amazing.”
Originally from Tumut, a town in the Riverina region of NSW, Walker played for Sydney University and won the club’s best and fairest in 2014 before joining the Giants.
She moved to Adelaide at the beginning of last year with her girlfriend, Megan Andresen, who was originally from SA.
Walker featured with Adelaide University in 2018, only to partially dislocate her hip during the Blacks’ grand final loss to Salisbury in September.
The defender is now fit and training with the Eagles, where Andresen is also playing, ahead of the club’s inaugural game against Glenelg at Noarlunga on Friday, February 15.
“I think I am going to play off the half-back line with the Eagles this year and I’m really excited about that,” says Walker, a school services officer at Brahma Lodge Primary School.
“We are all ready to rip in and get some games under our belts.
“We have a really young squad but I think we have a lot of talent and will do pretty well.”
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