Crows AFLW gun Ebony Marinoff on chasing a third premiership, injuries, and her desire to become a leader at Adelaide
Ebony Marinoff has already enjoyed a success-filled start to her AFLW career. But with key Crows succumbing to injury, Adelaide will need her to step up in season 2020 for its premiership defence.
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Not many players win two premierships in their careers, or earn two All-Australian call-ups.
Even fewer achieve this by the age of 22 – throw in a Rising Star award for good measure – and become one of the best players in the competition in just their third year.
But Crows AFLW star midfielder Ebony Marinoff isn’t like most other players, and her career to date sums up the rapid rise of female footy in Australia.
It is one that started with Marinoff as the only girl playing in a boys’ team as a child and then teenager in the western suburbs of Adelaide, features her stealing the show at the 2017 AFLW best and fairest count when she interrupted winner Erin Phillips’ live interview by saying she was going to quit her job at Foodland, and most recently had her part of Australian sporting history featuring in that famous 2019 grand final win in front of more than 53,000 at Adelaide Oval.
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No wonder Marinoff is still coming to terms with what happened on March 31 2019, when 53,034 crammed into Adelaide Oval – a record for a stand-alone women’s sporting event in Australia – to watch the Crows demolish Carlton and claim their second AFLW crown.
“We (the Crows AFLW players) always go to the Showdown to watch the boys play … we know how big the Showdowns are and I saw an article where someone said the atmosphere and noise was similar in our grand final to a Showdown,” she said.
“I have experienced both and I can agree.
“You could not hear your teammate on grand final day, the noise was that loud.”
Marinoff is confident that moment will be a watershed one not just for AFLW, but for female sport in Australia.
“It was incredible and you know eventually it will happen again, but following it you think there’s no way it will happen again,” she said.
“We had the home ground advantage, they (the fans) were able to get Adelaide Oval for it.
“I feel that in that way it was almost one in a million.
“It’s the pinnacle for us and it will be a massive moment in the scheme of things for the league.
“To know you are being a kind of trailblazer for the game, it’s amazing and a real honour.”
That isn’t the only part of the day that Marinoff still hasn’t fully come to grips with.
“After it a few of us went to Bali, I went to Europe myself and when I came back I went to an event and I was introduced as a dual-premiership player,” she said.
“To be able to do that in only three seasons, some players don’t achieve that at all, so I definitely pinch myself because I’ve been able to do it by the age of 22.”
Not that Marinoff is at all content with her current haul.
“We still have our core group at good ages, so I think there can be a few more (premierships),” she said.
But the Crows face an uphill task to retain their AFLW crown and avoid a repeat of their 2018 season, in which the reigning premiers could only manage a fifth-placed finish.
After co-captain and AFLW star Erin Phillips and forward Chloe Scheer joined the Crows’ torn anterior cruciate ligaments club in the grand final at Adelaide Oval – joining ruck Rhiannon Metcalfe and Hannah Button – Adelaide’s pre-season for 2020 got off to the worst possible start.
In the Crows’ first session their other co-captain, Chelsea Randall, went down when changing direction during a drill.
The next day, scans confirmed the 28-year-old had torn her ACL in her right knee.
“It was devastating and heartbreaking for Chelsea, she is just the most positive person,” Marinoff said.
“To lose your co-captain on grand final day is terrible and then to lose your other one the first session back in pre-season just compounds it.
“But if I can find any positives, and it’s really hard to find one, but the fact it did happen on the first day of pre-season means it does give the girls some time.
“Not that it’s perfect timing for anyone, but let’s say that happened in mid-January it could really make some girls uneasy.”
But regardless of what psychological impact the timing of Randall’s injury may or may not have on the Crows’ group, the injury along with doubt of when Phillips will make her return – she is targeting round one, but said if her body isn’t 100 per cent will not risk it – there will be a big hole that Adelaide needs to fill.
“No-one can play like Randall, but I’ll step up in any way I can,” Marinoff said.
“I’ll take any responsibility that is given.”