Crows co-captain Erin Phillips has spent the off-season getting back to basics to make AFLW 2019 her most injury-free season yet
On the eve of a new AFLW season, Crows co-captain Erin Phillips sits down to talk motherhood, basketball coaching and going back to basics to get her body right. Plus, get to know your 2019 Crows squad.
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THERE’S no sugar coating it. No spin or sweet words. And maybe that’s just the way it should be, that Crows co-captain Erin Phillips only has this to say to describe her 2018 AFLW campaign: “highly frustrating”.
Season two for Phillips was dominated by a persistent quad strain, alongside the team being unable to back up its stunning premiership of the previous year.
“The success that we had in year one, you want to replicate it and be on the park, so straining my quad again was very frustrating and not being able to perform at the level that you want is hard,” the 33-year-old former Australian basketballer says.
“But it put things into perspective for me personally, that I probably needed to go back to basics with my body.”
And that going back to basics has been an essential element of the Phillips who stands before you now, 12 months on and on the eve of AFLW03: a lean, muscular athlete with a determined focus in her eyes.
At the conclusion of the last season she left South Australia and headed back to her second home in Texas — with an exciting new job as assistant coach at WNBA team Dallas Wings to start — and there she also began getting her body right, with the help of specialised coaches at the Dallas-based Michael Johnson Performance Centre.
The centre, which offers personalised athletic training programs using the philosophies of sprinter and Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson, does a lot of work with NFL players, particularly punters.
But Phillips’s was a whole new sport.
“To be honest, they didn’t know too much about Australian rules football before I came in and (my coach) had to watch film to understand it; ‘OK, what are we going to do with you?’.
“I went back to basics with them, going through my running technique … going back to the technical things about how to run properly that I’d never been taught on a basketball court.
“Simple things, like where your foot strikes the ground, using your arms, things I never really thought about. In basketball you don’t get trained to run, you just run. (But) going from basketball to football on a much bigger field, it’s different … (I was) learning the biomechanics of my body to help my quad to get stronger and more flexible.”
The centre also worked on her kicking, how she activates her hips, gluts and core. They made her little muscles more flexible by starting training sessions with her spending eight minutes in a hot spa. They worked through her body’s functional movements to give her deeper ranges of motion.
“You’re put in really interesting positions when you’re out there on a football field, you go to kick and someone tackles you, so there’s all different ways your body is under pressure, and being able to work through really deep ranges became important for me,” the #13 says.
“It was a great way to come into this season. You think as an athlete who’s been playing in a professional environment for a long time (closing in on two decades) you think you’ve been taught everything you need to know and it’s really refreshing.”
So when Phillips took to Darwin’s TIO Stadium a fortnight ago to play a half of footy in a trial game against Fremantle, it sure felt great. And not just because it was the first trial game she’s managed to play thanks to being injury-free.
“I blew out a lot of cobwebs,” she said after the Crows’ 20-point win over the Dockers.
“Just the feeling of being out there again with the girls and getting to play footy, we’ve been having a really solid pre-season, so it was awesome.
“It also reminded me of how hard this game really is too and it keeps getting harder because the girls keep getting better and keep getting fitter and stronger.”
And it’s for that reason that Phillips believes the watchability of the women’s competition shouldn’t be judged alongside the men’s.
“You can’t compare them,” she says.
“Although women’s footy has been around for a long time … we’re still new. We haven’t had the years of experience and the opportunities that the men have had. So our game hasn’t evolved like that.
“But it will never look like (men’s) AFL. People will always compare them: ‘Oh, the women aren’t as good as the guys’ or whatnot, but it’s got to be looked at as completely separate.
“It’s the same game, but it’s our own style and our own speed and our own strength and our own capabilities. I watch the men’s program every year and they get better, and we’re going to get better.
“I tell people who judge like that to keep an open mind and just appreciate these women and young girls … some have jobs out in the sunshine working in 40C heat and then come to training because they absolutely love it.
“Instead of judging the game because they’ve been so used to watching men, just appreciate these women for the effort they are putting in, playing a game they love and have so much passion for.”
The coming season is also different for Phillips thanks to new coach Matthew Clarke (appointed after inaugural head Bec Goddard left for work reasons) and the two can often be spotted, heads together deep in discussion.
“His 25 years of experience is incredible, his knowledge, that’s probably why my head’s always with him, because I want to know,” the 2017 AFLW best and fairest winner says.
“He’s a little bit quirky and I love it, he’s a more different coach than I’ve ever had, even in basketball.”
But it’s her own coaching role — at her former WNBA club Dallas Wings — that is really sparking her interest.
“You always say you wish you could coach first and then play and it’s so true, because I would have done a lot of things differently and known a lot more about basketball that would have helped me be a better basketballer,” she says.
“You get the same satisfaction when you win, but I’d say coaching is more frustrating because you can’t control it.
“That’s the biggest challenge for me: I’ve always been the person that if I want something done I’ll just go and do it. As a coach you give the players as many tools and advice and resources and prepare them as best you can, but once the ball goes up that’s all you can do and it’s up to them. I think it’s definitely an avenue that I will keep continuing to do down the track.”
Now a Vegan, Phillips is also relishing motherhood — to two-year-old twins Brooklyn and Blake who lovingly “wrestle each other to death” — and wants to give them a childhood similar childhood to her own, one free of screens and loaded with bats and balls.
“My dad (footballer Greg), was always outside shooting basketball hoops or playing T-ball in the park. It didn’t matter what sport, we would be out there.
“I don’t care whether my kids become athletes or not, that’s up to them to decide, but at least sport brings so much positive: being healthy in general, developing self-confidence. (Wife) Tracy (Gahan) was a former basketball player and we have the same beliefs, to not push the sports, but encourage that side of it.”
However you get the sense that Phillips will leave that “don’t push it, just encourage it” attitude at home on Saturday night when the Crows take to Norwood Oval in their first game of the AFLW season.
With her new-found body knowledge, her new-found love of coaching and her general will to win, you can bet she’ll be using every tool in her belt to push this team to victory.
Adelaide Crows v Western Bulldogs, Saturday, February 2, 8.10pm, Norwood Oval. Entry is free.
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