Crows midfield veteran Courtney Gum is up for AFLW’s Mark of the Year award
Crow Courtney Gum will find out on Friday if she’ll win the AFLW’s Mark of the Year for the 2020 season, as speculation mounts as to whether she’ll play on in 2021.
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CROWS midfielder Courtney Gum is one of three AFLW players up for the league’s Mark of the Year.
Football fans can vote for Gum’s round two grab against St Kilda until Friday, with the winner announced after voting closes.
Her mark in the centre square was a speccy: Gum was running backwards and under pressure from a Saints opponent when she plucked a bullet pass out of the air with one hand, as if her fingers were made of velcro.
.@CrowsAFLW midfielder Courtney Gum only needed one hand to claim the Mark of the Year vote for Round Two 😳 #AFLWvote
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) February 19, 2020
Head to Google and search ‘AFLW vote’ next week to have your say 💻📱 pic.twitter.com/njo00ExIML
Gum’s grab is up against GWS forward Rebecca Privitelli and Fremantle’s Ashley Sharp.
Her nomination comes as speculation grows as to whether she will join 2020 teammate Jess Foley in retiring from top-level football.
Gum, who turned 38 in September last year, was coaxed out of retirement in 2019 by Crows coach Matthew Clarke after he lost midfielder Hannah Button to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Speaking to The Advertiser recently, Clarke said he didn’t know at that stage whether Gum would continue playing into 2021.
“One of the reasons I was really keen for her to go around again was that I knew she had the capacity and even though we had a really tough season, she was able to demonstrate that; we were able to say: ‘Oh yeah, that’s right, Courtney Gum’s an outstanding footballer’,” Clarke said.
“She lives in South Australia, this is her home and for now until forever more, she’ll be a past player of our club. I’m really pleased about that (but) I’m not pleased it didn’t pan out the way we hoped it would.
“Danielle Ponter mentioned on our pre-season camp: ‘I’m just so happy that Courtney Gum’s a part of our team’ and that speaks to the next generation absorbing the knowledge and the wisdom of players, like Courtney, who are coming to the end of their playing careers.”
Crows head of football administration, Phil Harper, said earlier this week that if Gum declared she wanted to continue in 2021, the club would be keen.
“If she wanted to play on, of course that would be great, but the original agreement between the club and Courtney last year was that she was only going to do this for one year in front of her friends and family here in Adelaide,” he said.
“And she had a very good season, so hopefully it’s not her last, but it probably will be.”
Foley, who announced her retirement on Tuesday, is the first women’s player in Crows’ history to officially retire from their AFLW playing list.
The Advertiser understands there are at least two other players who are weighing up their playing futures.
The official contracting period for the AFLW has been put off until May at the earliest amid the COVID-19 chaos and when contracting commences, the Crows must trim their current list of 30 players to a maximum of 27.
Foley and Ruth Wallace (who did not play a game this season due to personal reasons) will make up two of those list trims, while Button will return from the inactive list after rehabbing her ACL.
Vote for Gum’s mark at: womens.afl/markoftheyear