Goal kicker Katelyn Rosenzweig honoured to be playing for the Crows with friend Maggie Varcoe’s No. 1 on her back
GOAL-KICKING gun Katelyn Rosenzweig is honoured to be embarking on an AFLW career with the Crows and to don the No. 1 guernsey worn by her late friend Maggie Varcoe.
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WHEN Katelyn Rosenzweig learned that she had been selected by the Adelaide Crows with their No. 41 pick at the AFLW Draft, she knew that her late North Adelaide team-mate and friend Maggie Varcoe would have been proud.
Varcoe, 27, died in August, four days after a head injury sustained in an on-field clash with an Angle Vale teammate during the division two women’s Adelaide Footy League grand final.
Rosenzweig — Varcoe’s SANFLW North Adelaide team-mate — was watching from the sidelines when she came from the field.
So it was an emotional moment when Rosenzweig — known as “ Rosie” — learned on Tuesday she would be wearing Vacoe’s Angle Vale guernsey No. 1 for the Crows.
“I think Margie would be stoked that I was drafted,” she said.
“And to be wearing her number — No. 1 — will be a real honour,” she said.
In Varcoe’s memory, Angle Vale has retired their No. 1 guernsey.
Rosenzweig made the move from defence to attack this year while playing for the Roosters and cemented her place as a smart forward with explosive pace on the lead, proven when she became the league’s 2018 leading goal kicker with a tally of 15.
She enjoyed a standout season achieving all-Australian selection, culminating in attending this month’s Draft Combine in Melbourne earlier this month.
She said it was due in a large part to Varcoe’s friendship.
“I was nowhere near expecting to come to the Draft Combine and Maggie helped me throughout the year,” she said during the Combine.
“She’d be the first person at training to give me a high five and tell me to keep going.”
Growing up in Tanunda an avid Crows supporter, Rosenzweig started playing football at age nine, as a fill-in for her brother’s team at Hamley Bridge.
“I was about three or four out in the backyard with my Crows’ guernsey on always wanting to play for the Crows,” she said.
“When I got older everyone was like: ‘You can’t do that, it’s a boys’ sport’. And I was like: ‘Yeah right’.
“But I can play for the Crows.”
In welcoming Rosenzweig into the club, Crows general manager of football administration, Phil Harper, said the 18-year-old had impressed at every level this year, from under-18s to playing one game with the NT Thunder in the VFLW where she kicked two goals.
“Katelyn is a natural footballer with a booming kick,” Harper said.
“She’s also an avid Crows supporter and we look forward to seeing her in our colours.”
AFLW talent manager Aasta O’Connor described Rosenzweig as a quiet girl, who instead did her talking with the football.
“Her ability to lead up at the footy — she comes at the footy so strong — is an attribute that you can’t teach forwards; they’re born with it and she’s got it,” she said.