New Crows midfielder Najwa Allen reveals what it’s like to join AFLW’s reigning premiers after relocating from Canberra for footy
She made the gamble to relocate from Canberra to Adelaide to play for Norwood in the SANFLW in pursuit of a footy career. Now, Najwa Allen will debut for the Crows in the AFLW on Saturday.
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Life is made up of its moments: some big, others small.
Some so seemingly insignificant that you don’t know the impact they will have until much further down the line.
Like the time four years ago when Najwa Allen’s best friend and fellow soccer player, Alison Lound, code-hopped to women’s AFL and told her to join in because it was a fun game to play.
And she left the round ball for its oval version.
Like the time 18 months ago when Allen’s phone beeped with a message from fellow Canberra footballer Hannah Dunn saying she was moving to Adelaide to play footy for Norwood in the SANFLW, and would “Naj” want to play too?
Like the time a year ago when Allen – an exercise physiologist – arrived in South Australia: a stranger in a new state, playing in a different local competition, with one big unknown future.
And suddenly, all those little moments have led to this big one: 4.40pm on February 8, 2020.
Round one of the AFLW season – where Allen will debut for Adelaide as the Crows take on Brisbane.
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She’s been named in the team’s imposing midfield alongside Anne Hatchard and Ebony Marinoff after being drafted by the league’s reigning premiers in October last year.
“It’s still amazing to me,” she says.
“I went to the Crows’ grand final (win at Adelaide Oval last year) and it was beautiful to watch … to think, I might get to be a part of that beauty.
“Sometimes you sit back and watch at training and you’re like, ‘I can contribute to this (beauty) a little bit’.
“I just say to myself sometimes: you are exactly where you’ve wanted to be in life … I don’t know how many people get to say that to themselves, so I have to be really grateful while I can because I can do that and a lot of people can’t.”
Allen says her move to Adelaide last year was originally to play in the SANFLW with a view to moving into the VFLW.
Until that point, she’d been playing for the Eastlake Demons in the local Canberra women’s league for three years (winning her club’s best and fairest by her third season) and a new challenge was needed.
“The idea was to play as much footy as possible because I just loved it and it’s the best part of my week, the best part of my year,” she says.
“So, I guess I moved because the SANFLW runs early and then I was hopeful to go play in the VFLW and then see what happened from there. But I went a lot better in the SANFL than I thought I would, I didn’t think I’d have that much of an impact.”
By that she means finishing the 2019 season as the league’s best and fairest player after a dominant turn in the Redlegs’ midfield.
Then AFLW beckoned.
Allen is so thankful for her friends like Dunn and Lound who have supported her and it is only fitting that Lound will travel from Canberra and be sitting in the stands at Hickey Park as her friend debuts.
“Sometimes you don’t have faith in yourself, but it’s the people around you who have faith in you and she’s one of those people,” Allen says of her friend.
She’s equally thankful that Dunn texted her that day – even though they played in different teams in Canberra – asking whether she’d consider playing for Norwood.
“I thank my lucky stars that Hannah thought of me because it’s kind of like, if that moment had never happened and if she hadn’t sent me a message saying: ‘Do you want to do this?’ right now, I don’t know if I’d be playing,” she says.
“I don’t know if I’d be in an AFLW side. It’s just crazy to think that one moment has set up the next year.”
Dunn has been equally rewarded in her gamble to move from Canberra to SA, drafted to Gold Coast and she will debut on Saturday too.
Despite being the local comp’s best and fairest, Allen says it’s been a huge step up to walk into the elite standards espoused at West Lakes.
“The main things are: it’s a lot faster and all the skills are a lot better,” she muses.
“My dad has been watching all the practice games and he said the other day, ‘It’s not that you’re doing bad, I think you’re playing really well, but whenever you play here (in Canberra) you always stand out, but there everybody is so good, you just look like one of the fold, you don’t stand out as much’.
“Well, he tried to say that in a nice way.”
* Brisbane v Adelaide, Saturday, February 8, Hickey Park, 4.40pm, telecast live on Fox Footy and Kayo