Nina Morrison set to be taken with pick No.1 in AFLW draft

IF it wasn’t for her dad, likely Nina Morrison would have chosen a tennis match instead of an AFLW talent search and now she is set to be drafted with the No.1 pick.

IF it wasn’t for her dad Dougal, likely AFLW No.1 draft pick Nina Morrison would have chosen a tennis match.

So dogged was Dougal about the Geelong Grammar Year 12 student trying out at an AFLW talent search two years ago, he rang organisers to negotiate a time swap so Nina could fit in that tennis game and the trial.

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“Dad’s a big footy head, he knows everything that’s going on,” Morrison said.

“When they brought forward the AFLW … he would have got all excited about it and done all this research.

“He saw this (trial) day that was on down at Deakin and I was originally like, I can’t really be bothered because I had tennis for school on that morning.

“I was going to miss the session that they put me in to so he rang them up so they could put me in the later one. I do think sometimes, ‘gee I’m lucky I went’.

“I really had no idea what I was doing, I just sort of rocked up there.”

Nina Morrison at Marvel Stadium for the AFLW draft combine. Picture: AAP

On Wednesday night at Marvel Stadium, Morrison set records at the AFLW draft combine in the 2km time trial (7min 14sec) and the yo-yo test (18.1- yo-yo is the successor to the beep test).

She has been turning heads since she became a Geelong Falcon in 2016 following that trial.

This year she was the joint winner, alongside highly-rated midfielder Madison Prespakis, of the TAC Cup best and fairest.

She also shared the MVP award at the under-18 national championships with Prespakis.

And on October 23, Morrison is expected to be taken by her home club Geelong as the first pick in the 2018 AFLW draft.

“I was thinking at the start of the year I might be an outside chance to get drafted, if I play well,” she said.

“I just wanted to try and play some good footy and do well as a team at Falcons.

“Now I just want to get to the club and play; I’m not fussed what number I’m taken at.”

The outside midfielder was best on ground in her first VFLW game for Geelong this year and the introduction to open-age footy should help her hit the ground running in the big league.

“I think it does give you a bit of confidence, having played a few games of VFL level, and knowing a lot of those players will be in the AFL,” she said.

Originally published as Nina Morrison set to be taken with pick No.1 in AFLW draft