Crows first-year player Danielle Ponter gets a NAB AFL Women’s Rising Star nomination to add to her honours

Coming from a family filled with footballing royalty, it’s no surprise that in her third game of AFLW the Crows’ Danielle Ponter has earned a rising star nomination. See the special moment she finds out.

• Ponter debuts for Crows
• Ponter becomes first female to play top-level footy in her family
• Impressive Crows smash Dockers

First-year Crow Danielle Ponter has polished off her stellar round four performance with a NAB AFL Women’s Rising Star nomination.

In her third game of AFLW, Ponter — the niece of Essendon legend Michael Long, and cousin of retired Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli — kicked two goals and collected eight disposals in Adelaide’s 42-point win over Fremantle on Saturday night at TIO Stadium in Darwin.

The 19-year-old shares her nomination with Collingwood’s Sarah Dargan.

After the win, Darwin-based Ponter said it was an honour to play in front of her vocal home crowd.

Crow Danielle Ponter heads on to TIO Stadium in Darwin for her third game of AFLW — and her first in front of her Darwin home crowd — accompanied by her niece for Adelaide’s game against Fremantle. PHOTO: Michael Willson/AFL Media

“It’s been a long journey,” she said.

“It was just good because it’s one thing to get an AFLW game, and then it’s another thing to play at home in front of your friends and family and have that support around you when you do get those lucky moments where you do kick goals and to hear them yelling out and shouting is very good.”

The 171cm Ponter was drafted to the Crows in October 2018 with pick No. 48.

Crows coach Matthew Clarke praised his utility, whom he’d played in defence for rounds two and three but decided to bring her forward — a position she’s more used to playing — for the clash with Fremantle.

We captured the special moment that @eb_marinoff broke the news to Danielle about her Rising Star nomination 🤩😍 @aflnt #weflyasone #crowsaflw pic.twitter.com/ndOS8cD2lf

— Adelaide Crows AFLW (@CrowsAFLW) February 26, 2019

“Danielle’s played back for the last few weeks and so when we told her this week that she was going forward, she was fairly happy about that, couldn’t wipe the smile off her face,” Clarke said.

“Clearly, she’s a great talent, an NT product and represents her territory really well, not only (Saturday night) but throughout the whole season.

“She’s done everything right and she's getting the reward for working hard, she worked really hard in the off season.”

Clarke said it had been his call to play her in a defensive role for her first two games of AFLW, but was happy to see her shine in attack.

“We looked at the balance of our team and the weapon that she has, which is her amazing kick that can be really useful to us coming out of the back half,” he said.

“And she’s also pretty good in the contest so we felt those attributes would be beneficial for us and a little bit of an education piece as well, she’d never played back so we wanted to expose her to that and to show her that she can do it and can do it really well.

“But clearly she’s got some forward ability, so it might be a little bit of both from here on in.”

Ponter said the second of her two goals on Saturday night was probably her favourite.

“The one where I dribbled it in, but I really didn’t think about anything when I was kicking the ball, I just got it on the boot and hoped for the best,” she said.

At home. Crows player Danielle Ponter poses for a photo at Darwin’s TIO Stadium ahead of the game there against the Fremantle Dockers on Saturday, February 23, 2019. PICTURE: Keri Megelus

After her first goal — scored in the second quarter — Ponter’s teammate Justine Mules was so excited for the Darwin girl that she tackled her to the ground.

Ponter laughed at that: “Yeah, shocked me a bit too”.

Clarke said of the happy moment: “Over-celebration, it’s a bit of an issue in our team, but we don’t want to curb it too much.”

Meanwhile, Ponter’s teammate defender Dayna Cox has been reported for rough conduct against Fremantle’s Ashlee Atkins, during the third quarter of the match.

The incident was assessed as intentional conduct with low impact to the body and classified as a $400 sanction. Cox can accept the reprimand with an early plea.