Cricket and AFLW star Jess Duffin set to return for WBBL just months after giving birth

Jess Duffin has made a huge call on her sporting career five months after giving birth to her second child Archie. Will the cross-code star be back in WBBL?

Jess Duffin has unfinished business.

Less than five months after giving birth to son Archie, the former Australian cricketer and AFL Women’s All-Australian is set to return for the Melbourne Renegades for the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League season in a move she hopes shows daughter Georgie, 3, that anything is possible.

“A lot of it just has to do with myself, really — I just don’t feel finished in cricket,” Duffin said.

“I didn’t feel like I’d given everything to footy, either, with the way it finished at North Melbourne, so getting the opportunity with Hawthorn last season was really nice, even though the seasons clashed which is why I chose Hawthorn over Renegades.

Jess Duffin will pad up for the Renegades this summer. Picture: AAP.

“I think it’s more that I’m not done. I also want my kids to know when they’re older that just because you want to have children or anything like that, your career doesn’t stop.

“You don’t have to give up your career to have a baby or explore other things. Georgie being the age that she is, I don’t want her to ever think that something isn’t possible.”

Duffin, 34, won four world championships with the Australian women’s cricket team and played in the 2021 WBBL season with then-baby Georgie in tow, in the difficult scenario of a covid hub.

She then went on to play 42 AFLW games at North Melbourne and Hawthorn — including last season while in the early stages of her pregnancy with Archie.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen so early, and to have to tell (Hawthorn coach Bec Goddard) and the football club, it was a little bit daunting, just because I really wanted to finish the season well … it was a bit weird, I guess,” she laughed.

A call from Renegades coach Simon Helmot midway through last WBBL season came to make her return, but Duffin was midway through her pregnancy.

Less than 12 months later, the return is on — now with two team mascots in tow.

“Archie will be around, same with Georgie. I’m looking forward to them being involved a little bit, because Georgie didn’t understand what was going on last time,” Duffin said.

“But she gets it now, so when I tell her ‘mum’s got to go to cricket’, she’ll ask ‘were you at cricket last night?’.

Jess Duffin celebrates a goal for Hawthorn. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

“She likes wearing her Renegades top these days and goes to daycare in it sometimes.”

And with thanks to her “village” of helpers — including husband Chris and her parents — Duffin is hunting silverware.

If she’s coming back, it’s with good reason.

“Oh, yeah, 100 per cent,” Duffin declared.

“I felt like the Renegades were building something really good the last time I was involved, so I feel like this group has the capabilities of winning it and I’d love to be a part of it.

“I’ve always thought that I just want to get one trophy and it would be nice to have in the cabinet.”

The WBBL season begins on October 19.

Originally published as Cricket and AFLW star Jess Duffin set to return for WBBL just months after giving birth