AFL Women’s All-Australian Team 2020: GWS Giant Alyce Parker makes the cut
She’s not followed an orthodox path in her sport but spending much of the year on her family farm in the Riverina has helped this GWS Giants to be among the cream of the crop.
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Drenching, vaccinating and shearing sheep, driving tractors, cropping and general heavy lifting around the family farm has proved a recipe for success for this AFL young gun.
Honing her skills with the boys as a kid and only playing from the age of 12 because there were no girls teams in her country town, Alyce Parker has defied the odds to claim one giant award.
The GWS Giants young gun has been named in the 2020 AFLW All Australian team for the first time on the interchange after cracking the squad at the end of her first AFLW competition last year.
“I was very, very shocked. I didn’t expect it at all to be named, I guess, alongside some amazing names...a lot of them I actually looked up to before I was drafted and kind of idolised them and had a lot of respect for the way they played the game and their ability,” she said.
“To now be named in a team alongside them it’s a truly hugely humbling and amazing honour.”
A former elite swimmer and netballer, this rising star of the midfield shone for the Giants in her second season despite still being in her teens.
Parker, 19, receive the news of her honours while isolating with her family on their farm at Holbrook, near Wagga, in the Riverina.
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And the young gun believes time spent on the family farm during the off-season contributed to her producing her best season ever.
The NSW product averaged 21 disposals in her seven games (up from 16 in 2019) and developed a reputation as a match winner while ranked first in the competition for metres gained and second for contested possessions.
“I like to say that farming is quite physical and I tend to do a lot of it with dad and I’m not one to sit inside during the day,” she said.
”I am constantly out making myself busy, following dad around and doing whatever he is doing.”
Her task include cropping on a tractor to put the seeds into the ground and ship management practices.
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Parker said she made a promise to herself that if she left her football hub in Sydney Sydney’s inner west to go home to the farm she wanted to return at the start of the season in much better shape and significantly stronger. > “I knew no one was watching me but the only person who would know was me and if I came back to Sydney not in a good shape or a bit underdone it’s obvious I didn’t do the program to the best of my abilities,” she said.
Along with being named in her first All-Australian team, Parker was also named in the inaugural AFL Players’ Association’s 22 Under 22 team last week.
Almost every AFLW club had a representative in the 2020 AFL All-Australian side.
Just two clubs, expansion sides Richmond and West Coast, missed out on being represented in the 21-woman squad named Monday night.
“The Toyota AFL Women’s All-Australian Team recognises the best players in each position throughout the entire 2020 season,” said AFL Head of Women’s Football Nicole Livingstone.
“Selection in the All-Australian Team reflects the outstanding performances these players have produced week-in-week-out for their respective clubs and acknowledges their role in the success of the fourth season of the NAB AFL Women’s Competition.”
Over half of the players named were first-time All-Australians in Sarah Allen (Adelaide Crows), Libby Birch (Melbourne), Isabelle Huntington (Western Bulldogs), Jaimee Lambert (Collingwood), Olivia Purcell (Geelong Cats), Caitlin Greiser (St Kilda), Kate Hore (Melbourne), Sharni Layton (Collingwood), Kalinda Howarth (Gold Coast Suns), Alyce Parker (GWS Giants) and Ash Riddell (Kangaroos).