Basketballer Jess Foley joins former Adelaide Lightning WNBL teammate Erin Phillips at Crows
FORMER Australian Opals and Adelaide Lightning basketballer Jess Foley rejoins teammate Erin Phillips, this time at the Crows after the 35-year-old was drafted into the AFLW.
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WATCHING from the sidelines as her former Lightning team-mate Erin Phillips dominated on the football field during the inaugural AFLW season in 2016, spurred elite basketballer Jess Foley to pull on her first pair of footy boots and give it go herself.
And now she’ll have the chance to once again play alongside Phillips after being picked by the Crows with their second AFLW draft pick on Tuesday.
Selected at No. 30 overall, the former Australian Opal and Adelaide Lightning captain, said hadn’t played Aussie Rules, except for a backyard kick.
Then, she watched Phillips.
“I absolutely loved it and went to just about all of the games and that spurred me to give it a try,” she said.
Foley played US college basketball from 2002-2006 at prestigious Duke University before being lured to the Lightning. She also played for the Townsville Fire before returning to the Lightning and retiring in 2015.
After starting to play in 2017, this year she played for Sturt in their inaugural SANFLW team and was a standout in the ruck.
The environmental scientist-turned-junior doctor at Flinders Hospital, said the chance to be drafted into the AFLW was too good to refuse.
“This was one of those opportunities that you can’t turn down, no matter how many times you turn it around in your head,” the 35-year-old said.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I don’t have a lot of years left to contemplate it, so I thought I wouldn’t want to regret not giving it a go.”
Foley and Phillips won a WNBL Championship together with the Lightning in 2008 and Foley hopes they can do the same again with the Crows.
“Erin’s absolutely freakish on the football field and I never expected anything less from her, but it has inspired me to want to go out and try the sport and give it a go,” she said.
“It will be fun to play alongside her again.”
Lightning coach, Chris Lucas — who recruited Foley to Adelaide 2006 and again in 2011 when he was re-establishing the Townsville Fire franchise — said over her “outstanding” basketball career, she had proved herself a great leader, a terrific athlete and an “unbelievable individual”.
“She’s a successor; everything she puts her hand to she’s a winner,” Lucas said.
“She continues to find ways to challenge herself and playing AFLW will be another one of those.”
SANFLW talent manager Robbie Neill said Foley had been dominant this year, leading the league for hit-outs averaging 25 a game along with 18 disposals.
“She’s not someone who just has athletic attributes, her kicking was really good, her marking, her disposals and she’s got really clean hands and able to jump.”
Her standout year culminated in being named in the ruck for The Advertiser’s SANFLW Team of the Year.
At 183cm, she is likely to be slotted into the vacant spot left by ruck Jess Allan who has taken 12 months away from the club to concentrate on her Army career.
Foley’s Sturt SANFLW coach Danijel Herbut praised her ability to win the ball in congestion as well as her endurance and ability to cover the ground. But her work ethic stood out.
“As soon as she walked through the doors at the Sturt Footy Club she was a fantastic leader, embraced all the education that the footy club gave her and because she has that professional athlete background … she’ll be a great player for the Adelaide Crows,” he said.
Foley said football had reignited her passion for sport.
“Something that football has brought out in me is that excitement about going to training and about learning new skills,” she said.
“There’s a real camaraderie amongst the teams, which has attracted me to football and has made me excited about going to training again.”
Originally published as Basketballer Jess Foley joins former Adelaide Lightning WNBL teammate Erin Phillips at Crows