Emily Challis, aka ‘SuperCoach Mumma’, wins KFC SuperCoach AFL 2021 grand prize

‘SuperCoach Mumma’ has made history becoming the first woman to claim the $50,000 KFC SuperCoach AFL grand prize. See how she did it — and where it could have all gone wrong.

Emily Challis will remember forever where she was when she found out she was going to be the 2021 KFC SuperCoach AFL champion — the cleaning aisle of her local supermarket.

The mother of three found the thrilling finish to Australia’s biggest fantasy game too much to handle and couldn’t watch the final matches of Round 23, going shopping instead.

“I made my final trade, I said to my husband, ‘I can’t watch this’ and I drove to the supermarket,” she said after claiming the $50,000 prize for finishing No.1 of more than 170,000 KFC SuperCoach players.

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“I was buying washing powder when (I got a message saying) ‘I think you’ve won’.

“There was a point when I just put my head down in the washing powder and I reckon someone would have passed me and thought, ‘Yeah, lockdown is hard’.”

After her team SuperCoach Mumma scored 53,859 points over 23 rounds — including 105 from Jake Stringer after that final trade — Challis claimed a place in history as the first female KFC SuperCoach AFL winner.

Well it’s offical 😍🥰😍
What a crazy crazy year.
Thanks everyone for the support and banter.
Special mentions to @Doctor_SC for the amazing community 🥰
Thanks for @matty_rye21@Cheezo_DRSC@Catta_2021@TDeathAdder for being my sounding board. Thanks to my Twitter fam- 😍 pic.twitter.com/eHr5KxJKPi

— Supercoach Mumma (@EChallis) August 22, 2021

Her husband has a new-found appreciation for the game his wife has spent countless hours playing since 2013 — “I was hopeless, but I loved it” — and their children know “Mummy won”.

“I play a footy game, I won KFC and a football and we’re going to go on a holiday is what they basically know. They asked if I was going to get a trophy and I said no but I’m going to have a really cool tracksuit, and I can take you to school in my tracksuit.”

Secrets to her success including taking one calculated risk in each position in her starting team, passing on overpriced stars Lachie Neale and Jake Lloyd, picking up Dayne Zorko and Marcus Bontempelli at bargain prices early in the season and getting on the Aaron Hall train before nearly everyone else.

KFC SuperCoach 2021 champion Emily Challis.

But Challis says she didn’t get everything right — she had Sam Walsh captain when he produced one of his worst scores of the season, she traded out gun Melbourne rookie James Jordon in Round 5 and Josh Kelly just before he scored 148 against Richmond.

Luck also played a role. After scrambling to cover gaps over the byes she found herself with an extra midfielder she didn’t need and reluctantly traded out Giant Tim Taranto, only to see his form dive.

“There’s a lot of luck,” she said.

“I traded Taranto out thinking, ‘What an idiot, you’ve wasted a trade’ ... it was like getting off the Titanic the day before the iceberg.”

Her tips for players hoping to emulate her success are to do your research, consider your team as a whole and don’t get too focused on individual players — sometimes you have to pass on a bargain if they don’t fit your side — and try to turn the curve balls that will inevitably arrive during the season into a positive.

“There’s no point giving up because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Marcus Bontempelli was a prized member of SuperCoach Mumma’s midfield.

Challis plans to spend her prizemoney on a family holiday (when that is allowed) and can’t wait to drop her kids off at school in her new limited-edition personalised KFC SuperCoach tracksuit, one of the bonus prizes from KFC for the top 11 and top 1011-ranked players.

And for now, she just wants to cheer for her beloved Cats.

“I’m really looking forward to barracking for my football team this Friday night and not worrying about SuperCoach.”

Originally published as Emily Challis, aka ‘SuperCoach Mumma’, wins KFC SuperCoach AFL 2021 grand prize