AFLW: Geelong forward Jackie Parry wants to kick more goals in 2024
Geelong’s Jackie Parry enjoyed a breakout season in front of goals in 2023 - and if her first game of 2024 is anything to go by, the forward showed just how important she’ll be to the Cats’ finals hopes.
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Geelong’s Jackie Parry’s round 1 performance shows her impact won’t just be limited to the scoreboard this year.
The forward, coming off a season-best 2023, was arguably the linchpin to the Cats’ attack against former club Melbourne in Saturday’s AFLW season-opening two-point loss.
A team-high two goals — though Parry admitted the second one was more luck than anything given it came from a free kick against the Dees for time-wasting — was the cherry on top of an impressive showing.
But it was everything else Parry did which coincided with when the Cats’ attack was at its most damaging.
The 28-year-old spent more time than any other player on the ground to finish with 13 disposals (10 contested), four intercepts, four tackles (three of those of inside 50) and three inside 50s, as well as a game-high five score involvements and two goal assists.
Her assists came early in the game, her handballs finding teammates Nina Morrison and Mikayla Bowen for the first two goals of the game.
It's those team acts Bowen made special mention of post-match.
“She’s the one I think about when I go away and kick them, same as Nins as well – you’ve got to credit the hard ball gets and it’s a credit to the way we work as a forward line, we’re just so connected,” Bowen said.
“To get on the end of it and JP to get some reward as well is really exciting.”
Entering her third season at the Cats, and sixth overall after a stint at the Dees, Parry is hoping to build off a breakout 2023 season in front of goal.
Moving into a deep forward role last year, Parry kicked 16 goals across 13 games (including finals) — a massive spike in her production considering shekicked just nine across her past four seasons, with her previous best season four goals in 2021.
Parry, a finance consultant with KPMG, is eyeing more goals this season, as her comfortability level within the Cats’ forward system develops by the season.
“It (2023) was a pretty good season on the stats sheet but being able to even grow from there, I’ve got really good support from all the forwards,” Parry said.
“Maybe my first year here (2022) it was trying to learn the new system, get a bit of chemistry with the players, learn how they go about it so it makes it a bit more predictable, in my movement.
“Going into last year I got more comfortable, was able to focus more on the actual footy itself rather than building those relationships and chemistry.
“Hopefully I can even build off that this year.”
Positionally not much is expected to change for Parry this campaign, though there has been minor tweaks to the Cats’ forward line with the introduction of “quick and agile” Irish recruit Kate Kenny, while the Cats lose some of their contesting marking and goalkicking powers through a currently sidelined Chloe Scheer.
But Parry was optimistic heading into the season the support was there from her forwards, along with an elite midfield group “to delivery it to them”.
“We’ve got a pretty zippy forward line, I think we can move around for each other and work together pretty well,” she said.
“Hopefully we can complement each other’s strengths really well.”
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Originally published as AFLW: Geelong forward Jackie Parry wants to kick more goals in 2024
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