New recruit Delma Gisu hoping to make her mark with AFLW Giants
It’s a photo Delma Gisu knows is going to haunt her for the rest of her life. And while the face of the Giants new recruit may not be yet well known in AFLW circles, her hand certainly is.
It’s a photo Delma Gisu knows is going to haunt her for the rest of her life.
And while the face of the Giants new recruit may not yet be well known in AFLW circles, her hand certainly is.
It was this hand which she used to fend off AFLW star Daisy Pearce in a trial match between the Melbourne Demons and Brisbane Lions back in 2016 - a move captured in a now famous and well circulated photo.
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“Oh no, not that photo,” Gisu laughed when asked about the palming.
“I had just got selected to play in this exhibition match. I didn’t know the rules.
“Daisy was running straight towards me. All I could think of was palming her in the face. I was picturing I was playing rugby.
“I know now I can’t do that. But I just didn’t know the rules properly.”
Fast forward to 2019 and Gisu, who originally hails from tiny Mer Island, population 500, is now better acquainted with the regulations of the code she has only been playing for five years but which she hopes will see her become the first Torres Strait Islander woman to represent the Giants in the AFLW.
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No. 1 draft pick Nicole Barr says Gisu, listed as pick number 65 after playing in the second-tier AFLW’s winter series for the Gold Coast Suns in 2018, will be a player to watch this season, with her speed and skills set to turn heads.
Gisu herself - bouts of homesickness aside - couldn’t be happier in her new environment in Sydney playing a sport she refused to even try when asked by a teacher while attending school in Townsville.
“I came from rugby and basketball, I loved basketball. That’s all I wanted to play,” said Gisu, 22, whose family includes seven brothers and sisters and a mother she says is her hero..
“The third time the teacher asked I said OK and it’s gone on from there.
“I love it lots now.’’
Working in hotel housekeeping outside training hours, Gisu said she has now forged strong relationships with her new teammates in Sydney.
“It’s been three months now. At first when I moved here I was lost. I am a family girl,” she said.
“It was really hard to try and get to know my roommates. I was always by myself. I didn’t want to talk to anyone because I didn’t know them.
“But they are really nice girls. If I need someone to talk to they are always there. But I still talk to my mum every day.”
Gisu has a strong connection to older brother Winston, a Christian minister, who took on the role of father to her and her siblings when they were growing up.
“My dad left my mum when my little sister was just one so all we knew was my older brother as our father,’’ Gisu said.
“He has always supported me. He can just sense when I am a little upset or lonely. He texts me and makes me feel stronger. He always encourages me to go forward.’’
Gisu says she would like to take on a similar mentoring role with young Torres Strait Island women as an AFL player.
“My message for them is don’t be shy, you have talent, go out and give it a go, don’t waste your talent,’’ she said.
“I want to be a role model for them. My mum was my role model. How she raised all of us by herself, without anyone helping, she’s an inspiration.’’
Round 1
BRISBANE LIONS v GWS GIANTS
February 3
4.05pm AEST,
Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex, Burpengary
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