Geelong AFLW coach Dan Lowther on the flexibilty Erica Fowler, other recruits gives the Cats’ line-up in 2025
Geelong’s AFLW players hit the road for pre-season camp, with several new faces already making a strong impression on their new teammates. Plus, could a second-year Cat explode in 2025?
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Geelong’s shortage of talls wasn’t their only issue during last year’s AFLW campaign – but it was an obvious one in desperate need of addressing.
Missing finals, the Cats went about addressing the lack of height on their list over the off-season, with 32-year-old Erica Fowler the final piece of the puzzle, after earning the Cats’ final list spot last month.
Her size (5’9 “) and ready-made AFLW experience (five years at Collingwood) is set to complement a group of emerging and uncapped rucks in Caitie Tipping and Piper Dunlop.
Geelong AFLW coach Dan Lowther believed Fowler could offer flexibility across all three lines, as well as guidance for the likes of Tipping and Dunlop as they develop their craft.
“Coming three weeks into the program, we needed someone who could come in and step in and go from the get go as opposed to a 19-year-old who might have a great future in three of four season but might need a bit of coaching and resourcing,” Lowther said, from Geelong’s AFLW Community Camp in Warrnambool this week.
“She is their mentor … she’s played 46 games of AFLW football and she’s an exceptional person, great athlete, all those habits she’s built over 6-7 years at Collingwood can transfer to us.”
The Cats’ ruck void started early last year, Erin Hoare retiring on the eve of the season, before replacement player Lilly Pearce went down with an ACL before being delisted.
Turning to Kate Darby as their number 1 ruck, who fought admirably, the Cats used the likes of Gabbi Featherston as an undersized pinch-hitter, with Lowther confirming the Cats’ clear draft strategy from December, as well as a need to improve their contested game.
“We just couldn’t get our hands on the footy as much as we wanted to last year,” he said.
“We were taking players out of their general positions to fill a gap that we just needed to fill.
“There was a need to get some taller players into the program.”
Landing a highly-touted ruck prospect in Tipping before the draft as a rookie signing, the Cats plucked Dunlop out of their VFLW program.
Tipping, as a volleyball cross-coder and “exceptional athlete”, is seen as a prospective player, while Lowther said Dunlop’s background in basketball and the talent she’d shown at VFLW level was “hard to ignore” at the draft.
“She’s another 6’2” player that hopefully gives us a bit of an edge in the ruck, or at least allows us to compete a regular basis,” he said.
The inclusion of Fowler, Tipping and Dunlop undoubtedly lightens the load on Darby, who acknowledged it had been a “hard task” shouldering the ruck last year.
“But I also really enjoyed the opportunity, playing a few different roles, playing inside especially it gets you around the footy a lot,” Darby said.
Priding herself on being able to play multiple positions, Darby said she was unsure where her primary role would be this year.
The 34-year-old said the Cats’ new talls were working hard on their craft, while she called Fowler a “great get” for the program, such was the experience, leadership and versatility she brings to Geelong.
“I’ve loved what she’s brought into the group,” Darby said of Fowler.
“She’s been in the system for a while now, she’s had strong games, and she’s another one we speak of utilities, I think she’s played everywhere except inside mid.”
High rapts on new Cats
Sienna Tallariti has already earned huge plaudits from her teammates.
Tallariti, who the Cats took with pick 18 in December’s draft, is currently working through the rehab program following ankle surgery, but made an early mark with her leadership qualities – she’s a two-premiership captain for Coates Talent League club Oakleigh Chargers – and her use of the football.
Kate Surman described the defender as “a beautiful ball user”., while Mikayla Bowen – a member of the Cats’ leadership group – has been impressed by the newcomer.
“Prior to that (injury), she’s just been absolutely setting the standards with her maturity, her game knowledge, and her standards of training have just been incredible, probably even brought up some of the older girls in the group,” Bowen said.
“Her confidence to come in and take the program, and make it her own has been unreal.”
While Tipping and Dunlop bolster the Cats’ middle line, group, two 18-year-olds look set to shore up their backline.
With defenders Anna-Rose Kennedy (personal reasons) and Chantel Emonson (pregnancy) on the inactive list, Surman backed Tallariti and another draftee Alexis Gregor to help shore up the Cats behind the ball, with Gregor, another utility, appeared earmarked for key defender role.
While most of Geelong’s new recruits fill an obvious need, the Cats saw replacement signing Emma Kilpatrick as one they didn’t want to miss out on.
Playing predominantly as a winger at SANFL level, Lowther said the 19-year-old South Australian would bring defence, outside run and depth through their midfield group.
“We kind of looked at her and thought ‘if we didn’t act on her now’ probably in six months time she’d be a pretty good draft prospect the way she was playing in the SANFL,” he said.
“The jump on her was a really good opportunity.”
The Irish touch
Irish star Aishling Moloney showed what was possible in a second season down under – the electric forward earning a maiden All Australian jacket less than two years after picking up the game.
So could we see history repeat itself with another highly touted Irish athlete?
Of the three Irish players on the Cats list, Moloney is the only one yet to arrive for pre-season, still playing Gaelic for Tippering, with her arrival set for mid-July.
Instead it was Kate Kenny who tore up training at Warrnambool’s Reid Oval on Thursday, showcasing her clear athletic traits while looking composed with ball – the oval kind – in hand.
Kenny showed glimpses last year of her evasive and electric skills, including a superb 50m goal and a tearing run down the wing, before a stress fracture in her foot prematurely ended her rookie season.
A return to Ireland in the off-season saw the 23-year-old help DCU Dóchas Éireann win a third-straight AIG O’Connor Cup, though a second pre-season in Australia is sure to help the forward further acclimatise to AFLW—Moloney stating last season much of her first year was trying to absorb rules and differences in the way the game was played.
Several players ran through individual programs during Thursday’s session, star midfielders Nina Morrison and Amy McDonald training away from the main group and completing boxing drills with Tipping.
Geelong Head of AFLW Dominique Condo said the Cats were taking “ a conservative approach” with individual loads, to give the club the best opportunity for round 1 availability.
Winger Zali Friswell and second-year forward Chantel Mason completed running drills along the boundary, as did Dunlop, while Chloe Scheer, Rachel Kearns and Tallariti, all in the rehab group, as well as Fowler, didn’t take complete any outdoor training.
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