AFLW draft: Twins Mizuki and Nalu Brothwell turning heads at Dandenong Stingrays
With Japanese heritage, Mizuki and Nalu Brothwell haven’t taken the traditional journey to AFLW. But now they’re closing fast and impressing top-level clubs at Dandenong Stingrays.
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Danny O’Brien had seen enough after two games.
They were all the Balnarring girls coach needed to know that the identical twins who had started with his Under 16 team were going to be above-average players.
Around that time in 2023, O’Brien got talking to Dandenong Stingrays girls coach Josh Moore and mentioned Mizuki and Nalu Brothwell.
“I said to him, ‘Keep an eye on these girls, it’s their first year of footy but they’re athletic and big and strong’, all that sort of thing,’’ O’Brien says of the twins, whose mother is Japanese.
“Their skills weren’t crash-hot to start with, but you can just tell when a girl has a bit of ability. For them to come in and be good players straight away, having not played before … yeah, they were going to go places.’’
The first place was to the Stingrays, with Moore.
The twins played as bottom-agers in the Coates Talent League last year, with Mizuki so impressive she was named in the AFLW National Academy.
As Moore saw it, the girls “burst onto the scene’’.
Both were selected in the National Futures Girls match at GMHBA Stadium last August, Mizuki for Team Morrison and Nalu for Team Prepakis.
Ahead of the 2025 season, Moore believes the Brothwells are among the club’s most draftable players, Mizuki as a key defender and Nalu as a key forward. Twice last season she kicked four goals in a game.
Moore says their improvement since joining the Stingrays has been exceptional.
The Rays had invited the sisters to the club as train-on players soon after O’Brien talked them up.
Moore was taken aback by their talent in the first practice match for the 2024 season.
“We played Eastern Ranges on a Wednesday night at Seaford – and they both blew me away,’’ he says.
“I thought, ‘Gee, there’s something special here’.
“They’ve got so much better. Their kicking was a major area for improvement. They’ve been here now for 18 months and they’re kicking it beautifully. Same with their marking. It’s amazing to see. They’ve got this running power, speed, height. They’ve fast-tracked so quickly. They’ve done a lot of work in their own time to come up to speed. They’re almost there as rounded footballers now, ready to go. They can impact pretty quickly.’’
Fittingly at a club based at Dandenong, the twins bring a multicultural element to the club.
Their mother, Maki, was born in Japan and met her future husband, Clint Brothwell, while surfing at Margaret River in WA.
The family went to Japan in 2013 and lived there for 18 months. The girls attended primary school for a year. “That was interesting for all of us, culturally,’’ Clint says.
They’re now at Mornington’s Padua College, where they played football with enough promise and passion to persuade their father to let them to play for a club.
The twins had always been netballers but wanted to join their friends at Balnarring juniors.
“The girls were at me – ‘Dad, we want to play footy’, because their mates were doing netball and football,’’ Clint Brothwell says.
“This was from when they were young. Because they were thin, I said, ‘Hold off until you get a bit bigger’. I didn’t want to see them get hurt when they were young. I was always keen for them to play – we’re a footy family – and I eventually said, ‘If you want to play, now’s the right time’.’’
Clint and Maki have relished watching their daughters come through, Mizuki taking runs out of defence and Nalu kicking goals.
“Sometimes when Mizuki delivers it up the ground and Nalu’s on the end, when you get the one-two, as parents it’s amazing to see them combine.’’
Danny O’Brien is looking forward to tracking the girls this season.
And, he says, if they get drafted, “I’ll be happy to have played a very small part in it’’.
“I’d be stoked if that happened,’’ he says.
“They’re dedicated, I know that much. You always see them around town, jogging or having a kick down the oval. They’re very keen on their footy.’’
Originally published as AFLW draft: Twins Mizuki and Nalu Brothwell turning heads at Dandenong Stingrays
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