Emma Kearney to play on into season 2026, Eliza Shannon’s touching gesture to North Melbourne teammates
Emma Kearney will play on into her 37th year after securing her third premiership medal on Saturday, revealing the pact driving her to continue. Plus, Eliza Shannon’s touching post-game act.
Three-time AFL Women’s premiership player Emma Kearney will play on into an 11th season.
This masthead can reveal that Kearney has plans to sign a new deal that will see her play into her 37th year.
And it’s all down to a secret recovery pact the star defender has made with injured teammate Nicole Bresnehan.
“Yeah, I think so,” Kearney told Code Sports with a wry grin after the historic victory at Ikon Park.
“I just love playing footy and I love this group.
“I remember doing a rehab session with Nicole (who suffered an ACL injury), and she was pretty flat that she was going to miss the season, and I said ‘I’ll go one more for you’.
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“I reckon a few of the girls probably knew (I would), but it’s not something that I wanted to bring attention to myself coming into this game. It was just about playing the game and getting through.
“I love playing footy and you’re a long time retired, so make the most of it when you can.
“The fact that we’re training during the day now makes a huge difference.”
Kearney also lifted the lid on master coach Darren Crocker’s electric pre-game speech to the players that lit the fuse for their demolition of Brisbane, launching them to becoming the first AFLW team to win back-to-back premierships.
She said the coach — who refused to say the words “back-to-back” all season — had used a visualisation technique employed by a Kangaroos mind coach to propel his team to bringing the vision to fruition.
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“We did a session with him … and then people (used it) to start imagining different things,” she said.
“Crock said he had imagined us moving arm in arm as a group together and that then in the distance he had seen this shiny thing.
“He didn’t quite know what this shiny thing was, and we kept going closer and closer to it and then the next thing, we were all in this circle with this shiny thing.
“He didn’t say what the shiny thing was in the pre-game speech, but we knew what he was alluding to. When we sang the song together, the shiny thing was right in the middle and he made sure he told us what it was all about.”
The triple-premiership player — who tasted glory with the Western Bulldogs over Brisbane in 2018 — wore boots emblazoned with “EKGF2025” and despite a number of requests from kids to nab them in the post-match ceremony, they had already been promised elsewhere.
To none other than Kane Garner — brother of skipper Jasmine — who is the team’s No. 1 supporter.
But he has to uphold his end of the bargain, Kearney laughed.
“I saw him (on Friday) at the club, and he said ‘can I have your boots?’,” she said.
“I was like, all right. But sometimes he cracks the sads and gets in these moods and throws my badge in the bin.
“So Jas said ‘Kane, if you’re going to throw the boots out, give them to me first’.”
SHEERIN NEVER DOUBTED SHE’S MISS FINAL
—Lauren Wood
Grand final best-on-ground winner Eilish Sheerin says she never had any doubt in her body after racing the clock to even feature in the Kangaroos’ historic premiership push — let alone star.
Sheerin, who crossed from Richmond at the end of last season, claimed unanimous top honours as the best player in the North Melbourne victory with her 28 disposal, two-goal, 11-tackle and eight-clearance showing that her dad John declared afterwards was the “best game she had ever played”.
The ballwinner had been sidelined for six weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in the warm-up before the Roos’ Round 8 win over Sydney and said she had drawn inspiration from her own former skipper Emma Kearney — who suffered a similar injury last year — and Brisbane men’s captain Lachie Neale who had defied the odds to play in this year’s Lions premiership.
“There was always a timeline that said I could get back for finals,” Sheerin said.
“I’m very lucky to be in a team where that’s a possibility, and there isn’t pressure on me to get back early.
“I just know that I can come in and play my role and that takes the pressure off that whole rehab journey.”
Sheerin, 33, said she had come straight to the game from a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in a bid to be at her best.
“I literally came straight from one to the game,” she laughed.
“At my age, I look for any one per cent that I can get.
“I know Lachie Neale did it for his injury … red light therapy and hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
“I jumped on board and it has been great.”
Sheerin’s shift from Richmond at the end of last season raised eyebrows across the competition, with the Tigers receiving pick 18 — which dropped to pick 20 with later bidding — in return for the now-premiership player.
She said her move to Arden Street had not only been with an eye to becoming a better footballer, but also “a better person”.
“That’s the real medal,” Sheerin said.
“It’s just an incredible program to be part of.”
PREMIERSHIP HERO’S TOUCHING POST-GAME ACT
— Ed Bourke
Eliza Shannon’s eyes might be focused elsewhere in a few of the North Melbourne premiership celebration photos circulating after Saturday night’s grand final.
The newly minted premiership defender was spotted looking away to the left after about a minute of posing with the cup alongside teammates on the Ikon Park turf.
Shannon was trying to locate her non-selected Kangaroos teammates on the periphery of the celebrations, and once she found them, she bolted away from the team photo to urge the other squad members to join in.
A second set of photos promptly began with all members of the unbeaten 2025 playing list.
Shannon said it was “special” to be able to have that photo after experiencing her own selection heartbreak ahead of the 2024 decider – losing the spot she had held down in defence for a returning Emma Kearney ahead of the preliminary final.
“I know exactly how it feels to be on the other side of the fence,” she told CODE Sports after receiving her first premiership medal.
“I really wanted to make an effort today to get those girls in the photo, because I reckon that’s so important.
“It’s a full-squad mentality, and some of those girls have played most of the games this year and just missed out today.
“That’s something the AFL sort of gets wrong in that sense, even in the men’s – only the playing players get medals, but other people will do just as much, if not more, than some of the players on the field, so it’s important to recognise.”
Two of Shannon’s closest friends in the side were emergencies Tessa Boyd and Mia King.
Boyd, 28, debuted as an injury replacement player in round 2 and performed strongly for 10 consecutive games in defence before she was squeezed out by Eilish Sheerin’s return in the preliminary final, almost mirroring the end to Shannon’s 2024 campaign.
“Lize grabbed us all to get the non-selected players in the photo,” Boyd said.
“She’s just a stand-up person, and I’m so proud of her.
“She’s done everything perfectly this year … one of the hardest workers you’ll ever meet, and she’s just the best teammate ever.”
Shannon, who played in the losing 2023 grand final to Brisbane, tried her best to soak in the moment on field as the Kangaroos kicked away to safety in the last quarter.
“You try to hold back a little bit, because you just never know what can happen,” she said.
“But it was just phenomenal. So incredible. I’m just so lucky we have such an epic team that could get us here today.
“Coming from Hawthorn as well (in a trade for a late pick in the 2023 supplementary draft) … I hit the absolute jackpot going to North. I’m just happy to be here.”
Originally published as Emma Kearney to play on into season 2026, Eliza Shannon’s touching gesture to North Melbourne teammates
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