Jasmyn Hewett kicked six goals on debut to catch the eye

Jasmyn Hewett couldn’t have had a better start to her Aussie rules career.

JASMYN Hewett couldn’t have had a better start to her Aussie rules career.

After growing up in country South Australia playing netball, Hewett made the move to the Northern Territory in 2016 and decided to try her hand playing the game she grew up watching.

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And in her first game for St Mary’s Football Club, she bagged six goals on debut.

“I just moved up to Darwin and was fresh into my netball season and asked them if any of them played football,” she said.

“I thought I’d give it a crack because I’ve always wanted to being from country SA but the only opportunity I had would have been to travel for four hours to Adelaide every weekend which wasn’t something I was capable of at the time.

“I played through the ruck and had no idea what I was doing but kicked six goals and it’s been a whirlwind from there.”

Gold Coast Suns AFLW player Jasmyn Hewett pictured with sister Monique (left) in 2007 before their first netball grand final together. Picture: Supplied.

Hewett went on to kick 36 goals for the season and be named the NTFL’s rising star, also finishing second in the league’s Most Valuable Player tally.

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But just four games into her new sporting foray, Hewett received a phone call that set her on the path to the AFLW.

St. Mary's Jasmyn Hewett reaches above the pack against Tracy Village in 2016.

“I was playing both netball and football for a while but after four games of NTFL, I got a call from Andrew Hodges who as the NT Thunder men’s coach at the time and also looking after the Northern Territory Adelaide Crows AFLW girls,” she said.

“They asked me to go and train as a train-on player (for the Crows 2017 AFLW season) so I got to go and train with these amazing athletes and be injected into this elite environment from the get go.

“That ended my netball career and made me choose one or the other but I was so excited about footy so decided to have some time off netball.”

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Hewett impressed in her time at the Crows and was drafted with the club’s second selection during the 2017 draft, going on to play seven games in her first year before suffering a season-ending injury on the cusp of the 2019 season.

The 26-year-old returned to Darwin after the 2019 season concluded which was around the time she received a phone call from the Suns.

Jasmyn Hewett during a Gold Coast Suns AFLW training session at Leyshon Park on January 29, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“It was a really tough decision to make,” she said.

“I didn’t want to leave my Adelaide football family but the outside aspect and getting to live on the Coast struck me quite well so I decided to try something really new.

“The minute I walked into the club, I felt like I belonged was part of this big family.”