Suns AFLW: Dee Heslop made a tough choice between two sporting loves to find her way onto the Suns list
A Kiwi walks out onto a footy field.
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A KIWI walks out onto a footy field.
It sounds like the set-up of a terrible joke but for Dee Heslop, it’s exactly how her football journey began.
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Heslop crossed the ditch from New Zealand at age 10 and first gave footy a crack at school when a teacher decided to run a match.
“I knew absolutely nothing,” said Heslop who played touch football and netball previously.
“I had no idea what I was getting into.”
“It was pretty hard having to handball instead of throw the ball.”
As Heslop’s love for the game grew, so did the challenge of balancing two sports.
“I was playing netball at the same time and both sports started to combine and then AFLW took off so I knew I had to make a decision,” she said.
“Both the sports would clash each training so eventually I decided I wanted to play footy.”
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A Suns’ academy graduate, the 18-year-old quickly emerged as one of the Coast’s potential AFLW stars and was even selected in the 2019 NAB AFLW Academy squad.
But a serious shoulder injury during her draft year threatened to bring her AFLW dream crumbling down.
“I didn’t think anything was wrong with my shoulder and then I was told I’d need surgery so I started to worry about the draft,” she said.
“It was hard going through the year and putting in the hard work while having a thought in the back of your mind that it might all be for nothing and you’re dream might not come true.”
Along with her shoulder, Heslop says her final year of high school was one of the more challenging in her journey to the big time.
“It was really hard dealing with year 12 and having to worry about getting drafted the same year,” she said.
“You start turning 18 and all of your friends are going out and partying but I had to choose to go out or not and make those decisions.
“They were doing what they wanted to do but I was having to train and play on the weekend.”
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