AFLW National Draft: Hawthorn’s Rosie Dillon knuckles down and after a massive VFLW season has thrust her name before selectors
By her own admission, Rosie Dillon wasn’t working hard enough. But after ‘pulling her finger out’ a breakout VFLW season has boosted her AFLW draft chances.
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If Rosie Dillon’s name is called out at next Tuesday’s AFLW national draft, she’ll become the poster girl for ‘hard work pays’.
By her own admission, the dynamic Hawthorn VFLW midfielder needed to make some changes at the start of the season.
“I kind of pulled my finger out a bit, just buying into the program and working harder,” she said. “The past couple of years I’ve been a bit lazy. I got really big and really unfit.
“I got a bit sick of people saying ‘imagine how good you’d be if you got fit’.”
To say the attitude change paid dividends is to say Rosie Dillon gets her hands on the footy a fair bit during a game.
Recently Dillon was named the Hawks’ best and fairest after becoming one of the league’s leading midfielders, averaging 17.1 disposals and 5.6 tackles a game.
The 23-year-old was also named in the VFLW Team of the Year and was a finalist for the rising star medal.
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In her third year with the club, the inside-mid with an ability to win the ball and crash the packs played all 14 games and was named among the best players in 11 of them.
She polled 49 votes, to win from midfielder Rebecca Beeson (47 votes) and ruck Lou Wotton (36 votes).
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” she said. “Especially when I didn’t think I’d win it.”
Dillon has now thrown her hat in the ring for this year’s draft, saying selection would fulfil her lifelong footy dream.
“I’m bloody nervous,” she laughed. “I’ve spoken to a couple of clubs but there’s no promises.
“I’m just praying to God I get a chance.
“When they do talk to you it’s more to see what kind of a person you are, they’ve already seen you playing.”
At 153cm, comparisons between the diminutive ball magnet and another Hawthorn great are unavoidable.
Hawks legend Sam Mitchell was thought by many to be too small for the top flight but, after initial draft disappointment, he too knuckled down at VFL level.
After getting his chance, the rest is history.
Dillon too refuses to have her future defined by a measuring tape.
“It’s funny you mention Sam Mitchell, he’s my all-time idol,” she said.
“You know what, it doesn’t feel like I’m 153cm when I’m playing. One coach told me once, ‘when the ball’s on the ground, you have a lot less distance to bend down than a taller person’.”
A graduate of the Whitehorse Colts junior program, Dillon is no recent convert to the sport like many of the cross-code recruits from other sports like basketball and soccer. She’s had a Sherrin in her hand most of her life.
But there’s never a day when she’s not learning something new about the game.
“I played footy ever since I was a little girl, starting with Auskick,” she said.
“But VFL is a whole new experience. You play a lot smarter and you do a lot less needless running. You learn so much about the pattern of the game.”
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