After 10 years and 150 games Diamond Creek’s Stephanie Chiocci represents everything that is good in the developing women’s game

It’s been 10 years since Stephanie Chiocci began her career at Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club. In that time she has embodied just how far women’s football has progressed.

It’s been 10 years since Stephanie Chiocci began her career at Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club.

Since then, Chiocci, who played 150th match in the red and blue against Cranbourne on Sunday, can be considered something of a poster girl for just how far women’s football has progressed.

In 2006, Chiocci joined a club that, at that time, had not even been reliably provided with a changeroom. But, she won the Victorian Women’s Football League’s best first year player award in a premiership-winning side.

It was a prophetic beginning for a player who would go on to be AFL female ambassador for Victoria, pull on the Big White V four times, be selected in four all-Australian sides and play for the Western Bulldogs in every AFL women’s exhibition match since its inception in 2013.

The success of women’s footy led to wider talent recruitment and the establishment of the AFL Victoria women’s academy last year, forcing founding players, like Chiocci, to stoke the fires of self-improvement as new recruits were snapping at their heels.

“Something I’ve had to work on is my endurance,” the lightly-framed Chiocci said.

“Something that (Victorian coach) Graham Burgen has really been drumming into the girls at the academy is that it’s good to be skilful and talented, but you really need to start thinking about how you play the game.”

Chiocci jumped at the opportunity to take on the role of ambassador in 2014, citing her passion for the game and determination to do her part in setting up women’s football for future generations.

Stephanie Chiocci (second from right in front) with other players from the inaugural VFL season . Picture: David Crosling

Doubtless those who approached her for the position saw her bigger picture thinking as well as her elite talents on the field.

As her honours and achievements piled up, Chiocci inevitably became one of the go-to players for media attention, particularly after being selected for the Bulldogs.

The questions she has been asked in interviews have served as a marker for the developing perception of women in football.

The early-day questions about how men treated the concept of female football and why women love the game just as much as men have now been replaced by inquiries about her football background.

It’s now, footballer first - female second.

Just as significant was her appearance on The Footy Show in August, with Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce, to promote the AFL women’s exhibition match, when she was lecherously offered a pre-match “private talking to” by co-host Sam Newman.

Chiocci dismisses the incident as “not overly inappropriate” and the criticism Newman received as “a storm in a teacup”.

Nonetheless, the widespread backlash directed at Newman’s attitudes – which could be regarded by many as a clumsy attempt to score cheap laughs with a cartoonish patriarchal role – showed that the footballing public was now marching with Chiocci and wasn’t prepared to let any disrespectful comments slide.

Chiocci was named the Bulldogs’ captain ahead of the August 16 clash and, on the eve of the inaugural VFL State League season, was elected Diamond Creek captain for the first time.

Chiocci said being voted to lead her club by her teammates gave her a deep sense of belonging.

Stephanie Chiocci does battle with Melbourne University Picture: Paul Loughnan

“Diamond Creek is such a proud club and to be playing alongside girls who have the same goal in mind and give their time to train and be committed to the club is something special,” she said.

Chiocci is also heading up Diamond Creek’s new senior/junior mentor program, which will focus on developing talented juniors through one-on-one training sessions with State League players.

“It means essentially helping them get to the next level,” Chiocci said.

Although she’d never be so brazen as to declare herself anything more than a player in a united team, Chiocci is well-poised to be signed as a marquee player in the 2017 AFL women’s competition.

It would be reward for her years of balancing career, extra-curricular AFL work and fulltime teaching.

To Chiocci, it’s just another step in a journey in the game she loves so much.