The multi-talented women who are pulling on footy boots in the AFLW
WOMEN have turned their hands from sports as diverse as cricket, basketball, soccer, netball, athletics, speed skating and even frisbee to line up for the first round of AFL Women’s League next week.
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HARRIET Cordner is football royalty at Melbourne. Her grandfather Don won the 1946 Brownlow Medal and seven other Cordners have pulled on the boots for the Demons. However, until recently, the Deakin sports science student had taken another path.
After being the only girl in her Auskick group, she moved into athletics, basketball and soccer, most recently with Alamein in the Women’s Premier League.
In 2016, everything changed when Cordner, 24, joined the AFL Women’s Talent Search and was recruited by Melbourne. Last Saturday’s practice match against Carlton was her first full AFL game.
An athletic 178cm, Cordner will wear her grandfather’s famous No. 21 and use her strength and athleticism to complement the skills of more seasoned teammates. She can’t wait for the season to start on Friday.
“I’m a little bit nervous. (But) I’m excited as well,” she says. “It’s cool to have those people to learn off. Everyone … has their own thing to bring to the group. I’ve got an all-right leap.”
Cordner is among several “code hoppers” who have joined AFLW from the likes of cricket, basketball, soccer, netball, athletics, speed skating and even Frisbee.
Their number is not surprising, given the lack of an AFL career path until recently. Only two years ago, few, if any, female players or coaches were paid at any level.
AFLW players will pocket at least $8500 for the first season, which many, like Cordner, hope will eventually become a fulltime wage. As it stands, players all work or study as well.
Cordner’s teammate Lauren Pearce, 24, is a star basketballer and had never played footy before a friend talked her into trying out with the Darebin Falcons last year.
The Bulleen Boomers WNBL championship player ended up in the ruck with Darebin’s 2016 premiership side and being drafted by Melbourne in the AFLW.
Pearce, who grew up a Collingwood supporter, says her kicking was “absolutely terrible” to begin with. But her athleticism and spatial awareness transferred well.
“It’s pretty similar in terms of the positioning, knowing where the ball’s going
to go,” Pearce says. “I loved it. I like being able to have the space on a footy field.”
Pearce, who works in early learning and will continue with basketball if she can, has spent summer training the house down and working on that kicking.
“I just want to get out there and play.”
Att the Western Bulldogs, Brooke Lochland, 25, moved to football after achieving a world speed skating top five result. She also competed internationally in inline skating.
Lochland returned from three years on the international speed skating circuit in 2014 and played two full seasons of women’s footy with Montmorency and Melbourne University.
Before that, she had played with a boys’ football team when she was 12 and 13. Since brushing up on her AFL skills, the 159cm midfielder has worked hard to prepare for the first AFLW season.
The Bulldogs women’s team has had several training sessions with the men, who have been incredibly supportive. Lochland, who grew up following Essendon and works in a gym, would love to train fulltime like them. But she knows the game must grow first.
“We’re really keen to show Australia what we’ve got,” Lochland says.
“I think it’s going to grow really quickly, especially with … young girls.”
Girls now have a full pathway into senior and elite footy. They can start with Auskick (ages 5-12), join a junior girls’ team (8-12) or play with boys until they are 14.
Youth girls (13-17) caters for players of all abilities and leads into senior women’s clubs. Elite pathways are being developed into the AFLW.
The first NAB AFL Women’s Academy camp was held this month at Canberra’s Australian Institute of Sport, where 33 players were tested, developed their skills and enjoyed mentoring and games.
Established last year, the academy offers girls opportunities boys have had for years, including football, leadership and personal development, sessions with AFL clubs and access to expert coaching, sports science, medical and welfare staff.
NAB AFL Women’s Academy manager Aasta O’Connor says the system is primed to harness and develop talent that in the past may have been lost or underdeveloped.
She says the “code hoppers” have quickly adapted to footy because its core demands, such as strength, fitness, ball skills and reading the play, are mirrored in many other sports.
“Most girls would have kicked a footy, whether it’s with dads, cousins, brothers,” O’Connor says. “With Lauren … what I’ve been most impressed with has been her on-field instructional talk. She just took to that so comfortably.”
O’Connor, who will play for the Bulldogs after recovering from an ACL injury, says all players must do the hard yards regardless.
“It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from in any sport, you’ve got to earn your stripes.”
Announced last June, the inaugural AFLW teams are Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. The first season runs for eight weeks from February 3. After seven rounds, the top two teams will contest the Grand Final on Saturday, March 25.
Traditional rivals Collingwood and Carlton kick the season off at Ikon Park on Friday
at 7.45pm, with the AFL expecting a crowd of at least 10,000. If last year’s Bulldogs-Demons exhibition match at Whitten Oval is any guide, it will be a hit. The pre-finals bye game attracted a crowd of 6365 and Melbourne’s largest overall average 2016 home-and-away TV audience.
Some observers say the women’s game is a more pure version of the men’s, untainted by egos and “modern” tactics such as flooding part of the ground. Pearce agrees.
“We’re not for the show,” she says. “We’re not for the best mark in the world. We just want to play the sport.”
AFLW game entry is free unless played before a men’s JLT Community Series pre-season game.
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