AFLW: Port Adelaide captain Erin Phillips opens up ahead of 2023 AFLW season

The biggest name among the AFLW playing cohort Erin Phillips opens up about her future, how much the league has grown and what legacy she wants to leave in the game.

AFLW Showdown Captains Presser – Port Power AFLW Captain, Erin Phillips, ahead of playing for the Showdown Plate on Saturday. August 28 2023. Picture Dean Martin

It seems all anyone wants to know is what Erin Phillips’ future looks like.

Those wanting a quick answer from the Port Adelaide captain are going to be disappointed.

“I don’t think about it (whether this season is her last), especially during the year,” she told this masthead.

“I always assess where I am at after the season and I will do so again this year.”

But for Phillips herself, as she prepares for her eighth AFLW season at age 38 with a Round 1 Showdown against former club Adelaide at Norwood Oval, she has stopped to think about the past.

Phillips is unsure whether this season will be her last. Picture Dean Martin

“You catch yourself going wow this is incredible, season eight (of the AFLW) and we are better and bigger than ever,” she said.

“Now we have every single team in the competition, which is unbelievable.

“I just love football, anyone who knows me and knows my history with the game and how grateful I am to have this opportunity.

“I was 31 when I started AFLW and when I run out on a football field and get the chance to play a game of football I just think to myself I’m so lucky because I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t get this opportunity for me.

“I’m so grateful that I got to just play one game, I meet so many women who come up to me and say “god I wish AFLW was around when I was younger I definitely would have played”.

With the retirement of Daisy Pearce, Phillips enters the 2023 AFLW season as the biggest name in the competition, if she already wasn’t.

A three-time premiership player with Adelaide, and twice the AFLW best and fairest, Phillips made the high-profile move to Port Adelaide – the club her father Greg was a champion player for the Magpies – to become the Power’s inaugural captain in the league.

She will again wear the No. 1 guernsey in 2023 and after a long pre-season, one in which she wasn’t recovering from any sort of off-season surgery, Phillips feels refreshed at aged 38.

Phillips says she is in good shape ahead of the campaign. Picture Dean Martin

“I feel so much more probably better prepared just having that longer break into pre-season,” she said.

“Year one (of Port being in the AFLW) you will often hear us say it was a whirlwind because that is what it was, so just excited to start again and get going.

“I’ve been an athlete for a long time, I’m still very competitive and just want to get the best out of myself personally and out of the team so that still drives me and just the actual joy of football is something that I really love doing.

“It makes a huge difference in being able to train at the level of games for a longer period and hopefully, obviously you need a bit of luck to go your way, but it helps you reduce your likelihood of injuries and that.”

Spending a significant amount of time with the Power’s men’s program as part of the AFL’s Women’s Coaching Acceleration Program also has added to Phillip’s excitement on the eve of the AFLW season beginning.

“Yeah just some of the drills, the intensity, you take little bits from wherever you go and I have definitely taken a lot from the men’s program,” she said.

“Just the level of preparation and planning that goes into a game and there is definitely little things that you pick up from different players you are watching or working with all the time so you pick up things that you can add to your game.

“You just wish you were 10 years younger and I have loved the fact that having both our men’s program so interested and across everything we do.”

Phillips faces her former side the Crows this weekend. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

And then there is Power AFLW head coach Lauren Arnell expecting a baby daughter with partner Lexi Edwards.

“Honestly I have never seen Lauren so happy,” Phillips said.

“She was a really happy coach before that but there is just another, she has such a positive outlook on life.

“I’ll put my hand up and say I wasn’t pregnant with any of our kids (with wife Tracy) so I can’t speak for going through that, but it would be very challenging and I have a lot of respect for women that go through that and still take on their career.

“And I’m so happy with how much support she has from the Port Adelaide Football Club for her to do that and to support her because for women it is really hard to be a mum and parent full stop let alone having a full time job and her job comes with a bit of stress as well.

“So hopefully if we go deep into the year we won’t put her into any labour.”

Does Phillips take any more of a coaching role this season with Arnell expecting?

“Honestly she hasn’t got off the track at all, she hasn’t missed a beat,” Phillips said.

“She is full time with us and honestly I know if anything I will have a couple of extra packs of lollies if she needs them but she has been wonderful and as a team and as a club we are really happy for her.”

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell is expecting with her partner Lexi Edwards. Picture: Brooke Bowering

There’s a buzz among those in women’s sport in the country following the Matildas’ historic run at the recent World Cup.

Phillips says it can only be a good thing as she looks to continue do what she has done for years.

“It is a really special time for women’s sport as a whole, not just AFLW so if we can continue that momentum and our own game it is only good for the community right?” she said.

“I get asked a lot about “what is your legacy?” and I just want to be someone who was a really good role model in the community, someone who changed the game or helped changed the perception of women sport in this country.

“I just want people to see someone who loved the game, someone who loved to compete and paved the way for the next generation of footballers to play this great game.

“I’m so excited for that whole wave of younger players who will take the game to the next level and hopefully keep continuing to build it and make it the greatest sport on the planet.”

Originally published as AFLW: Port Adelaide captain Erin Phillips opens up ahead of 2023 AFLW season