Renee Garing takes a step towards AFLW return after first game in 609 days

After 609 days Renee Garing was back in the hoops on the weekend, nearly a year after giving birth. She opens up on her fire to get back to the AFLW.

Renee Garing is back on the field after 609 days. Picture: Alan Barber

Renee Garing was never done with football and her path back to the AFLW took another step as she stepped on to the field for a competitive match for the first time 609 days.

Garing ended up with the ball in her hands as the siren sounded on Geelong’s thrilling one-point VFLW win over Carlton on Saturday and the 23-game AFLW Cat was desperate to sing the song.

Renee Garing in her last game, on July 31, 2021. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

The midfielder played her last game in the hoops on July 31, 2021, when Geelong won a VFLW preliminary final to earn a place in a grand final that was never staged due to Covid.

Since then, she gave birth to son Parker in May and worked her way back to fitness during the last AFLW season but couldn’t break into a Cats side that vaulted into the finals.

At 34, Garing could have thrown in the towel then, but she had no plans on giving up on football.

“I always had it in the back of my mind that I just don’t feel done yet,” she said.

“I am the type of person who wants to do everything I can to achieve my best.

“I am in that process now of ‘what can I do to get back out there and contribute to the team?’.

“When I played my last season, I was really enjoying my football but we as a family decided that we can’t be putting off starting a family.”

Garing swings on to the right. Picture: Mike Owen/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Garing has been able to dive into a lengthy AFLW pre-season while looking after Parker, as she focuses on developing her attacking game.

Beloved for her pressure and tackling intensity at Geelong, the veteran has been working on taking the ball forward more and creating attacks through her leg speed.

But the AFLW season that will start in August remains a while off and Garing is just keen to stay on the VFLW field and sing the song again.

“I’ve missed that and it was one of the parts where sitting on the sidelines you know you aren’t quite part of the team,” she said.

“To know you have represented the team really well and contributed to getting across the line and then to celebrate it and sing the song, there is nothing quite like it.”

How Erin Hoare landed back at Geelong with No.1 pick

A casual sit-down with Geelong’s AFLW hierarchy paved the way for Erin Hoare’s return to the game as the Cats’ growing track record of supporting mothers eased the ruck back to the field.

The 194cm tall was snapped up by Geelong with the No.1 pick at Tuesday’s supplementary draft, four years after she left the club.

Back in the hoops. Picture: Kelly Defina/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Hoare, 33, departed Geelong in 2019 for Cambridge University for post-doctorate studies and immediately joined the uni’s Aussie rules club.

She returned after giving birth to her first child, Edith, and took up a job at the AFL in psychology, before having son Connor late last year.

The football itch stayed with her and after a chat with Cats coach Dan Lowther and AFLW head Brett Johnson, her path became clear.

Motherhood has becoming common at Geelong after Kate Darby and Renee Garing gave birth during their careers, while Sammy Gooden is on the club’s inactive list after having daughter Billie last month.

Edith, Erin, Connor and Chris. Picture: Kelly Defina/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

“The sit down I sort of thought what the conversation might look like,” she said.

“I suppose the initial thing was that what the challenge might look like, I spoke to Dan and the crew here at the club and my old teammates and it became really obvious that all the supports are in place for mums to return and the opportunity is there.

“It took a long time to think it through, it is a family decision and for me to sign up was really for all four of us (Hoare’s two children and husband Chris) to sign up and share that experience.”

Hoare, who enjoyed a solid netball career with Melbourne Vixens and NSW Swifts and started with Melbourne in the AFLW before joining Geelong, said “without a doubt” she was going to play football again after the arrival of Connor.

Erin Hoare rises in the ruck back in 2019. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images)

“I was always going to be playing at some level,” she said.

“Football is such a big part of my life and there is nothing better than having teammates and being a teammate.”

The Geelong-raised ruck said she was eager to work with fellow big Liv Fuller and would dive into training with the Cats’ VFLW side to get up to speed before the next AFLW season starts in August.

“The plan will be fore me to be working with the VFLW and getting some training in there and be pushed around a lot which we love at training,” she said.

“I imagine the goal for all of us will be to be ready and available for round 1 when it comes.”

Originally published as Renee Garing takes a step towards AFLW return after first game in 609 days