AFLW best and fairest Monique Conti desperate for more team success at Richmond

The newly crowned AFLW best and fairest was back at work in a completely different sport on Tuesday as she plotted her next goal.

Monique Conti, what a player. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Monique Conti was straight back to basketball training on Tuesday adamant she had no intention of giving up her WNBL career as the newly minted AFLW best and fairest winner nominated team success and a Richmond premiership her overriding football goal.

Still buzzing after a dominant win in the biggest award in the game, dual-sport superstar Conti wants to match the premiership medal she won at the Western Bulldogs with one wearing yellow and black to round out one of the most impressive resumes the league has ever seen.

The morning after the 23-year-old’s runaway win, a victory that further cemented her individual standing as one of the best players the eight seasons of the fledgling league has produced, Conti put Richmond success at the top of her priority list.

Conti won a premiership with the Bulldogs in 2018 before crossing to the Tigers where she is yet to win a final, going out in straight sets in season seven before missing the post-season action this year.

Monique Conti, the best in the business. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Winning just five games was below expectations for a team that finished fourth the season before, and that was despite Conti’s midfield domination.

But Conti pointed to a final-round, 52-point demolition of the Magpies as a better of indication of what her team could produce.

“We really showed how we can play and what we’ve been training,” Conti said on Tuesday.

“If we can play that way, we’ll be really hard to beat.

“We know we are (close), we just have to put in the work … we know we’ll be OK next season.”

Conti, who snared 27 of a possible 30 votes to dominate the count and have her victory secured with two rounds to go, took a short break after Richmond’s season ended before linking up with the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL.

She played eight minutes last weekend, her second game of the season, was at training on Tuesday and, knowing how much playing both sports helped her football, said she wouldn’t be quitting.

“I love the sport, it’s something I have loved doing my whole life so I don’t see why I should stop,” Conti said.

“They complement each other a lot … the way you move, even on defence, you move together as a team. You’ve go to have good peripheral vision, be able to make decisions in a quick among of time.

AFLW Best and Fairest! Great job Mon 💪🏼🙌🏼💥. pic.twitter.com/szh2fF6WIN

— Deakin Melbourne Boomers (@MelbBoomers) November 28, 2023

“It’s shaped the way I am as a footballer for sure.”

Conti has now won an AFLW best and fairest, five club best and fairests, been named all-Australian five times and was best on ground in the 2018 AFLW grand final win with the Bulldogs as a teenager.