The remarkable transformation of Stevie-Lee Thompson: from rugby league loving kid, to AFLW’s leading goal kicker
She’s the AFLW’s leading goalkicker, but Stevie-Lee Thompson was a star touch rugby player until a freak car accident changed her life. Liz Walsh reports
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Four years ago, life was pretty cruisy for Stevie-Lee Thompson.
She was living in Darwin, working as a teacher’s aid. Enjoying trips to the Territory’s waterfalls and national parks. Playing rugby league with friends on weekends and enjoying a few drinks.
It wasn’t unusual, but it sure was fun.
Then something changed. Strangely, the AFL came knocking. And for a girl who’d come to Darwin via stints in Canberra (where she was born), New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay, Brisbane and Moomba, Aussie rules football was a foreign sport.
But today — only four years after kicking her first football — she stands tall as the AFLW’s leading goalkicker for 2019 and an integral part of the Crows forward line that is attempting to win its second premiership in three years by beating Geelong in a preliminary final today.
In essence, her life has undergone one hell of a transformation.
“A lot of my friends drink and go out and do all those things … that was the balance of living in Darwin. There’s not much you can actually do besides drinking and going to waterfalls — that’s about it,” she says.
“So it was very tough, that first season (of AFLW with the Crows in 2017) everyone was like: ‘C’mon, just have one’ and I would say: ‘No, it’s not a good idea’.
“It was tough, giving up that whole life just to take on my footy career, but now that I look back on it, I’m glad that I did (or) I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
There’s something rather “rebel” about this season’s AFLWs leading goalkicker: Her right arm sleeved with tattoos, the nose ring and lip piercing. But this rebel has a definite cause: To transform kids’ lives and she’s studying a social work degree so she can help disadvantaged children.
But the story of how she got to where she is now — on the cusp of her second AFLW premiership — starts on Australia’s east coast in 1992.
Born of Maori heritage in Canberra to New Zealand parents, she moved with her family to Hawke’s Bay on NZ’s North Island when she was four, not to return to Australia until she was 11 along with her parents and seven brothers and sisters.
Thompson was sporty from the start, playing any code she could, from softball to cricket, netball to tennis. But rugby was somehow in her DNA and when she arrived in Brisbane as a pre-teen, she turned to touch football when league was no longer an option for a girl.
Thompson shone on the touch field and before long she was representing Queensland and when she was about to turn 20, she had the chance to try out for Australian selection.
But then life changed all of a sudden, on an ordinary day when she and her former partner were heading out on their scooter. As they were travelling along an ordinary road, they were T-boned by a car that unexpectedly pulled out.
While Thompson was largely uninjured — her former girlfriend bore the brunt of the car’s force — something intangible altered that day and she told her touch coach she wouldn’t be available for the Australian squad tryouts.
“I have no regrets,” she says.
“None at all and I wouldn’t change a thing because everything happens for a reason.”
After the accident, she spent three years moving from place to place: From Moomba to work on the mines, to Darwin where her parents had relocated.
It was here, only four years ago — in the alluring hot tropics of the Northern Territory — while she was still playing rugby league, that a friend introduced her to Australian rules.
“I had no idea about AFL … the rest of my family still don’t,” she says.
“A lot of the girls up in Darwin play rugby for social and having fun and obviously the fun part is drinking after games.
“Some of those girls said: ‘Come and play AFL’ and I said OK, even though I had no idea what I was doing or what this sport was.
“I played a few games for the Wanderers Football Club. I remember ankle-tapping a girl and giving away a free kick, but I had no idea what I was allowed to do or not.
“I was just learning the rules, I still am in a way.”
A friend then encouraged her to leave the local competition and head to the state-based comp.
“I had a crack playing for the NT Thunder but ended up doing my collarbone playing rugby league and while I was in rehab (Thunder coach Andrew) Hodges said to me: ‘You’ve got to choose, is it rugby or AFL?’
“I thought: ‘This is really hard, all my friends are playing rugby,’.
“(Hodges) just said: ‘You might have a really good chance of getting into the AFLW, so give us a crack, but if not then league’s not going anywhere’.”
Thompson did just that and even though she had only 12 months of NTFL under her belt, in 2016 she was picked up by the Crows at pick 106 in the inaugural AFLW draft.
Since then, she has played every game for the Crows across their three seasons, including winning the 2017 grand final.
And she’s always been down in the backlines. That was until new coach, Matthew “Doc” Clarke came along in November. He took one look at her and thought: “Actually, maybe she’s a forward”.
“It totally surprised me,” Thompson says of the positional move.
“I have never known anything else apart from the backline.”
But it was something of a masterstroke from the first-year coach. Thompson has kicked 13 goals for the season — more than any other player — and stands four goals clear of teammate Erin Phillips who has kicked nine.
Thompson’s breakout game this season came in round two against Carlton.
The game followed the Crows’ heartbreaking, opening round, one-point loss to reigning premiers, the Western Bulldogs, at Norwood Oval.
Come round two, the side was trailing the Blues by 17 points late in the third term at Ikon Park, when suddenly Adelaide resurged and kicked six of the final seven goals — including three from Thompson’s boot — to win by 13 points and kickstart their current six-game winning streak.
“Being forward is challenging in its own way,” Thompson says.
“Being in the backline is obviously more stressful, you’re the one blocking all the goals and they are the backbone of any team, but getting goals is a bonus.”
Thompson turned 27 yesterday —— along with her twin sister Robina, who’s some nine minutes older — and today she faces one of the toughest days of her football career: A preliminary final against Geelong, played on iconic Adelaide Oval, with her Sydney-based brother travelling here to watch her.
This AFLW season is historic for the fact that it’s the first year preliminary finals have been held.
In the previous two seasons — including the inaugural 2017 year when the Crows won the premiership — the top two teams at the end of the minor rounds faced off in the grand final.
But the introduction of the controversial conference system this year has meant the top two teams from each conference face off in the prelim, to decide the grand final contenders.
Thompson is excited to be playing on Adelaide Oval.
“If you asked me (whether I was happy to be playing on Adelaide Oval) in season one, I would have said it’s just another field, but I wouldn’t say that now.
“I’m so happy, especially for all those girls who grew up wanting to play AFL on Adelaide Oval. For them, this is a dream come true.”
Now living in Adelaide, Thompson credits her partner of four years — Karlee, whom she met in Darwin — as integral to her on-field success, as well as the balanced life that the Crows have encouraged.
She works at Workskil as an employment broker, helping transition young people into education or work, and she’s also studying a social work qualification.
Essentially, AFLW has transformed Thompson’s life.
“I look at what I eat now, what fitness I need to do, all the small things I could not imagine doing only four years ago,” she says.
“(AFLW) has changed my life completely and I hope from my experiences I can help other people.”
Adelaide v Geelong, Sunday 12,40pm, Adelaide Oval. Both public transport and entry to ground are free.
Originally published as The remarkable transformation of Stevie-Lee Thompson: from rugby league loving kid, to AFLW’s leading goal kicker
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