A Footy Girls Guide to the Stars of 2017

By Nicole Hayes and Alicia Sometimes

To celebrate the first-ever elite women’s competition, A Footy Girl’s Guide to the Stars of 2017 showcases some of the key players to look out for, and reveals how they made it to the top of the women’s game.

Players profiled include: Daisy Pearce, Emma King, Katie Brennan, Darcy Vescio, Maddy Collier, Kara Donnellan, Sabrina Frederick-Traub and Erin Phillips. What age did they start playing footy? What do they love about the game? Who are their role models? What are their greatest talents as players? Find out the answers to these questions and more.

Filled with inspirational stories and fun facts, A Footy Girl’s Guide is an essential read for aspiring footy stars of the future – and all kids who love their AFL.

Nicole Hayes’s debut release, The Whole of My World (2013), is a Young Adult novel and the first “footy novel” to feature a teenage girl. It was longlisted for the 2014 Gold Inky and shortlisted for the 2014 YABBAs. Her second novel, One True Thing (2015), was awarded the 2015 Children’s Peace Literature Award. She bleeds Brown and Gold, which you’d know if you followed her on Twitter: @nichmelbourne.

Alicia Sometimes is an Australian writer, poet and broadcaster. She is a regular guest on ABC 774 and Radio National. She has appeared on ABC TV's Sunday Arts and ABC News Breakfast. She was a 2014 Fellow at the State Library of Victoria and was writer and director of the science-poetry show, Elemental. Alicia has two poetry collections, kissing the curve and Soundtrack and her poems have been in Best Australian Poems, Overland, Southerly, Westerly and many more. She has performed her spoken word at many venues, festivals and events around the world. Alicia has co-edited From the Outer (Black Inc, 2016) alongside Nicole Hayes. She is also one-sixth of The Outer Sanctum.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Inc. Books
• Release date: Jan 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781925435535

Nicole Hayes

Nicole Hayes’s debut release, The Whole of My World (2013), is a Young Adult novel and the first “footy novel” to feature a teenage girl. It was longlisted for the 2014 Gold Inky and shortlisted for the 2014 YABBAs. Her second novel, One True Thing (2015), was awarded the 2015 Children’s Peace Literature Award. She bleeds Brown and Gold, which you’d know if you followed her on Twitter: @nichmelbourne.

Book preview

ANSWERS

INTRODUCTION

We’ve always loved watching footy – the excitement of the speccy, the tension of the last-minute goal, the rush of a well-timed tackle. This was how we spent our weekends when we were kids. We both wanted to play footy too but, back then, there weren’t many girls’ teams around, and our local boys’ teams wouldn’t make room for us.

Yet girls and women have been playing footy for generations. The first-recorded match between female players dates back to 1917. The first women’s league was the Victorian Women’s Football League (VWFL) established in 1981, with other states following soon after. Despite there being a growing number of girls playing, many had to stop at age fourteen because it was considered dangerous for them to continue to play in mixed teams, and there were few teams solely for teenage girls. There were no professional women footballers.

That’s all changing.

The first professional women’s football competition has been launched by the AFL – the 2017 NAB AFL Women’s Competition. Eight teams have been created, bringing together the most talented female footballers – and other athletes – from all over Australia. The rules will be a little different, but the game is the same – fast-moving, hard-tackling, highly skilled and acrobatic.

A Footy Girl’s Guide to the Stars of 2017 features one player from each of the eight clubs, highlighting what makes them superstars of the women’s game. Each has carved her own path to the top, proving that there is no single way – and that footy is a game for anyone who wants to give it a go. In fact, footy is for EVERYONE. As it should be!

Keep kicking goals!

Alicia and Nicole

A FOOTY GIRL’S RULES

•The players use a slightly smaller ball: size 4.

•There are 16 players to a side with 6 on the bench.

•Each game is divided into 4 × 15-minute quarters, plus time-on.

•Each team plays a home-and-away match every week for seven weeks with a grand final during Week 8.

NAME: DAISY PEARCE

POSITION: