This article was first written for and published by the Roar.
n Friday evening, Nicola Barr kicked three goals for the GWS Giants against the Western Bulldogs, becoming the player with the most games played before kicking their first goal.
“I had a good laugh when I saw that stat,” said Barr.
This article was first written for and published by the Roar.
reater Western Sydney take on the Western Bulldogs at Henson Park tonight, and it’s fair to say Pepa Randall is pumped to play her side’s first home pride match.
“Last week when we were playing at Ardern Street against North Melbourne I realised that we haven’t had our own Pride Round at our home ground due to circumstance,” says Randall.
This article was first written for and published by the Roar.
Katherine Smith was only a little girl when she declared to her parents that she wanted to be the Prime Minister of Australia.
“I have always wanted to play AFL at the elite level,” says Smith.
But when Smith was growing up, AFL was a sport associated with men and at that point, only men were competing at the elite level.
This article was first written for and published by Siren Sport.
Recently, the GWS Giants AFLW team named its new-look leadership group for the 2022 season.
Whilst Alicia Eva will continue in her role as captain for a third year, she will have some new faces supporting her including Chloe Dalton, Alyce Parker and Nicola Barr. Cora Staunton and Pepa Randall have maintained their sports.
All five players will hold the role of vice-captain for the GIANTS this season.
At just 21 and the first person at the club to become a dual All-Australian and winner of the Gabrielle Trainor Medal, Parker is one of the new faces to the leadership group. But Parker has been aspiring to be part of this group for many years.
This article was first written for and published by the Roar.
Over the last five years, women’s sport has become increasingly prominent.
In most of our professional sporting codes, women are visible everywhere you turn; as players, spectators, volunteers, administrators, media commentators and as officials.
But despite all the change over the last five years, there’s still plenty of work to do.
This story was first written for and published by Siren Sport.
The Western Bulldogs Pride guernsey was one of the best designs we’ve seen this year. Mary Konstantopoulos talks to designer Natalie Gills about its story.
This article was first written for and published by Siren Sport.
GWS Giants utility Louise Stephenson is a woman of great courage.
Stephenson is preparing for her fifth year representing the GWS Giants in the AFLW and is hoping to take the field from round three onwards. While Stephenson, just like her teammates, loves playing footy, right now playing AFLW is not a full-time professional job. For Stephenson and her teammates, that means juggling footy training and all other footy commitments with other parts of life including study, family and employment.
Most women who pursue a career as an elite athlete, do so with the knowledge that they will not be paid as full-time professional athletes, but do so anyway. They do it because they love it and often make tremendous sacrifices for this love of their sport. For me, that is the very definition of courage.
For Stephenson, not only is she dreaming of the day when playing in the AFLW is a full-time job, but after an intensive 14 weeks, she has also recently been promoted to a Firefighter at Fire and Rescue NSW. This is a job which also takes tremendous courage and compassion as we saw last year during the devastating bushfires which wreaked havoc across the country and particularly NSW.
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n 2017 when it was announced by the AFL that the Richmond Tigers would be granted an AFLW licence to enter the competition in 2020, CEO Brendon Gale said the following:
“It is fantastic news for the club, our members and supporters and all our stakeholders. We were disappointed that we were not part of the inaugural AFLW season, but we have continued to work hard to promote female football and support participation pathways.”
This article was first written for and published by the Roar.
For the GWS Giants, their win against the West Coast Eagles in the AFLW last weekend may have been the best in their history. The margin of 28 points certainly suggests so.
But after a disappointing loss to North Melbourne the week before, for Bec Beeson and the rest of her Giants teammates, it was important to bounce back strongly.
“I thought our connection on the field and being able to share the ball around was a real stand out,” says Beeson.