AFLW: Fremantle Dockers' bolstered midfield on show in practice match win over West Coast Eagles
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News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
AFLW stars on being role models, dealing with setbacks and the future of the league: ‘The game has evolved'
Posing on set for Stellar's shoot in Sydney's eastern suburbs is worlds away from the footy field, yet Chloe Molloy – co-captain of Sydney Swans' AFLW team – embraces being out of her comfort zone. 'I can respect what models do,' Molloy tells Stellar with a laugh. 'I get so awkward – I'm not camera shy but then … I am slightly camera shy.' Molloy, who grew up in the Victorian town of Whittlesea, made her AFLW debut in 2017 – and won the AFLW Rising Star Award, was named All-Australian three times, and nabbed a Best and Fairest at her former club Collingwood, before signing with the Swans in 2023. Ahead of the start of the 2025 AFLW season – marking the league's tenth overall (two seasons were played in 2022) – Molloy and her cohorts, Brisbane Lions dual premiership player Ally Anderson and Melbourne captain Kate Hore – reflect on how the league has changed since its inception in 2017. 'The game has evolved a lot,' Molloy says. As for what she would like to see in its future? 'I'd love for there to be more analysis [of matches]. I'd love more camera angles [during broadcasts]. I think you can get caught up with what we don't have … and forget how far we have come.' The trio is hopeful that, like them, more AFLW players will be able to earn a full-time salary from playing in the coming years – an ambition shared by the AFL. '[The AFL] is committed to us being full-time,' Molloy notes. 'When that is, hopefully sooner rather than later. There's growth in the game that's happening and still needs to happen. Salaries not only for the players but salaries around [for support staff]. Hopefully in the next few years [there will be] full time wages not just for the players, but for everyone around us.' Molloy, 26, is on track to make her return to the Swans after an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury ruled her out of last season. 'It was very hard to process that I had even done it,' Molloy says. 'And you just know straight away that you are on the sidelines for so long. I didn't realise how mentally taxing it would be: 10, 11 months. One that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. It is a rehab beast – at times, it definitely defeated me. Now, I look ahead and everything that I have been through. It kind of makes me think, I just want to play football. I don't have a return date set. Fingers crossed [for a round one return].' Brisbane Lions midfielder Anderson, who played in two premierships with the club and is a three-time AFLW All-Australian, is firmly focused on avenging the Lions crushing Grand Final loss to North Melbourne last season. 'It was super devastating and a bit emotional,' Brisbane-born Anderson – a proud Gangulu / Wakka Wakka woman – tells Stellar. 'And it wasn't the first Grand Final that we'd lost,' the 31-year-old adds. 'I have been on both sides and it never gets any easier. You sort of have a really big break in the off-season away from footy. 'As a team, we have worked together. The position we have put ourselves in throughout the whole pre-season to … get back to what we were and do one better. 'We all want to redeem ourselves.' Like Molloy, Anderson made her AFLW debut in 2017 and she adds: 'I've played every game since'. The winner of the 2022 AFL Women's best and fairest award, Anderson notes: 'I'm one of the lucky ones – for the past 3-4 years, I've been able to dedicate myself to footy. I've been able to work on my fitness and I have had a lot of improvement over the past few years. I never thought I'd be a full-time professional athlete.' Ahead of the new season, Hore says she is more aware than ever about being a role model to the next generation 'It definitely took me a bit of time for it to sink in,' the 30-year-old says. 'My idols in footy growing up were all male, so for young girls to now have AFLW athletes to look up to is pretty cool. 'The saying 'you can't be what you can't see' resonates with me.' Hore, a three-time All-Australian player, Best & Fairest winner, and the league's leading goalkicker in 2023, is in a relationship with Corey Maynard, a former footballer who now works in player development at North Melbourne – and the couple share their Melbourne home with a Golden Retriever puppy, Benny. 'Footy is obviously a big part of our lives but we love getting out of the footy bubble whenever we can,' Hore says. 'We are both very competitive, so when either of our teams lose we're probably not much fun to be around. He's incredibly supportive of my footy career.' The 2025 NAB AFLW Premiership season starts on Thursday, August 14. See
The Australian
a day ago
- The Australian
Sacked: Greg Williams says he has the brain of an 80-year-old
Dual Brownlow medallist Greg Williams says the AFL should consider a total ban on pre-season contact training as he deals with the scary reality that he almost certainly has degenerative brain disease CTE. Williams told the Herald Sun's Sacked podcast advanced brain scans had revealed damage from repeated knocks and concussions had resulted in the brain health of an 80-year-old. 'I believe I'm damaged, I really do,' the 61-year-old said of his belief he had CTE, which is only diagnosed by an examination of the brain post-mortem. Recent advances in science with MEG scans are giving cutting-edge, high-level analysis of serious brain injuries, allowing concussion victims to assess the damage they have suffered. Danny Frawley, Shane Tuck, Graham 'Polly' Farmer and Murray Weideman were all found to have had CTE, with the Victorian coroner requiring the AFL to respond to his calls for slashing contact training after Tuck's death. Williams has worked hard on diet, exercise and with brain health activities to reduce the effects of those head knocks but cannot remember any details in depth from his 250 games including the 1995 Grand Final. The Carlton football director says the league should consider a total ban on tackling across the summer and is concerned about the contest-heavy AFLW competition. Asked if the AFL should reduce contact sessions to 10 across a pre-season, Williams told Sacked the league could eradicate all tackle drills. 'Maybe none. You can still teach tackle technique and stuff, but you don't have to have the full 'bash-up each other' sessions,' he said. 'Even training is still an issue at the AFL level. 'There is no need to be belting each other up at training. It's just ridiculous. In the NFL they don't. They are not allowed to. In certain sessions they (are allowed contact) but we have a fair way to go. 'It's the compounding (from repeated sub concussions) that is the problem. 'It's not just the concussion. And then you talk about 'W' (AFLW) and I get really upset about W. It's not the umpires fault, it's the AFL's decision in regards to women. They have five and six tackles in a row, there is in the back, there is around the neck. Just be a bit tiggy touch wood and pay the free and let's go. 'I just think (the impact of concussion) is very scary for the women.' The AFL is moving closer to concrete guidelines around the levels of contact training across a pre-season but most clubs now conduct a period of match simulation in many or all post-summer sessions. The league asked them in February to be more prescriptive about the levels of contact in training, but in the NFL only 14 sessions in any season are allowed to contain tackling. The AFL said on Thursday that it was still collecting data from clubs and would report back shortly. Williams had at least four official concussions but many more head knocks across a career at Geelong, Sydney and Carlton that saw him win two Brownlow Medals and the 1995 premiership. 'With CTE, I've been following that for a long time. I believe I'm damaged, I really do. I cope and I'm good. I do a lot of things. I do exercise and I'm a carnivore as well, so I really think that helps as well. Diet helps … I feel like I'm doing everything I possibly can,' he said. 'But I can't remember anything about any game I played. Honestly, I can't remember getting married. I just don't think it's normal … I know footage from the '95 grand final and stuff like that. I know I was there. But it's just a bit frustrating when you don't remember the main things that happened. 'I remember (former AFL CEO) Andrew Demetriou said (Williams) might have concussion but 'he hasn't forgotten how good he was'. I thought that was a good line. But concussion's not funny.' Williams has completed cutting-edge brain scans which have confirmed a worrying level of damage. 'There are some good scans that show damage. And it wasn't a good scan. (They said) pretty much that I was an 80-year-old. 75 or 80, which is pretty damning.' 'I remember studying concussion years ago and someone said to the best neuroscientist in America, 'Oh my son played gridiron, he's 15 and he got knocked out on the weekend, how long should he have off?' And the (reply was), 'He shouldn't play again'. 'That's how serious it is.' AFL Two home finals for a shot at the MCG on Grand Final day aren't too far away for the Crows. Mick McGuane writes, they now have the brand that well and truly stacks up in September. AFL The AFL, a league in denial when it comes to training loads and brain injuries, need to listen to one of the greats in dual Brownlow medallist Greg Williams who believes contact in AFL pre-season training needs to go.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Super Netballer Liv Lewis announces shock retirement to pursue AFLW
Melbourne Mavericks defender Liv Lewis has shocked the netball world with a "bombshell" announcement, revealing at the team's end-of-season awards night that she is retiring from the sport to pursue a career in AFLW. Lewis will not be able to play in the upcoming AFLW season, which begins later this month, but is hoping to be picked up as a rookie during the player movement period at year's end. "I'm excited to announce I'm chasing a career in footy and playing AFLW. It's been a dream of mine for a really long time," said Lewis, who was named the club's defender of the year. "Bombshell, I know. "The hardest part for me is leaving the Mavs, netball is one thing but the Mavs is a special place." Lewis was an inaugural Maverick after spending two years at the Melbourne Vixens and three with West Coast — the two teams who will face off in this year's grand final on Saturday night. She was not contracted with the Mavericks for 2026. "This is a decision I've been sitting on for a while and something that I've wanted to pursue for a long time, and now I just think it's the right time for me to go and chase that dream," she said. "I truly cannot express how grateful I am for my time with the Mavs. It's been the most special two years of my career. "I'm really content with the career I've had in netball, and I'm really grateful for what netball has given to me, so overall I'm just really excited." While some athletes manage a dual career in AFLW and other sports — Collingwood's Sarah Rowe recently won the A-League Women's championship with the Central Coast Mariners — the increased professionalism makes the pursuit increasingly hard. Fremantle defender and former Diamond Ash Brazill was juggling the dual-career but gave up netball in 2024 to focus solely on AFLW. Lewis's departure makes things harder for the Mavericks, who will also be without star international shooter Eleanor Cardwell after the club confirmed this week she will not be seeking a new contract for 2026. Cardwell had a turbulent season, which was derailed by her second knee injury and surgery within six months. "It's obviously been a really difficult year for me personally, not being able to take to the SSN court at all," the Englishwoman told SEN. "As so many people know, the journey to return to play from injury is physically difficult, but emotionally it's really hard too, and for me it's been compounded by not being surrounded by my family and close friends back home. "I'll be really sad to leave the girls but I'm looking forward to working towards my goal of returning to the court at the highest level and hopefully representing England at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney."
