Julia Crockett-Grills’ AFLW career will extend to a seventh season next year after she signed a contract to stay with Geelong until the end of 2025.
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Kyabram’s most decorated female footballer is not expecting to miss only the second AFLW game of her six season career despite injuring her ankle in a Geelong win against Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) on Saturday in Perth.
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Julia Crockett-Grills left the field on the opening minutes of the Indigenous Round match, which Geelong won easily 56-23, but is hoping to be fit for the final round of the AFLW season against Adelaide on Friday night.
The Cats are sitting 10th on the ladder and it would take a highly unlikely set of events for them to make the finals.
Eighth-ranked Essendon would need to lose to 14th-placed Carlton and ninth-ranked Melbourne would also need to lose.
They face bottom team Collingwood and that’s not to mention the Cats would need to beat third-ranked Adelaide to clinch eighth spot.
If Crockett-Grills, the joint games record holder for the club, does play on Friday night she will finish the season on 66 games, with a year of her contract to run.
She was nursing her injured ankle on the occasion of her 30th birthday, which she celebrated only a day after returning from Perth (on Monday, October 28).
Crockett-Grills, whose highly-decorated sporting parents Steve and Claire operate Kyabram Newsagency, debuted in 2019 and has missed only one game since then.
This year she is averaging 15.4 disposals, up on her previous best of 10.8.
Before the weekend’s injury she had accumulated 139 disposals in nine games, bettering her 12 game 2023 total of 133 disposals.
She has had career best clearances, kicks and marks in 2024.
Of her 12 career goals, two of them this year.
Kyabram's AFLW export Julia Crockett-Grills and her partner Rosie have a nine-month-old son Lenny.
Season 2024 results would suggest being a parent has suited the multi-talented sportswoman, who shone in several different disciplines while attending school in Kyabram.
She and partner Rosie have a nine-month-old son Lenny.
Crockett-Grills has always had a strong fan base in Kyabram, with not only her parents and three sisters (Eliza, 24, Kate, 21, and Rose, 19) in her corner, but also several former schoolmates and sporting teammates.
She had her best game of the season in a major upset where the then 12th-ranked Geelong beat reigning premier Brisbane Lions.
She and the Cats led from start to finish and won the game by 10 points, the former St Augustine’s College all-round sports star collecting 20 disposals.
Only Geelong’s two best players, hard nosed midfielder Nina Morrison (24 disposals) and the polished Georgie Prespakis (22) had more of the football than Crockett-Grills.
She also laid five tackles in the win — to go with her 17 kicks, three handballs and two marks.
The Lions were their biggest scalp of the year, but they have also had wins against Gold Coast Suns and Sydney Swans, along with a draw against second-ranked North Melbourne.
Before the weekend’s result West Coast sat one run above them on the ladder.
Crockett-Grills started the season with a 17-disposal game in the two-point loss to Melbourne, then had 18 disposals in the Cats’ biggest win of the year against the Suns.
She has kicked two goals this season, including in a 17-disposal, seven-mark game against the Swans — a game she backed up with another 18 touches in a seven-point loss to Richmond.
