Rising star: Grace Egan has enjoyed a fantastic start to her AFLW career.
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AAP
Sport has always been in the blood of Shepparton’s Grace Egan.
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Showing great promise growing up on the netball and basketball court, she would end up finding her calling on the football field, rising up from the local Bears to now being a crucial cog in Carlton’s AFLW side.
Now gearing up for her third season at the elite level, which began on Sunday against Collingwood, the 21-year-old sat down for a chat to discuss her journey to the big time and hopes for the future.
With a radical schedule change bringing forward the beginning of the season and COVID-19 set to cause havoc, Egan said she was extremely excited to get out there and play and see what the young Blues could accomplish.
“It feels a bit surreal to be honest, we haven’t played in so long, so I feel that once the first game kicks off the nerves will settle and it will be back to just playing footy with the girls again,” Egan said.
“The pre-season has felt like it has just gone on forever and I feel like we have just been running since June, but it’s good to finally come to the end of it and just be able to play again.
“I feel like this year we will definitely come in as the underdogs, obviously last season didn’t go too well losing a lot of close games, but we have had a good pre-season and the girls that we have brought in have been great, so I’m keen to get on the field and see how we go playing together.”
Storming onto the scene in 2020 where she claimed Best First Year Player honours at the Blues, Egan has gone from strength to strength in her short career as she looks to forge her way into Daniel Harford’s on-ball brigade.
She outlined how the game had evolved in her three years at the top-flight.
“It has evolved a lot when you look at coming through the VFL and adding more teams into the AFL and the greater commitment to the girls program now from where it started off,” she said.
“Each year it gets better and better, there is still a long way to go, but it is just incredible to see how far it is has come and I love being involved.”
Looking back on her football journey, Egan explained what it was that got her into playing football in Shepparton.
“I think it was just for a bit of fun, I had always played other sports growing up and once you get to a certain age where you can’t go any further, so I just swapped over to enjoy my sport a bit more and footy was just sort of kicking off at that stage,” she said.
“I started off in the Shepparton Bears team and from there you can go on to play for the Murray Bushrangers and I just found myself climbing up the ranks really.”
Humble beginnings: Grace Egan began her footballing journey with the Shepparton Bears.
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Lauren Bordin
Egan’s skills had her garner attention from Melbourne, with Richmond quick to get her involved in its VFLW set-up while she was still living at home in Shepparton.
She recalls the challenges of balancing her commitments, as she regularly made the trip down the Hume Hwy for training and games.
“It was definitely hard to start off with, but I was super lucky to have one of my best friends travelling with me which made things way easier,” she said.
“Looking back it on it now though I have no idea how I did it, driving back to Shepparton is definitely a once a week occasion now, but I was willing to make those sacrifices and really happy I was able to continue to develop my footy.”
As she continues to make a name for herself as one of the rising stars of the AFLW, Egan had this message for young girls looking to get into football.
“My message would be to take every opportunity you possibly can,” she said.
“The reason I got to this position is that Mum took me down to a trial at Richmond I didn’t want to do, but in the end that’s how I got to the AFLW, so just take every opportunity that comes and never give up.”
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