Michelle Donnelly is set to fly the flag for the Victorian under 19 Australian Rules team after being selected for the 2007 AFL Women’s National Championships in Canberra next week.By Marc McGowan
NARRE South Lion midfielder Michelle Donnelly will be the youngest member of the Victorian under 19 Australian Rules side when the 2007 AFL Women’s National Championships kick off in Canberra next week.
Donnelly, 14, was the only player from the Lions’ youth girls squad to make the team after the other four in contention failed to survive the first cut.
“It was very exciting for me, seeing as I’m only 14, so it’s a great opportunity,” she said.
“I’ll just be trying to make everyone proud and do the best that I can.”
Hallam’s Chloe Peers, Chantelle Hawkins, Kristy Borg and Alicia Heins and Narre Warren’s Kara Donnellan will join Donnelly, who lives in Cranbourne, at the championships to ensure a strong local presence.
Donnelly is in only her second season in the sport after switching from netball, where she played at representative level for Cranbourne.
“I started netball when I was about seven, but I quit last year,” she said. “Netball was getting boring for me. I like contact sports and getting in there.”
Football gives the talented teenager the best of both worlds and allows her to display her booming 50-metre kick, elite marking skills and superb running capacity.
She is also full of praise for the youth girls competition, which began in 2004 and has given her the chance to indulge in her biggest passion.
“It is really exciting and really good to play – it’s not bitchy,” Donnelly, who is a Western Bulldogs supporter, said.
“I love all of it – every bit about footy.”
Donnelly was recruited to Narre South last year after being spotted kicking a football around at the club.
The coaches of both the youth girls and under-13 sides, for which Donnelly would have been eligible for one year, approached her to play and she chose the former.
Donnelly has come a long way since then and her mother Leah is beaming with pride at her daughter’s achievements on the field.
“We were shocked when she made the team,” she said.
“We actually kept saying, ‘you’re only 14 – you’ve got years to try out’, but she kept making each cut and when she made it we were rapt.
“Her dad’s beside himself and next week we’ll be driving up to watch her play in Canberra.”
Donnelly, who played in the winning South East squad in the inaugural Victorian Youth Girls Championship last month, has no lack of motivation to perform well at the national championships, with her father Kevin unable to play the sport himself because of illness.
“I’m going to play hard, put in 110 per cent and make my dad and whole club proud,” she said.
“It doesn’t really matter to me how long I get to play, as long as I get to play.”
Donnelly plans on continuing her youth girls career and competing in the Victorian Women’s Football League when she is older.
She also intends on coaching her younger brother Shaun’s football team at the Lions next season and doing an AFL traineeship in sports management or physiotherapy in the future.
“Whatever I take from the championships, I will take to them,” Donnelly said.
