Nat Fyfe’s association with the no.7 is well known at Fremantle, and the 2015 Brownlow Medallist was more than happy to share it when Freo were granted a licence in the inaugural AFL women’s competition.
Wearing seven at Fremantle may come with its own set of expectations, but as a member of the WAWFL Team of the Decade from 2000-2010, Amy Lavell was more than capable of making the number her own.
To Lavell, her connection with the number came through one of her best friends – a Freo fan whose favourite number was seven.
Sadly, she would never see Lavell pull on the chevrons, passing away a year before the AFLW was established.
So when numbers were allocated to Freo’s inaugural side, Lavell requested her friend’s favourite number as a tribute.
Because of this tribute, Lavell found she had someone else at the club looking out for her.
Ahead of Fremantle’s AFLW home opener on Sunday 12 February at Fremantle Oval, Lavell arrived and opened the locker that she shared with the Fremantle men’s captain.
On the inside of the door was a post-it note. It read;
Amy, Good luck for the game, wear the 7 well!
When you have nothing left in the tank, you keep going you good thing. You crawl if you have to, bloody roll if you have to! Good luck, Nat.
The note wasn’t the first interaction between the pair.
At the jumper presentations at the Junior Christmas Party last December, Fyfe and Lavell shared a conversation about the upcoming season.
“He was very welcoming,” Lavell said.
“He wanted to know what I was doing and what I did with my life and what I wanted to get out of the season,” Lavell said.
“It was quite nice to know how much he cared about what we were going through. He thought the new women’s league was really exciting.”
As a member of the inaugural leadership group, Lavell used her connection with Fyfe to model her own leadership style.
“He’s the ultimate professional and that’s what I want to be,” Lavell said.
“I want to lead from the front and show our younger girls that they can do good things with their footy.
“And when it got tough on the eld, I was able to notice that I could keep going and inspire my teammates as well.
“That’s when the note stuck in the back of my mind. Like Nat, I wanted to lead and gee-up the girls through my communication.”
Lavell said it was fitting that she was able to find an extra dimension to her football through her friend.
“I can only imagine how much playing for Fremantle would mean to her if she was still here today,” she said.
“So it had a lot of significance for me and was a big driver of my season.
“She was fighting chronic lung failure for about 10 years and finally got the chance for a double lung transplant but it didn’t take.
“So I want to try and be more of an ambassador for organ donation.
“It’s about telling your family your priorities, so if something were to happen to you they would know you are happy to donate.“
Through football I hope to raise awareness because she was also a big advocate for it.”
For more information on organ and tissue donation in WA, visit www.odatwa.org.au
