Fremantle’s Tommy Sheridan says a huge opening weekend for the NAB AFL Women’s competition proves that women’s footy belongs on the national stage.
Sheridan gave the league a glowing review at Wednesday’s press conference.
“It’s great, I think the crowd summed it up. There’s a demand there for female football,” Sheridan said.
“It’s great to see the girls with that team camaraderie, that’s why I play footy. It gives us that team spirit and it’s good to see the girls enjoying it as well.”
In his junior years, Sheridan saw first hand how well some of the girls could play, and played a hand in one of these players getting drafted to Carlton.
Kate Darby, who was selected at pick 126 in the draft, told The Geelong Advertiser about Sheridan’s role in her selection.
“(Tommy) knew a couple of the Carlton boys and mentioned it would be worth giving me a look in. I had a run around with Carlton and must have done something right,” Darby said.
“He said (to Carlton) ‘I know a girl that used to run around and embarrass a few of the boys when she was in the under-12s’.”
With the talk of lock-outs and more than 50,000 fans attending the games in round one, Sheridan hopes to be among those who will see Fremantle’s first AFLW home game on Sunday.
“We’ll be here and it should be packed,” Sheridan said.
“So I’m looking forward to the atmosphere as well as the game.”
Sheridan is hopeful that Fremantle can bounce back after last weekend’s 32-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.
“We always talk about (mistakes) in the first game of the year, and for them it was the first game of their life,” Sheridan said.
“As always you’re pretty fatigued, skill errors might occur a bit more often.
“Obviously Freo didn’t get the result but I bet that they’ll be better next week, with a bit more confidence as they have a bit more game practice behind them.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them on Sunday here and we hope a big crowd gets around them.”
