The last year has been a bit of a whirlwind for me.
This time 12 months ago I was living in Sydney, playing for GWS and my wardrobe was made up predominantly of charcoal and orange.
Fast forward six months and I was playing VFLW for Hawthorn wearing the infamous brown and gold.
Last weekend I played for the first time wearing the blue and white hoops, something I’ve been looking forward to since day one of pre-season 3.0.
The colours of a club are something that mean a lot to me.
The last year has really highlighted this fact. To change colours so many times has made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
Before 2017 I had only played at one club, the St Kilda Sharks in the VFLW, for 12 years. Now I’ve played for three clubs in a calendar year.
As I started writing this I couldn’t pinpoint why a club's colours mean so much. Having thought about it a bit deeper, I now know why.
Your colours are your uniform. They don’t represent you, they represent everyone who is on your journey with you. They remind you that you are part of something bigger than yourself. You’re part of a team and everyone wearing the same colours is there to support, protect and achieve the same things you are trying to achieve.
They represent history. Blue and white will mean something to everyone who has played, supported and watched AFL over the club’s 160 years history. There are thousands of people who will automatically think of Geelong when they see the colours blue and white together.
The colours are your flag. They make you patriotic. They evoke passion and pride. You wear the colours like a badge of honour.
When you feel comfortable in your colours, you feel like you belong.
For last Saturday’s practice game the squad wore the blue and white hoops for the first time as a team and for me it felt completely natural. For me, this means I feel like I belong.
The intra-club game was our first real hit out, a chance to test what we have been practicing over the past three months in match like simulation. There were some big hits, strong marks and a few goals on the run.
Following the intra-club we headed back to GMHBA Stadium for the Family Festival and I couldn’t believe how many supporters turned up! It was great to meet so many of you. Players spent a couple of hours meeting fans, signing jumpers, posters, autograph books and talking about our first game against Collingwood, which is now less than three weeks away! It was a fun afternoon. Thanks to everyone who came down.
We have our second hit out this Saturday, this time a practice match against Carlton at Ikon Park at 11am. It’s another opportunity for the girls to work on structures, ball movement and get some further match conditioning under our belts. It will also be exciting to test ourselves against another AFLW club and see how we match up compared to another squad.
The game is open to the public. It would be great to see some Cats supporters there. Make sure you wear your colours.
