Eighteen years after being given no choice but to walk away from the game with no team to play for, Erin Phillips has lived out her football dream.
Phillips, 31, was part of the history-making Crows team that beat Greater Western Sydney by 36 points at a soggy Thebarton Oval.
Daughter of Port Magpies champion Greg Phillips, football was Erin’s chosen sport growing up.
She tagged along with her Hall of Famer-father to SANFL games and played for SMOSH West Lakes until the age of 13 when she was no longer allowed to play with the boys. There was no girls’ competition.
About the same time, Phillips took up basketball and the rest is history … or at least it was until Saturday.
Co-captaining a club once considered a fierce rival, the two-time Olympian and WNBA star achieved a feat she doubted would ever be possible.
“It was unreal, a lot of fun. The fans, the atmosphere and the energy from this group was just amazing,” Phillips said after the game.
“To get the first win in the inaugural season is awesome.”
The groundbreaking AFLW game was Phillips’ first competitive hit-out since a charity ‘Slowdown’ match in the mid-1990s.
“It has been awhile, but I’ve mentally played this game in my head, wanting to be out on the field for many years,” she said.
“(It means) everything. I never thought this was going to happen in my lifetime. To be 31 and to be in this situation that I am, I just feel so honoured.”
You wouldn’t have picked up on her absence from the sport watching her play on Saturday.
The aggressive forward immediately displayed her smarts with some clever body work to help set up the opening goal to marquee player Kellie Gibson.
She then had three opportunities to kick goals of her own, missing one set shot to the right, another to the left and then a mistimed soccer off the ground
The crowd of more than 9,000 willed Phillips to put one through the middle. She finally did in the second quarter, kicking one off the ground in the goal square to extend Adelaide’s lead.
“I thought it was a about time! I think I’d kicked like three or four behinds before that,” she said.
Bursting with pride, Greg was watching from the terrace with his family, who could hardly watch as Erin desperately tried to secure that elusive first goal.
“The way she was kicking I thought she might have to go to the backlines like me!” Greg said.
“It was probably a little bit of nerves and she’ll get better.”
Get better she did. Phillips finished the game with 3.3 from seven scoring opportunities and 15 possessions.
“I’ll definitely be out practising some set shots!” she said.
“Sometimes you have games like that, but hopefully I won’t have too many.”
Phillips was made to work hard for her goals on debut.
The fierce competitor’s second goal came from a free kick after being ‘clothes-lined’ on the goal line. Her third resulted from another high hit.
“I probably ran in clumsily into a few arms myself, but I’m very thankful I just got a new mouthguard fitted this week because it came in handy!”
Occasionally opposed to another Australian basketballer-turned-footballer Jessica Bibby, Phillips won over the pro-Crows crowd in her very first outing.
She kicked goals, took strong marks, baulked an opponent and got right back up each time she got knocked down.
Coach Bec Goddard offered a wry smile when asked about Phillips’ first game in over a decade.
“She’s an unbelievable athlete. She showed just a glimpse of what she’s capable of today,” Goddard said.
In an unsettling sight for dyed-in-the-wool Port fans, it was a Phillips family affair at Thebby Oval.
Erin’s nieces, Ashlee, Chloe and Jemma, ran out with the team as mascots.
“They were just so pumped and I could see the excitement in their eyes … and in the young kids in the crowd. That’s what we’re about,” Erin said.
“We want to inspire girls to one day play this great game of ours.”
Greg can also see the game growing following the introduction of the AFL Women’s Competition.
He couldn’t hide his excitement about the atmosphere and Erin’s involvement on Saturday.
“This is Erin’s dream. From a little girl who followed her dad … running around the oval with me … she loved her footy,” he said.
“She got the chance to play a little bit for Rosewater and SMOSH West Lakes and then basketball in America. For her now to come back and fulfill a dream is absolutely fantastic.
“I just can’t believe it. It’s a fantastic day and a credit to the AFL. I can just see it getting stronger and stronger. Come on the Crows!”
Phillips agreed it was an emotional occasion for her whole family.
“Dad would’ve had a few tears in his eyes. He cries in Disney movies, so he would’ve cried today!”
