Adelaide AFLW forward Danielle Ponter says she is refreshed and ready to begin training again, following a few months away from the Club.
Ponter returned to the Crows’ nest with some of her teammates this week as they began optional, supervised training sessions ahead of pre-season starting in May.
The 25-year-old, who travelled to the US and Fiji over Christmas, said she needed a break from footy, following a gruelling 2024 campaign and a heartbreaking Preliminary Final loss.
“I spent a lot of my off season away from here, which was good, it was like a mental refresh for me,” Ponter said.
“During that time, I was still exercising, running with my partner, and going to the gym whenever I could, and running was a good way to see the city we were in.
“But we’re back now and we’ve started doing skills and conditioning sessions on Monday and Thursday mornings at the Club.
“We caught up as a team on Tuesday night, that was our first real get together since our exit meetings, obviously we were disappointed with how last season ended, but we’ll use that to motivate us.”
Since being drafted to Adelaide ahead of the 2019 season, Ponter has become one of the key cogs in the Crows’ forward line.
She ended the 2024 campaign as the Club’s second leading goal kicker, booting 16 majors from 14 games.
But Ponter has her sights set on becoming more of a hybrid forward/midfielder and is keen to improve her fitness ahead of the 2025 AFLW season.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play a few minutes in the midfield, but it is always that aerobic conditioning that is a challenge for me and I accept that,” Ponter said.
“That's really something that I go away and I focus on in my own time, but I like to make it enjoyable as well, and I try to find different ways to make it enjoyable because otherwise it's extremely tough.
“We’ve got a lot of girls within our team that are pretty powerful in that space, like Anne Hatchard, she helps me with a lot of it.
“We've done a few cross training sessions together and we help each other with those things which is really nice, and I love the bunch of girls that we have here.”
While she awaits pre-season kicking off, Ponter is working within the Crows’ Community team, as its First Nations programs coordinator.
Her role is to connect the Club to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the community and being a role model for other budding AFLW stars.
“I really enjoy working in the team and I work really closely with Jeremy Johncock here,” Ponter said.
“It’s an area that I'm really passionate about.
“I love coming to work and learning from him and creating opportunities for the next generation.”
The 2025 AFLW season will begin the week of August 11, with 12 rounds to be played over 12 weeks.
The start of pre-season will be Monday, May 19, while the Grand Final will be played on Saturday, November 29.
