Six years of sacrifice and hard work paid off this week when South Australian teenager Nikki Gore became the first of six new Crows to join the nest.
Adelaide called the 17-year-old with pick No. 8 in Tuesday’s NAB AFL Women’s Draft.
Co-captain Chelsea Randall presented Nikki her guernsey on stage, something the young Crow described as an ‘unreal experience’.
“Having Chels present that guernsey to me was pretty amazing… I don’t think it’s sunk in yet but it was an absolute honour [to be Adelaide’s first pick],” she said.
Nikki started out as a young surfer with her twin sister Amy, who is now a professional surfer, but gave it up to pursue her desire to play within a team environment.
“I started surfing as a little kid but didn’t really like the individual side of it so I moved into footy in 2012,” she said.
“I started playing in the boys team and, being a team sport, I loved it a lot more and I’ve played for about seven years now – four years with the boys and then three in female footy.”
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As her passion for football grew, so did her commitment to it and she soon made the call to switch to home schooling.
“The commitment of football started to override my schooling commitments and it was just too full on going to normal school – I was always away,” she said.
“I started home schooling in year 10, so have done my last three years of high school from home, and I’ve been able to train harder and now I’m here.”
Over the past year, the strong midfielder has developed a long list of accolades.
In her first year at the South Adelaide Football Club, she took out the inaugural women’s best and fairest and became a premiership player.
“South was amazing… to get that premiership was awesome and in a pretty good game too,” she said.
Nikki was also selected in AFL Academy, the 2018 All-Australian squad and the SANFLW Team of the Year as a ruck rover.
After leading the SANFLW competition in average disposals per game with 19.5, she was named the SANFL Breakthrough Player of the Year for 2018.
The award is handed to the most brilliant player in the SANFL Statewide Super Women's League under the age of 21.
During the 2018 VFLW season, Nikki lined up alongside a number of her new teammates as she represented the NT Thunder for two games.
“It was an amazing experience and it was great to play against some AFLW players too,” she said.
As for 2019, the new Crow said she couldn’t wait to start training with the players she has admired for years.
“I’m looking forward to getting in with all the girls and developing my skills, and then hopefully getting a game.”
