In the lead-up to the inaugural AFLW draft, Sarah Perkins sat third on Victorian Women’s Football League goal-kicking list and had been named in the VWFL team of the year. But after 145 names had been read out on draft day, not one team in Perkins’ home state had elected to take on the power forward. Her AFLW dream seemingly in tatters, Perkins broke down, inconsolable.
“That moment will stick with me forever,” she says. “I still get a little heartbroken thinking about it. After a breakout year in the VWFL and working really hard, it was gut-wrenching to think it still wasn’t seen to be at the level it was meant to be. I definitely left there thinking I’d never play AFLW.”
Of all the inspirational stories to come out of the inaugural AFLW season, that of Perkins is arguably the fan favourite; an underdog whose unlikely and unequivocal success mirrored that of the league’s own.
As is now well-known, Perkins’ initial grief was short-lived; a phonecall from Adelaide coach Bec Goddard offered her a lifeline – the chance to relocate interstate to join the Crows as a free-agent. Although Perkins had to leave family and her home state, she jumped at the opportunity.
“Walking away from a life I’d set up in Melbourne, I wasn’t too sure what was going to happen and if it would all work out,” she says. “But [ultimately] it changed the way I looked at footy and brought back the love and passion I’ve always had but obviously lost. I’ve loved being away from home, and I’ve become my own person. [In Adelaide], no-one knew who I was, so I could start fresh.”
Although Perkins may have arrived an outsider, she would not stay out of the limelight long. Variously nicknamed “Perko” and “Tex” for commanding the Sherrin in the mould of men’s captain Tex Walker, she soon became a cult hero in Adelaide, gracing the front and back pages of local newspapers in a groundbreaking first for women’s football.
Asked about her popularity, Perkins is uncomfortable acknowledging her fame. “I’m not a real fan of it [the publicity],” she says. “I prefer being what I call a ‘nobody’. I just like being able to play footy and stay out of the public eye.
“I guess with the journey I’ve had [though], it’s something that hits home for a lot of people and something they can relate to. Being resilient, never giving up, that’s probably the thing I’d like to be known for. But saying I’m a cult hero, I can’t say I changed the world or I’m some sort of superhero. I think Erin Phillips has got that covered.”
Perkins may claim she’s no fan of attention, but her elaborate goal celebrations suggest no such thing. Known for her wide-armed salutes and steely gaze after slotting a major, the 24-year-old is amused when it is pointed out that she seems anything but retiring in these moments.
“I don’t know where they came from,” she laughs. “I’ve always loved a good fist pump. It’s [about] trying to excite my team-mates a little bit, trying to get the crowd and my team up and about, showing my passion. If I’m kicking goals and enjoying myself, then I think everyone is.”
Kicking goals is one thing Perkins did with aplomb in AFLW season one – she won the team’s goalkicking award ahead of team-mate and league best and fairest Phillips, and came second to Darcy Vescio overall. In that sense, Perkins played no small part in the Crows’ history-making grand final victory – although she is humble about her own role in the win.
“Something that has probably taken a while to sink in and still hasn’t is that I was a part of that team. Just because of everything that happened [for me], I still pinch myself every day. We’ve started preparing for season two, and I’m still like ‘wow, did that even happen?’”
Nonetheless, Perkins says hearing the siren sound on their history-making victory is something she won’t soon forget.
“I still get goosebumps, I’ve got goosebumps now thinking about it. Seeing the pure joy and excitement and emotion on every one of my team-mates’ faces, but not only that, [seeing] the Lions girls and how heartbroken they were, for me it really clicked in that maybe a minute more and they could’ve kicked a goal and we’d have been on that side of history.”
Despite the magic of 2017 for the Crows in particular, Perkins will remember AFLW season one as a victory for the generations of women who fought for the right of women to play footy. “It has written history for all the women and trailblazers who believed in us and paved the way for us to even play at a state level, let alone a national level, because of all the hard work they put in.
“It’s also about the future of those girls who are running around playing Auskick now with girls’ names on their jumpers. Women’s footy has come a long way in the last hundred years, and if they keep letting us play and keep letting us develop, it’s going to keep developing.”
More immediately, the upcoming second season of AFLW offers a chance for the game’s quality to further improve, become “more high-scoring” and showcase further skill development. “We’ve all had a massive seven-month off-season where we’ve all gone away and gotten better individually. Everyone has come back to pre-season better than they were a year ago, so people know we’re going to get better, they just have to give it a chance.
“I think it’ll grow in every aspect, whether that be in the media, on the field, or off the field. That’s something we all expect because we knocked down that door pretty hard, and people know we’re there, for sure.”
Season two will see the introduction of some controversial rule changes – including a last-touch out of bounds rule (meaning a free kick will be paid against the last player who touched the ball before it went out of bounds) and a reduction of the number of players per team from 22 to 21, with one less player allowed on the bench.
As ever, Perkins is taking those changes in her stride. “We just have to have to trust that the AFL is doing what they think is best,” she says. “We had to learn to play with 16 on the field [last season], so now we have to learn to play with that one less player and the new rules.”
Looking beyond next season, Perkins hopes to see more AFLW games played “for points” before AFL premiership-season matches, while she is also excited about the competition’s expansion and “more girls getting the opportunity to play the game they love”.
In the meantime, while the sport is still semi-professional, she will continue to work at Reece plumbing – the same place she says she’d be if she hadn’t been drafted on that fateful day. “But I would probably never have been able to walk away [if I wasn’t drafted],” she says. “I probably would have stayed involved in a non-playing aspect.
“That’s something I really hope I can do in the future... if I can play for as long as I can and then give back my knowledge to the younger girls coming through, help them out in any way possible, that’s something I’m really passionate about.”
