The incredible lengths Shelley Scott goes to for her AFLW dream
Shelley Scott (top) rises for a mark. Photo: Getty
Life is pretty busy for Shelley Scott.
The 28-year-old dairy farmer is working by 6.30am, milking anywhere between 60 and 130 cows on her 100-hectare farm in Gerangamete, 150km south-west of Melbourne. After that, she feeds them, feeds the calves, checks stock and gets the paddock set up for the following day.
Then, up to four times a week, she’ll jump in the car, drive to Geelong, meet three of her Melbourne Demons AFLW teammates and make the 75-minute trip to Melbourne to train or play.
She later returns home around midnight, knowing her alarm is just hours away.
If it sounds exhausting, it’s because it is. Not that you’d know from her attitude – after all, this is what Scott dreamed of as a kid.
A dream that, until this year, was unrealistic.
“At primary school, every playtime I was kicking the footy with my friend,” Scott told The New Daily.
“So to be playing AFLW, it’s just awesome. It was incredible to get that first win.
“And to sing the song with the girls … it’s something I’ve always dreamed about.”
Women’s football wasn’t even on the radar in the country when Scott was growing up, so she took up netball.
She was a champion netballer in the Colac region before a television advertisement triggered her return to football.
“About this time last year, my parents saw an ad for AFLW on the TV,” she said.
“They said to me I should give it a go and said if I wanted to have a crack, they would help me out on the farm.
“I was keen but I knew I had to create a pathway.
“I couldn’t just walk in and join an AFLW club, so I rolled up to a training with the VU Western Spurs [Victorian Women’s Football League side] and absolutely loved it.”
Scott played eight games for the Spurs last season due to existing netball commitments with South Colac.
No stranger to hard work, Scott worked anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, trained twice a week for netball and once a week for football.
She then played netball on a Saturday and football on the Sundays when the Spurs played.
The more she played football, and played well, the more she knew it was for her, even if her jam-packed schedule gave her little thinking time.
Her selection, at pick 41 in last year’s AFLW draft, delighted her but created a quandary. What about the cows?
“We decided to switch from milking the cows twice – once in the day and once at night – to just once to help accommodate the footy season,” she said.
Thankfully, the cows have played ball. “They seem pretty fine about it,” she adds.
Shelley Scott in action against the Western Bulldogs. Photo: AAP
The last portion of the AFLW season will overlap with calving, only increasing Scott’s workload, but she says she’ll get by on adrenalin.
“It’s just so exciting. To see so many people support the league and attend that opening match was amazing,” she said.
“Women’s sport in the last 12 or 18 months is really growing. I think, with the AFLW, even people who are not interested in footy are watching.
“For young women, to have talented girls playing footy and being role models – it’s great.
“The impact of this competition and playing in it far exceeds anything I could imagine. And if we can impact a few young girls in the right way, then that’s great.”