Zander, 23 from Gladstone, South Australia is committed to play for Collingwood’s VFLW team for the 2022 season.
When she was younger, she competed in netball, swimming, tennis, basketball and soccer; football was never an option. In fact, she did not even realise AFL had a women’s competition until the AFLW was about to begin in 2016.
“If footy was an option, I would have definitely tried it a lot younger. I was always told I was too rough for netball anyway”, Zander says.
An all-round athlete, Zander competed at high levels in both netball and swimming and fitted into football immediately.
Zander begun her football career at Adelaide University until Collingwood’s AFLW coach Steve Symonds recruited her to Norwood; where he was coaching at the time.
She played at Norwood for a few years before making the move to Melbourne to focus on her football and play for Collingwood’s VFLW team.
She is currently studying a Bachelor of Nutrition and Food Science at University of South Australia. After deferring her course last year to focus on her footy, Zander decided to return to University to finish the last two subjects this semester. However, after playing with Collingwood’s successful VFLW team last year, she decided to make Collingwood her home and continue her career with its VFLW team
Unfortunately, Zander’s two subjects require full in-class attendance, meaning she has to make a lot of sacrifices to play VFLW, which sees her sitting and travelling to and from airports and unfortunately missing one of the weekly important training sessions for the club.
“Even though it is a short flight, there is a lot of sitting in the airport, travelling to and from the airport. I am missing out on a training skills session too”, Zander says.
However, Zander stands by her decision to make the trek, as she gets to not only play in the second highest quality league for women in the entire country; she plays for one of the biggest and best VFLW clubs in the league.
Zander’s love for her team and the Collingwood Football Club as a whole has made it worth travelling for.
“I’ve never been in a team quite like it before. I love the girls, everyone is so inclusive and we all just get around each other; we’re like one big family”.
Zander is motivated to play the best footy she can and does her own sessions at home to ensure she is making up for a training, even doing on-on-one sessions at the Club.
The Club and Coach Chloe McMillian are supportive of Zander’s pursuit to finish her studies and play high level football concurrently.
“It’s inspiring to see her so dedicated to playing footy in Victoria and for her to travel weekly from Adelaide to Melbourne to play football”, McMillian says.
“It says a lot about her as a person, but it says a lot about our group that she wants to keep coming back and playing as well”, McMillian says.
Zander wouldn’t change anything and is fortunate to play at a club like Collingwood.
“Being able to train using AFL facilities is pretty special. The girls and the coaches are incredible, and you learn so much from them”, Zander says.
“Knowing that you have a whole team that has your back no matter what happens and being able to run around with your friends – it’s fun”, Zander says.
VFLW have a club-wide bye this weekend and the details for rounds six onwards are still yet to be confirmed.
