Rising Pie Ruby Schleicher has hit her stride in the 2021 AFLW season, but there was a point when a football career wasn’t even in the picture.
After notching her fifth consecutive week featuring in the AFLCA votes, Schleicher is arguably the most improved player in the entire competition.
A breakout year has deservedly placed her amongst early All-Australian discussions.
Schleicher is averaging 15 disposals and four marks per game and has found her calling off halfback – a far cry from her days as an undersized second ruck.
Her ability to intercept mark (ranked fifth in the competition) and rebound from defence (averaging 311 metres gained) has been instrumental in Collingwood’s current undefeated record.
From foundation Magpie to VFLW Co-Captain, it’s difficult to imagine that not long ago a football career hadn’t even been a consideration.
In 2014, Schleicher was a point guard representing the Willetton Tigers in the State Basketball League and captain of the West Australian metropolitan squad, with dreams of receiving a scholarship to an American college.
Basketball was always on her mind.
“It was my everything,” Schleicher explained.
In a scratch match two weeks before her final national tournament and last chance to prove herself to international scouts, Schleicher fell innocuously after being fouled.
What she first thought to be a minor but manageable setback turned out to be a fractured vertebra.
“It was a long and emotional tournament. It felt like everything I’d worked towards, I just couldn’t show that I’d worked for it.”
Determined not to let her dream slip away, Schleicher continued to play but six months later, her fate was sealed.
“I was out in Perth surfing with my Aunty and my Mum. I pushed up off my board and that little movement under stress did it.”
Schleicher had fractured another vertebra, this time on the other side of her back.
She made several phone calls to break the news to interested colleges and was met with the response that they just couldn’t commit to an international player with her injury history.
“When it was taken away from me, that was a massive shock to the system. It was a pretty tough pill to swallow.”
The pressure of a basketball court was too difficult on Schleicher’s back.
Ironically, a switch to a contact sport was easier for her to withstand.
Schleicher remembers being spotted by an onlooker from East Fremantle while she was having a kick with her Dad at halftime of her brother’s WAFL game. Impressed by her skill, they told her to join their women’s side.
Fast forward to 2016 and an 18-year-old Schleicher was being picked up by Collingwood – the youngest player the Pies would draft.
“I didn’t think I was a chance of being drafted because footy wasn’t my focus.”
With an offer close to home – and from Fremantle, the club she supported growing up – it was the opportunity to be part of history that drew her to the Pies.
A reminder from her parents that home would still be there should it not work out was the final push Schleicher needed to take the chance.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Schleicher fondly recalls the very first AFLW match, seeing young girls with their faces painted black and white, adorned in guernseys with numbers on their back.
She felt as though that first game was the beginning of something special.
However, her first few years at the Pies weren’t a fairytale. Schleicher struggled with several injuries which made her miss her support network back home.
At the end of 2020, Schleicher recognised that while she saw her future at Collingwood, in order for that to become a reality she needed a break to refresh.
Schleicher returned home and played WAFLW, something she hadn’t done across her five years at Collingwood.
Evidently, the trip home to reset worked wonders.
She does still struggle from time to time with her back, with occasional spasms at training and extensive warm-ups required to ensure she feels right.
With time, she’s starting to figure her body out.
But without two fractured vertebrae, she may never have pulled on the black and white at all.
