Pride makes Sydney Women’s AFL history
Gladesville’s Belinda Pride has made Sydney Women’s AFL history by becoming the first player ever to kick 100 goals in a season.
The full-forward has been the star of the Balmain Dockers all year and has played an influential role in the club’s undefeated season to date.
The 27-year-old said she was very nervous walking in to take the kick but is hopeful her nerves are out of the way heading into this weekend’s final against Newtown.
“I think I just wanted to kick it to get it out of the way. My teammates helped me a lot to get to one hundred goals so I wanted to kick it more out of relief than anything else,” Pride said.
“I needed to kick eight on the day and I had kicked seven already and I ended up kicking about ten.
“Once I kicked one hundred I was able to relax.”
The Balmain Dockers have had a season to remember. Not only has the club finished the home and away season without a loss the Dockers recently travelled to Perth to play the curtain-raiser to the Fremantle and West Coast Eagles AFL derby at Subiaco Oval.
Pride said her century of goals is a fitting reward for a lot of hard work put in by the playing group and the way the side celebrated the milestone is indicative of the club’s team-orientated culture.
“I got crash tackled to the ground and the whole team ran over. I had mum and dad on the sideline and mum wanted to run over but dad didn’t let her,” she said.
“We’ve got a really good team this year, we’ve got some really good midfielders and their delivery into the forward line is second to none so that makes it a lot easier [to kick goals].
“Winning the competition this year is my focus and if we actually win this year it will be really good to sit down and celebrate [the 100 goal achievement] afterwards.”
Having grown up playing volleyball as a kid Pride couldn’t be happier with her switch to Australian Football three years ago.
The gym owner said there are many benefits for female’s looking to play the game.
“I love the social side of it, playing beach volleyball there was only me and one another person so it’s not a big team but in AFL there are a lot more people,” she said.
“I love the fitness side of it too, I love getting out there and being absolutely exhausted at the end of the game – although half of my teammates don’t think that since I play full-forward they think I just stand there all day.”
The Balmain Dockers will play their opening finals match against last year’s premier Newton on Saturday at Mahoney Park at 1pm.
Sydney Women’s AFL is the state’s pre-eminent sporting league where nine teams currently play in.