Collie footballer Philipa Seth has described the experience of making her AFLW debut for the Fremantle Dockers on Sunday as both ‘nerve-racking’ and ‘exciting’.
“It was a pretty nerve-racking experience that’s for sure, but it was really exciting,” she said.
“The energy in the changerooms was actually quite relaxed and positive … which I found quite comforting as everyone else had built it up quite a lot.
“I didn’t want to go in too nervous, I just wanted to be excited.”
Seth said it took a little while to adjust to higher quality of the AFLW competition, compared to her previous experience with East Fremantle in the WAWFL.
“It’s most definitely a step up [in quality], I noticed that straight away,” she said.
“The tackles are harder, they make the extra effort to get to the smother and the game in general is a bit quicker.
“It probably took me a little while to adjust, I made most of the adjustment after our Adelaide [practice] game.
“I am glad we had that game because it was what prepared me for the change of pace ahead of round one.
“I think we settled quite early … which is why ended up being on top at the end of the first quarter.”
Seth was tasked with the important job of curbing the influence of Melbourne play maker Karen Paxman, limiting the midfielder to 21 disposals while collecting nine of her own with six tackles.
“She’s always going to be a high-disposal player … she’s always going to be able to get her hands on the footy no matter what,” she said.
“It was definitely a learning curve … my main aim was that when she got the footy, she wasn’t able to dispose of it effectively.
“Even though she did rack up the disposals, I was still pretty happy with the fact that she wasn’t able to break open the game in the way she usually does.”
Seth said with the first game now out of the way, she was excited to get back to WA and play her first game in front of a home crowd.
“To get the win away … that’s a big tick already and now we need to pinch the win against the Brisbane Lions at home this weekend,” she said.
“They’re a great side … so we’re not expecting that to be easy. We’ve just got to try and get as many wins on the board as we can.
“If you can’t trek it up to Perth, then just check it out on the TV, because it is getting a lot more exciting and hopefully it will get more girls involved in footy.”
Seth said she had been able to pass on a lot of knowledge to the Collie Eagles women's team ahead of their 2019 season, and that she was hoping to see more girls sign up to play.
The Eagles train from 5.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.
