Top Richmond draft pick Sophie Molan has described how unhealthy comparison between herself and other leading 2020 recruits was nipped in the bud by a Tiger boss who detected something was amiss.
A distorted sense of self-appraisal was taking the form of simple statistical analysis by the 18-year-old who has moved from Ballarat to Punt Road after finishing VCE. Molan was the seventh section overall of the fourth AFL Women’s National Draft and the Tigers gave her the number one jumper in their original AFLW team.
To measure her impact in her AFLW debut weeks Molan was monitoring the weekly on-field numbers of Carlton’s Lucy McEvoy and St Kilda’s Georgia Patrikios. McEvoy and Patrikios were instant hits in the top league as joint-Round One nominees in the coveted AFLW Rising Star Award upon their debuts.
The Originals: Episode 7 - Sophie Molan interview
Written and presented by award-winning journalist and author, Sam Lane; subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
In the seventh episode of The Originals podcast Molan has shared her feeling that she was “letting her team down” and tabled mental challenges that feel unfamiliar after dominating in AFLW pathway competition.
“To start with I probably struggled a little bit, looking at the likes of Lucy McEvoy and Georgia Patrikios, who I played with or was in the academy with,” Molan says.
“They were the first picks for their clubs as well and seeing how dominant they were being, and how much impact they were having on the game that I may not have had at the start.”
After the Tigers’ loss to North Melbourne in round three, Molan says Richmond’s AFLW team chief, Kate Sheahan, called a circuit-breaking chat.
“She sat me down and said: ‘Sophie, I don’t need you to be the number one midfielder in the team, you’re a kid; just play your game’.
“I think that’s helped me a lot in the last couple of weeks - not worrying about how many touches Petrikios has, or Lucy McEvoy.”
Molan says she has stopped looking at the pair’s stats completely, and is also modifying her relationship with a social media stream that, by her description, is “filled with football”.
“I’ve started not not looking at it, but not looking into it,” she says.
Initially intending to take a gap year after finishing her high school studies, Molan has opted to study part-time, enrolling in an exercise and sport science course.
Since her drafting she has moved from Ballarat into the Richmond home of Tiger board member, Henriette Rothschild; an environment Molan says she is loving.
Before the launch of AFLW Molan aspired to become so good at Aussie Rules that an elite men’s team would field her.
“I said to Dad when I was younger: ‘I want to be the first girl to play in the AFL. The men’s competition’.”
Juggling basketball - Molan played at state level in under-16s - she looked to Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury as her example given his early basketball success.
Until the piloting of women’s AFL exhibition games - televised for the first time in 2015 by Channel 7 and which Molan was captivated by - she had never seen women play footy.
“It’s pretty crazy if you think about it now,” she says.
Molan played VFLW for the Western Bulldogs last year and says the AFLW competition she envisages ultimately “looks the same as the boys’”.
“So the season’s the same length. We have the same contact hours. The same pay.
“I think in the next five, ten years it can get to that and the standard of the game is going to improve greatly as well because the girls that are coming through now have had the pathway all the way through like I did,” Molan says.
“And some of the skill level of the younger girls now is unbelievable.”
The Originals podcast; Sophie Molan: The Originals' first pick
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