The AFLW’s most celebrated mark, as celebrated by the marker herself, led to brief self-consciousness and a mobile meltdown, but has not curbed Tiger Gabby Seymour’s enthusiasm one bit.

Seymour re-visits the round three grab she nailed and delighted in, and her subsequent failed attempt to goal, in this week’s episode of The Originals podcast.

>> LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW IN THE PODCAST BELOW

The ex-national-level volley baller and physiotherapist who played her first match of Aussie Rules less than two years ago but finished third in Richmond’s 2020 best-and-fairest, out-marked veteran Magpie Stacey Livingstone in her ninth AFLW match. Seymour had been set an unfamiliar task.

The Originals: Series 2, Episode 5 - Gabby Seymour interview
Written and presented by award-winning journalist and author, Sam Lane; subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify

“I’ve never played up forward. I haven’t played that much footy!,” Seymour says on the fifth episode of The Originals.

“The coach kind of said” ‘Gab, we’re going to put you up forward at the start of the second quarter’, and I’m like ‘right, okay, no worries, I’ve just got to get a touch’. Then of course I’m lining up on Stacey Livingstone who’s a bit of a jet defender.

“I remember thinking: I think she’s mis-read this, I think this is going to come out the back a little bit and it just felt like I just put my arms up and the ball was in my hands!

“I was like: ‘oh my God, the ball! I don’t know what to do now!’

It definitely wasn’t meant to come out that way.

“I reckon about two seconds later I was like: ‘oh my God, Gab, you’re on television this is so not cool! But it’s a bit late for that now!’

“You know when you sort of say something out loud and then you’re like ‘oh, no, I’m speaking out loud’? It was kind like that but it was a reaction.

“There was no arrogance or anything like that behind it. It was just ‘I can’t believe I’ve got the footy, what do I do next?’”

By match’s end Seymour had about 40 messages on her phone.

Seymour’s joyful response to her mark has been watched more than 6500 times on Richmond’s AFLW Twitter account since. Freeze frames were also captured by legendary AFL photographer Wayne Ludbey.

Seymour’s roundabout route to cracking AFLW ranks is inspiring. She spotted a Richmond invitation to a talent identification day for the Tigers’ VFLW team at the end of 2018. Seymour presented at Punt Road Oval without footy boots but showed enough to get Richmond scouts interested.

“I just rocked up in my runners and I thought there would be a lot of girls who would be kind of like that,” she says in The Originals.

“But everyone else had boots and everyone else seemed like they were a lot better than I was.

“I think I was pretty terrible.”

Seymour has endeared herself to coaches and teammates with a voracious appetite for studying footy and genuine application.

She was promoted to Richmond’s inaugural AFLW list from a rookie’s position and made her top-level debut in the Tigers’ first AFLW match.

The Originals is sponsored by WISE Employment, helping people who have employment barriers, including mental illness and disability, find meaningful work.

Find out more at wiseemployment.com.au or call 1800 685 105.

The Originals podcast; Series 2, Episode 5 - Gabby Seymour: Still smiling
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