AFLW Welcome to Richmond - Sabrina Frederick

[TigermanM2]

AFLW Tigers add more star power with Frederick
Richmond has landed another significant coup with Sabrina Frederick committing to the Club for the next two seasons.
By richmondfc.com.au on Apr 16, 2019

Richmond has landed another significant coup with Sabrina Frederick committing to the Club for the next two seasons.

The Tigers traded their first-round selection in this year’s AFLW National Draft, currently pick no. 12 overall, to the Brisbane Lions in exchange for the star forward/ruck.

Frederick has played all of Brisbane Lions’ 23 AFLW games, including two grand finals, is a two-time All-Australian (2017, ’18) and former AFLW Rising Star nominee.

She was also one of the Lions’ original marquee players for the competition’s inaugural season in 2017.

After moving to Perth from Brighton, England, at the age of seven, Frederick played for South Fremantle in the WAWFL before crossing over to the Lions.

She is a great ambassador for the game with roles in Participation and AFL Game Development at AFL Queensland, as well as being an AFL Multicultural Ambassador.

Richmond Head of Women’s Football, Kate Sheahan, said the Club could not have been more impressed by the 22-year-old.

“Sabrina is a terrific player and person who we feel will fit seamlessly into our football program,” she said.

“The sky is the limit with “Sabs”, and we are ecstatic that she will be wearing the Yellow and Black.”

Richmond CEO Brendon Gale added that in Frederick, the Club had welcomed another great role model for young Richmond supporters.

“It is fantastic to have Sabrina on board and we are all very excited about what she can bring to the Club on and off the field,” he said.

“To now have six AFLW players on our list is a wonderful achievement by our football department.”

 

[TigermanM2]

AFLW Pocket Profile: Sabrina Frederick

By richmondfc.com.au

Get to know a little more about AFLW Tiger Sabrina Frederick...

Guernsey number: 14
Height: 182cm
D.O.B.: 14/11/1996
Nickname: Sabs
Occupation: Marketing & Fan Engagement Officer at Richmond Football Club
Local club: South Fremantle Football Club
Club supported growing up: West Coast Eagles
Hidden talent: I can moonwalk
Pre-game meal: Mushrooms and avocado on toast
Favourite holiday destination: So far, it would have to be Portugal
Favourite TV show: Friends (classic)
Most-used app: Spotify
Cats or dogs: Both
Favourite type of kick: Snap (duh)
Favourite pump up song to listen to before a match: It changes all the time, but a song that comes to mind is I Want You Back – The Jackson 5
Greatest inspiration and why: Serena Williams because of what she has been able to accomplish at the highest level as an athlete, while being a good human being off and on the court and staying true to herself.
Which AFL/AFLW player do you model your game off: I wouldn’t say I model my game off any player.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

The bawse.

Opposition defenders will need keeping up with her.

Could be Richmond's first ever ladies senior goalkicker.

 

[Lsta062]

I used to follow Brisbane's AFLW side before Richmond's AFLW side came in and saw some amazing things from Sab. Sab's one strong woman and her marking above the head is fantastic. I wish her conversions in front of goal were better, but you can expect her to get goals regularly. Scary having Sab, Brennan, Wakefield and Stahl around our forward line.

 

[TigermanM2]

I used to follow Brisbane's AFLW side before Richmond's AFLW side came in and saw some amazing things from Sab. Sab's one strong woman and her marking above the head is fantastic. I wish her conversions in front of goal were better, but you can expect her to get goals regularly. Scary having Sab, Brennan, Wakefield and Stahl around our forward line.

Don’t forget Christina Bernardi. If she stays fit she will most likely be our top goal scorer.

 

[Lsta062]

Don’t forget Christina Bernardi. If she stays fit she will most likely be our top goal scorer.

Yes I forgot about Bernardi. She’s VC for a reason

 

[TigermanM2]

I used to follow Brisbane's AFLW side before Richmond's AFLW side came in and saw some amazing things from Sab. Sab's one strong woman and her marking above the head is fantastic. I wish her conversions in front of goal were better, but you can expect her to get goals regularly. Scary having Sab, Brennan, Wakefield and Stahl around our forward line.

It's going to be a really important season for Sabrina.

She hasn't been anywhere near as dominant in 2019 as her 2017 season and the reality is that she probably wont be in future as she is playing against bigger, stronger and faster players. The improvement in skill level and physical attributes in players from 2017 to 2019 has been massive and it will go up another notch this year. She also went from sharing the load with Tayla Harris (which was pretty handy) to having to do the work herself. I also think she was a bit mentally drained after two GF loses.

Now the beauty is that Richmond is absolutely perfect for her. Other big name players to share the spotlight. A stacked forward line. Most importantly, a club with a culture where enjoying your footy is #1 with no expectation that you have to dominate every week (that's left to us fans!)

I say its a really important season for Sabrina not because she has to play well but because she just has to enjoy Richmond and have fun. Besides putting in the work between games that's all she has to do and everything else will take care of itself. That's the RFC blueprint.

 

[Lsta062]

It's going to be a really important season for Sabrina.

She hasn't been anywhere near as dominant in 2019 as her 2017 season and the reality is that she probably wont be in future as she is playing against bigger, stronger and faster players. The improvement in skill level and physical attributes in players from 2017 to 2019 has been massive and it will go up another notch this year. She also went from sharing the load with Tayla Harris (which was pretty handy) to having to do the work herself. I also think she was a bit mentally drained after two GF loses.

Now the beauty is that Richmond is absolutely perfect for her. Other big name players to share the spotlight. A stacked forward line. Most importantly, a club with a culture where enjoying your footy is #1 with no expectation that you have to dominate every week (that's left to us fans!)

I say its a really important season for Sabrina not because she has to play well but because she just has to enjoy Richmond and have fun. Besides putting in the work between games that's all she has to do and everything else will take care of itself. That's the RFC blueprint.

Yes I agree. She needs to mental motivation as the two Grand Final losses were hard on her. I was a little frustrated with her at times in 2019 as she went missing when Brisbane needed her a fair bit but this is basically her most important year if she wants to remain in the system

 

[TigermanM2]

Yes I agree. She needs to mental motivation as the two Grand Final losses were hard on her. I was a little frustrated with her at times in 2019 as she went missing when Brisbane needed her a fair bit but this is basically her most important year if she wants to remain in the system

That's taking it a tad too far I don't think there's any chance of Sabrina losing her spot in AFLW.

Strategically she takes the best tall defender leaving Wakefield to line up on the next best.

I think she'll be pretty motivated come R1 although we should expect more of the team orientated things which often go un-noticed.

 

[Lsta062]

That's taking it a tad too far I don't think there's any chance of Sabrina losing her spot in AFLW.

Strategically she takes the best tall defender leaving Wakefield to line up on the next best.

I think she'll be pretty motivated come R1 although we should expect more of the team orientated things which often go un-noticed.

Yeah I might have overdone it lol. I don’t know, with the way that AFLW players can be fazed out (Moana Hope), something like that is not completely out of the question. Although, Sab has much more runs on the board at AFLW level than Hope did.

If she does what she regularly did over the last 3 seasons then I think her spot is safe. I personally like her footy ability but she’s probably less agile than many other players in the AFLW nowadays.

It’s worth keeping her around IMO because when she is on fire, she really goes hard and I like seeing her play at her full capabilities.

 

[TigermanM2]

This was published before Sabrina became a Tiger but its an interesting piece.


A STRONG FOUNDATION

Sabrina’s the most easygoing, ruthless fighter you’re likely to meet. Warm without a touch of arrogance, but when she steps over that white line she transforms into a superhero, a fierce competitor with a will to dominate. She wears these contradictions with absolute ease.
Taking to the field as a marquee player for the Brisbane Lions she will be unmissable: her height, her strength, and her trademark long braids that whip and whirl as she powers across the green. Sabrina Frederick is one of the new breed of heroes who will be born out of the NAB AFL Women’s Competition.
It’s a typical Australian family scene with Sabrina’s family in Mandurah, an hour outside Perth. Their home nestled on a bush block amongst Australian scrub, BBQ sizzling on the patio, all the family come together for the Christmas break; her brother, sister, mum, dad, grandparents as well as the extended members, six rescue cats, a dog, chickens and geese. It’s a strictly vegan household her Grandfather explains, while flipping chickpea patties which he names as Sabrina’s favourites. The Fredrick’s are immigrants from England, her Australian Mother, siblings and step-father moved to WA when Sabrina was just seven. She inherited her striking Caribbean looks from her Father, who still lives in the UK.

Sabrina was three and befriended a group of boys around 8 or 10 by telling them she was 5 and she could swim. “She couldn’t swim and wasn’t five. That’s Sabrina all over really, she makes up her mind and does it regardless if she can do it or not.
Jayne Frederick-Traub, Sabrina's mother

They’ve invited me to dinner as part of filming Sabrina’s documentary. There’s no need to ask them to act natural; there’s an easy warmth amongst them as they reminisce about Sabrina’s formidable talent and her early aptitude for tackling. Her grandfather teases that he wouldn’t like to run into her a dark alley. They’ve been part of her success at every step: her parents providing transport to games all over the state, siblings cheering from the sidelines, and her grandfather taking hundreds of team photos every year. Her mother is matter-of-fact proud. Sabrina’s physical ability has always been a given, apparent since birth: “she stood up at 7 months, walked at 9 months, climbed and ran at 11 months,” Jane explains. She remembers a family holiday when three year old Sabrina befriended a group of boys around 8 or 10 by telling them she was five and could swim. “She couldn’t swim and wasn’t five. That’s Sabrina all over really. She makes up her mind and does it regardless if she can do it or not.”

There’s a trophy cabinet in her bedroom, shelves packed with awards, ribbons and memorabilia. In her first team photo, with the Pinjarra Tigers, she’s the only girl— like almost all the AFLW leaguers, Sabrina grew up playing footy with the boys. She didn’t have many female friends and coming from the semi-rural town in WA many of her male friends were indigenous. She remembers arriving as an immigrant, an outsider, finding herself connecting to Australian culture while learning about dot painting with the aboriginal kids. Digging deeper into the cabinet, she finds a self-portrait drawn when she was nine. She’s emotional as she remembers an art teacher asked the class to draw themselves how they’d like to be in ten years. She drew herself in an AFL guernsey. With the launch of the AFLW season just a month away, the significance of this dream-come-true hits her. How grateful she is to the people working behind the scenes who fought for the pathway.

• 
  
  
  
  
  

Leigh Elder, Football Development Manager for AFL Tasmania, is one of these people. Elder was a major figure in female football in WA at the time: “I owe a lot of my footy to him,” Sabrina says, “a guy who is passionate about women’s footy and threw every opportunity at me.” He first met Sabrina as part of the Female Talent Academy in WA. She was getting quite of bit of attention; at only 11 years old, her athletic ability was already remarkable. On her first fitness beep test she scored an 11.4, a result that made him roll his eyes and think “you’re kidding me. I struggle getting senior players to do that.”

Legally Sabrina had to quit playing with the boys before she hit fourteen — a rule born to protect girls from changing physical capacities during puberty that historically lead to scores of aspiring girl footy player exiting the code. Fortunately, Sabrina found a women’s team, the Thunderbirds. She was by far the youngest at 13 years old, playing alongside women in their twenties and thirties. Elder fondly remembers the team as a force to be reckoned with; they wore pink uniforms and dubbed themselves “the glamour girls” but they were tough, known for tackling and constantly putting pressure on the opposition. Sabrina remembers how empowering it was to see other women who went hell for leather and weren’t judged for being strong.


A DREAM IN HER SIGHTS

It’s the code’s intense physicality that attracts girls to the game— ironically the very reason they’ve been locked out of contact sport.
Jan Cooper, Manager of Female Football development for the AFL, has the research to prove it. She knows that women want to get a bit aggressive in the contest, with bumps and tackles within the laws of the game: “It’s about challenging their bodies, their spirit, their physical side of themselves.”

Sabrina describes it as a freedom in the moment fueled by adrenaline, to pushing her limits to do whatever it takes to get the ball, score a goal, win the match. “Knowing the only person holding you back is yourself” which is cool for Sabrina, because holding herself back is not her style.

When it’s hard or when it’s really really good, it’s just part of the journey of doing something you really love.
Sabrina Frederick-Traub

Cooper is another of those influential people who encouraged Sabrina’s AFL career behind the scenes. She remembers first seeing her in that bright pink Thunderbirds uniform – running like an emu, taking massive strides, bouncing the ball like a professional – and asking herself, “who is that girl?” Sabrina excelled at every sport: athletics and swimming, playing state level soccer and basketball. Those codes had a professional pathway for women when AFL still didn’t. Sabrina was one of the up-and-comers and Cooper worried the AFL would lose her because they couldn’t offer that pathway. Sabrina remembers Cooper telling her to stick with it, that there’d be a women’s league in 2020. She held the dream in her sights.



The moment when the women’s league became undeniable was the fourth exhibition match, the first to be broadcast and the first year Sabrina was included in the all-star women’s matches. It was a ratings smash and jump-started the will to get a genuine women’s league into play. Before this women’s matches were seen on local grounds, in the flesh or in basic broadcast: one camera angle, live streamed. Lions Women’s Coach Craig Starcevich says when people saw female players on mainstream TV with multiple angles and close ups it legitimised them: “It just looked more like a men’s game.” Stars like Moana Hope, Daisy Pearce and Sabrina were made overnight. Cooper credits the broadcasters for taking this risk.

Shannon, Sabrina’s partner of 18 months, describes the moment Sabrina discovered she was selected as a Brisbane marquee player. They had just driven two hours and pulled into the driveway of a holiday house when the phone rang. It was Breeanna Brock, CEO of Lions Women’s, asking if Sabrina wanted to get on a flight to Brisbane the next day for an orientation. Sabrina’s commitment was absolute and they turned straight back and jumped on the flight. Two weeks later they moved to Brisbane together.

Five months on, Sabrina’s life is entirely transformed. Searching for a word to describe the feeling of finally arriving at her dream she pinpoints “special”: “when it’s hard or when it’s really really good, it’s just part of the journey of doing something you really love.” Sabrina would play football Women’s League or not, but admits that being acknowledged as a professional athlete is uplifting. She can’t quite hold back the emotion as she tries to explain the feeling of having an income from playing the sport, someone respecting that you want to play as a career.


A NEW HERO

Sabrina and the Lions are training on Yeronga oval, their home turf in Brisbane, only a few weeks out from their first league match. One of the girls explains to the camera that there’s no half effort in training, it’s 100% all the time.
The camera operator attempts to get in the thick of a game play and admits to finding their brutal knocks and speed daunting. On the sidelines David Lake, the Lions Women’s Assistant Coach, tells me a story of his first encounter with Sabrina’s essential character.

As an out of state draft pick, she was a late arrival to pre-season training, not happy with her level of fitness. It’s an understatement to say she likes to do well. Lake says they were doing a 2 km time trial and he walked with Sabrina to the starting line, while she explained how the race was playing out in her head. She finished 7 minutes later, in the top three, a time she had no right to given her fitness preparation.

“She had clearly won it with her mind, she keeps achieving things beyond what she should because of her application and commitment to self.”

Digging for the inside word on Sabrina, it seems most take her athleticism as a given and instead want to stress the greatest of her attitude; as Starcevich puts it, being “gob smacked by what a quality person she is.” She’s only 20 but has a generosity and maturity that is just as essential to team sport as any ability on the field. Lake describes a scene from the inside team negotiations at Brisbane Lions. There were some complaints from the girls about pay for media commitments. Sabrina quietly listened to everyone then spoke. She didn’t criticize anyone but she called them on it. She said it was their responsibility to the women coming up to do everything they could for the success of the league. They shouldn’t be measuring hours or money; they’d been given a great opportunity and they needed to do what is right for the next generation. “That was the moment she won the room over,” he says.

She had clearly won it with her mind, she keeps achieving things beyond what she should because of her application and commitment to self.
David Lake, Lions Assistant Coach


This natural leadership extends to Sabrina’s work with AFL diversity, including her role as a multicultural ambassador and coach for the All Nations team. She describes how moving from England and finding football gave her a feeling of belonging to something. She wants to give that to other people, to make them feel like they aren’t any different. She coached the All Nations team to a season win, with young players from places like Sudan, Zimbabwe and Japan playing their first ever games.

For the Australian public, the women’s league seems to have emerged in a flash to a now rapturous reception. Those working hard behind the scenes to develop the female game find it hard to understand why it’s taken this long. Elder suggests the reason is not necessarily sexism but fear: “fear drives a lot of things… fear of the unknown.” People just don’t like change and for 150 years men ruled, footy was for boys and netball for girls. There will still be opposition but Elder says the decriers are dwindling to a minority: “The greatest critics of women's football became the greatest fans as soon as they’ve seen their daughter play one game.”

And, as it turned out, the Australian public was more than ready for the women’s league. Its historic first match, Carlton vs Collingwood, played to a lock in crowd of more than 20,000. People were turned away at the gates, they sold out of beer, and social media users made sure their support was heard. They posted comments like “finally it’s ok to run like a girl” and, sarcastically, “yeah, no one is into women’s footy.” Others asked “so how does one pick their team if they have a new interest in football?”

We’re only just coming to terms with the real significance of this cultural shift. In Australia, sports stars are our true heroes. AFL, especially for Victorians, is deeply embedded in contemporary culture, shared across ethnicities, class and age. These women are the new role models, part of a seismic shift towards equality for women across sport, business, art and leadership. During the weekend launch, the on-the-ground effect came through in the smallest details: in my own daughter’s fervent reaction to players celebrated on billboards, and in the enthusiasm of young women on the sidelines as they discussed their favourites. Role models were always a massive motivation for Sabrina; she cites Serena Williams and Nic Naitanui as the stars who pushed her to be the best she could be. She confesses she’d love a little boy to look up to her as she looked up to male figures. “When you ask a little boy who his role models are, I never see them say a female athlete. I’d love to change that.” For Sabrina, this is what true equality looks like.

 

[Cdog71]

Pretty impressive the way she got through that SAS show.
Onya Sabs, great effort.
Seems like the type that plays best when it looks like its her ball and theyre trying to keep it off her.
24 and she’s looking ready

 

[Bojangles17]

I’m super looking forward to seeing Sabs really grab the game by the horns , she has the game , carried way too much weight last year and undoubtedly it hampered her as she was a shadow of her AA form . I expect in the Nic she has turned out she will rip it up , can’t wait for the girls to W their first game that will be a milestone !

 

[Lsta062]

Sab looks like she is in really good shape! I am looking forward to seeing her play this coming season. Given that she is already a talented player, I expect her to have a big season with how fit she looks now.