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High-flying Aussie rules star grounded ahead of league debut
Lee Oliver
Roar Rookie
24th January, 2017
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Women's AFL will have an official league as of 2017. (Wikimedia Commons)
Lee Oliver
Roar Rookie
24th January, 2017
8

A poster girl for women’s Australian rules football could miss the start of the historic inaugural AFLW season.

Tayla Harris, the marquee signing of the Brisbane Lions, is racing the clock to be fit for her side’s opening round match against Melbourne Demons at Casey Fields on February 5.

» Keep up to date with the latest on the Women’s AFL in 2017 with The Roar/a>
» Full women’s AFL squad lists for 2017
» View the entire fixtures list for the inaugural season of the women’s AFL

Harris, 19, injured her shoulder during a gym session last week and missed the Lions’ historic maiden outing on Sunday, a practice match win over GWS Giants in Brisbane.

Despite inaccurate kicking in front of goal, the Lions emerged with a 3.10 (28) to 2.0 (12) victory at Coorparoo last Sunday.

Following her training accident last Friday, Harris remained at Lions HQ to begin rehabilitation for the injury, missing out on collecting a major honour at an Australia Day awards event that evening.

Harris was joint winner of young sports star of the year for Moreton Bay, Queensland’s third most populous local government area, sharing the award with Rio Olympic Games women’s rugby sevens gold medal winner, Evania Pelite.

Harris is desperate to play for the Lions against the Demons, the team for which she has starred in women’s AFL exhibition matches in recent years, in Round 1 of the inaugural AFLW.

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Brisbane Lions and the AFLW will also be hoping Harris is not on the injury list for long, given the tall blonde is one of the fledgling professional league’s major drawcards.

Along with Collingwood’s Moana Hope, Harris is arguably the highest profile female Aussie rules player. She is the face of the women’s game in Queensland and has featured prominently in promotions and media opportunities in the lead-up to first bounce for the AFLW.

For each of Harris’ spectacular on-field actions, there is corresponding spectacular online media reaction unprecedented in the women’s game

Footage of the then school student’s sensational high-flying mark for Melbourne against the Western Bulldogs in a 2014 women’s AFL exhibition match was used in the television marketing campaign for the 2015 AFL season.

Her on-field exploits saw her invited to present the Mark of the Year award at the 2015 Brownlow Medal awards night.

Last year social media latched onto Harris’ monster 55m kick for a goal in the Demons’ clash with the Bulldogs at Whitten Oval, in a televised match played in front of almost 6500 fans.

It resulted in Harris being the only female in last year’s Fox Footy Longest Kick Competition, the traditional AFL grand final day event in which players try to boot a ball over the Yarra River.

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The competition saw Harris compete against AFL superstars such as Geelong’s Tom Hawkins, Adelaide’s Taylor Walker, North Melbourne’s Drew Petrie, St Kilda’s Leigh Montagna, and winner Bryce Gibbs, of Carlton.

Harris is also featured on the cover of “Play On!: A Hidden History of Women’s Australian Rules Football”, written by Brunette Lenkic and Rob Hess and published last year.

Fans hope she will be on ground for the debut of the history-making AFLW.

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