A refreshed Jackie Parry says excitement is building as the 2023 NAB AFLW Season countdown ticks under two months.
Parry, who joined the Cats via a trade with Melbourne ahead of Season 7, was a valuable addition to Geelong’s attacking half, said her second pre-season with the club was going well as the Cats look to build on their momentum from last year.
“It’s been going really well. I think it’s a lot easier when it’s your second year, you can really concentrate on your craft and pre-season,” Parry said.
“I know all the girls now, so you can really just focus on footy, rather than your focus being on getting to know the whole group. It’s been really great – we’ve got a few new girls, but otherwise the list has stayed relatively stable.
“I think we’re all going really well, it’s really exciting.”
Parry played a key role for Geelong as they built their attacking game last season.
The 26-year-old played every game for the Cats in Season 7, and proved to be a great target, either marking the ball on a strong lead, or bringing it to ground for her teammates to crumb.
The mobile forward also pushed up the ground to provide a link into the forward 50 for the Cats, who went on to post team-record scores in Round 5 and Round 10 – the latter being just the second time an AFLW team has scored more than 100 points in a game as the Cats defeated Sydney 102-27.
“I think we got some momentum in the back half of last season and we were able to take that into the off-season,” Parry said.
“(We) put in a lot of work individually so that we could work on our individual craft, so we can come back and work on the team formation – it’s changed a little bit this year, so we’re excited to be practicing that and working off the back of the momentum that we built in at the end of the season last year.”
After a mammoth year of AFLW in 2022 which saw two seasons completed in a calendar year, Parry said the longer off-season leading into 2023 had given players a chance to recharge and hit the pre-season flying.
“I actually really enjoyed it (the long off-season). Coming off the back of two seasons in a row – I obviously really enjoyed it, playing as much footy as you can – but then I was able to spend a couple of months not thinking about much footy at all,” she said.
“(I spent it) resting, resetting, hanging out with family, and hanging out with friends, so that when I did get back into the running and the skills, I was really, really ready to go.
“And now that we’ve had such a long break, I’m even more excited for Round 1 in September – if only it was sooner!”
While the 2023 AFLW fixture is yet to be released, the league has confirmed Round 1 will take place on the first weekend in September.
