The end is the beginning
A return to Princes Park for Carlton v Collingwood featuring five new debutants on the field
In the middle of a play which doesn’t seem very exciting, a large volume of cheers suddenly erupts from the crowd at Princes Park. But it doesn’t have anything to do with who has the ball at this particular moment. The crowd is cheering because Ashley Centra has run out on the field for the very first time in her AFLW career.
It’s the first game of the 2025 season. Carlton are playing Collingwood in tribute to the very first game of AFLW in 2017 which was so well-attended that the gates at Princes Park had to be locked because the ground was full.
Ten seasons later, here we are again. All eyes are on Ashley Centra because she was selected by Collingwood as the #1 pick in the 2024 draft.
Centra is easy to spot even though she began the game on the bench. She is one of only two Collingwood players to opt for the long-sleeve jersey in the cold August night, the black and white stripes snaking around her arms.
On one hand, it seems strange to celebrate a player for merely running onto the field. Centra hasn’t done anything yet. She hasn’t even touched the ball.
But on the other hand, Centra running out onto the field marks an ending just as much as a beginning. It signals the end of her journey to play football at a national level. She’s officially made it.
Asked of her debut after the game, Collingwood coach Sam Wright remarked of Centra:
'She's got like a cult following. Every time she got near the ball, whether she got it or not, you could hear the crowd get up and about. I just think it’s so great for our game.’
After a promising first quarter fizzled out into a disappointing loss, Centra kicked the only goal for Collingwood in the remaining three quarters of the game. She joined the exclusive first kick, first goal club. It seemed to say: Pies fans, don’t despair. The future is bright.
From the stands to the field
Over on the other team’s bench sat another remarkable debutant: Sophie McKay, daughter of Carlton champion Andrew McKay and sister of current Carlton captain Abbie McKay.
What once more seems like the beginning of a story is also an ending.
As children, Abbie and Sophie McKay rang the bell at that first AFLW game in 2017 to commemorate the first ever game of women’s football. Sophie was ten years old.
Now, nine years and ten seasons later, the sisters have shifted from the stands to the field.
They run out alongside each other as the fireworks sparkle in the night sky above them and the song their dad used to sing blares from the speakers.
He watches from the stands of Princes Park alongside their brother, who wears both his sisters’ numbers on his back. Abbie wears #5 in honour of their dad, Sophie wears #55 in honour of them both and their brother wears #555 in honour of them all.
The story starts and ends in so many different points across history depending on how you decide to tell it.
Is this the end or the beginning?
2025 marks the tenth season of the AFLW.
But it still feels like we are in the beginning. We are only at the beginning of a new generation of girls who have been able to play football their whole lives. We are slowly watching the barriers dissolve one by one.
History is being made out on that field with every single game.
I’m proud to say I was swamped by that massive crowd at Carlton v Collingwood in the first season and in the stands for the tenth. There were four players on the ground for both games: Brit Bonnici, Breann Harrington, Ruby Schleicher and Darcy Vescio.
There were five debutants on the ground in the tenth season: Ash Centra, Kellyann Hogan, Sophie McKay, Poppy Scholz and Violet Patterson.
Each debut of a new player in the AFLW feels especially exciting because that new energy is reflective of the competition as a whole. It was a long journey to get here. We will cheer as loudly as we want. But this is not the end yet. This is the beginning.