By Mark Heenan
New Melbourne player Anna Teague became the first Ocean Grove-raised female footballer to earn a prized AFLW rookie contract last week.
Teague, 29, said it was an honour to be drafted as the first AFLW player from Ocean Grove.
“I hadn’t thought of it in that sense – that I am the first Ocean Grove AFLW female footballer,” Teague told the Voice.
“Now that you verbalise it, it feels pretty damn special – it is quite an honour now that there is going to be a senior Ocean Grove women’s team coming up next season.”
Teague, a primary school teacher, described the moment on Friday, October 20, when she phoned Melbourne AFLW List Manager Todd Patterson, a call which changed her life. At the time the Grade 3/4 teacher was teaching a maths class at Holy Spirit School in Manifold Heights.
“I was aware I would be getting a call either way if I was drafted or not,” Teague said.
“I let the kids know I was waiting for some important phone calls.
“My kids were sitting down to do a maths test and I raced out to get another teacher to come in.
“Yeah I gave Todd (Patterson) a call and he asked me if I had been following the rookie draft – I hadn’t been – obviously I was in class.
“He just said to me “Welcome to the Melbourne Footy Club” and I was in shock and shaking.”
Teague joins her Geelong VFLW team-mates Lily Mithen, Richelle Cranston and fellow Demon rookie Erin Hoare at Melbourne AFLW in 2018.
She finished third in the Geelong VFLW best and fairest this year.
It is a remarkable transition for Teague, who only switched from basketball to football less than 12 months ago.
She is a former Geelong Supercats basketball captain and the youngest of seven children who started playing basketball with the Ocean Grove Breakers at age 11.
Her brother-in-law is former Melbourne AFL coach Mark Neeld, a four-time premiership coach at Ocean Grove from 2000-03.
