2024 Bond University QAFLW Team of the Year Player Profiles

2024 Bond University QAFLW Team of the Year Player Profiles submitted by Daniel Viles

The 2024 Bond University QAFLW Team of the Year contained just seven players from last year’s side, two players making the side for the third time, two sisters for the first time in eleven years, and three players who had never played QAFLW football before. Commentator Daniel Viles reviews each player in the all-star team.

Back Pocket: Sara-Jane O’Grady (Maroochydore)
10 matches, 21 intercept marks (5^th)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2023

O’Grady established herself as the competition’s premier fullback in 2023 but pushed forward to halfback for most of 2024. With fellow Team of the Year squad members Abbey Tognazzini and Axel Oswald defending deep, O’Grady was able to push out harder at the ball, cut off opposition attacks earlier than she could last year and use her long kicking to greater effect.

Best match stat: 7 intercept marks and 13 effective disposals in the home win over University of Queensland in Round 8.

Fullback: Kaylee Kimber (Southport)
12 matches, 18 intercept marks (eq. 7^th)
Having made her name as a defender with Southport in 2022, Kimber returned to the same role with the same club in Round 3 this year and never missed a beat thereafter. Kimber’s speed allowed her to drop into the last line when required before pushing up and wide to attack. Her Grand Final Best on Ground performance, not relevant to Team of the Year selection, cemented her reputation as one of Queensland’s best defenders, but Kimber had been putting in performances like that all year.

Best match stat: 6 tackles in the season-turning win over Bond University at home in June.

Right Halfback: Jasmyn Davidson (Bond University)
13 matches, 123 disposals at 67.5%

Sometimes a player begins a season in a new position and it’s impossible to remember them not playing there before. Davidson’s years of learning how to position her body in ruck contests and separating from defenders as a forward turned out to be the perfect preparation for taking up a key defensive role. Whether marking and rebounding, playing one-on-one, or tackling to cause a stoppage, Davidson displayed it all in 2024.

Best match stat: 11 tackles in a tough away win over Coorparoo in Round 10.

Centre Halfback: Ajla Fetahagić (Coorparoo)
13 matches, 1 goal, 35 intercept marks (1^st), 150 effective kicks (1^st)

Taking over the Coorparoo captaincy suited Fetahagić. Usually named at centre halfback but then dropping back to the goal square, the lawyer of Bosnian heritage was free to organise and re-organise the defence as she felt was best suited to the moment. There has been no better nor more prolific intercept marker in the Bond University QAFLW across the past two seasons.

Best match stat: either 7 intercept marks in the Anzac Day upset of Bond University, or 24 disposals at 91.7% in Round 7 against Aspley.

Left Halfback: Gracie Roy (University of Queensland)
13 matches, 3 goals, 136 contested possessions

Moving up to the state league by joining her sister Laura at UQ proved to be a shrewd move for Roy the Elder. Enjoying the Red Lionesses’ contested style of play, the ambipedal defender excelled at winning the ball across halfback and returning it with interest. When Roy was able to push forward, she showed that she could find a target inside 50 or finish the job herself.

Best match stat: 15 contested possessions, 13 hit-outs, 5 tackles and a goal when stepping in at ruck against Bond University in Round 7.

Right Wing: Lucy Schneider (Coorparoo)
12 matches, 3 goals, 178 uncontested possessions (eq. 1^st); 45 uncontested marks (3^rd)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2023

Schneider is one of the best pure wingers the Bond University QAFLW has ever seen. Every time Grace Roberts-White and Jess Watts cleared the ball for the Kings, they knew that Schneider would use it creatively, regularly giving her tall forwards opportunities but rarely conceding intercept marks. Without the ball, Schneider’s pace ensured Coorparoo had an extra defender in plenty of time.

Best match stat: 20 uncontested possessions and 6 inside-50s in the upset of Bond University on Anzac Day.

Centre: Jess Davy (Aspley)
14 matches, 4 goals, 230 effective disposals (1^st); 74 inside-50s (1^st); 73 clearances (3^rd)

To anyone who witnessed Davy bossing the QFAW Division 1 over the past decade, this year is what they expected would happen when she made the move to the Bond University QAFLW. Able to win hard ball and then use it by hand or foot equally well, Davy’s form hit ridiculous levels late in the season when she registered 90 disposals at 76% across three games, throwing in 22 clearances, 21 inside-50s and 17 tackles for good measure.

Best match stat: 25 effective disposals, 9 clearances, 7 tackles and 9 inside-50s against Wilston Grange in Round 13; also 10 inside 50s (equal season record) against Yeronga in Round 8.

Left Wing: Keyshia Matenga (Wilston Grange)
14 matches, 2 goals, 212 disposals at 65.1%, 54 tackles

In five years on the wing for Coolangatta and Grange, “Keys”’ clean ball-handling and distribution so impressed that Gorillas coach Phil Tonkin decided the time was right to move her infield. It turned out that every skill Matenga had showed out in space could be performed equally well when surrounded by opponents. The move also highlighted her tackling, at one stage laying 25 in four weeks.

Best match stat: In a tough loss to UQ, Matenga made 16 effective disposals, 6 tackles, and her first ever goal in 75 Bond University QAFLW matches.

Right Half-Forward: Ella Calleja (Bond University)
14 matches, 10 goals, 75 marks (1^st), 53 uncontested marks (1^st), 27 forward 50 marks (eq. 2^nd).

Have you seen Calleja mark? It’s far from her only skill but the former Yeppoon Swan’s ability to take marks on the lead, in contests, or even flying over contests brings equal joy to spectators, coaches, and the midfielders who deliver the ball to her. Calleja was required to join that midfield mid-season to cover for the slew of injuries at The Canal; all it did was elicit from Calleja a different style of excellence.

Best match stat: 21 effective disposals, 3 forward 50 marks, 4 clearances and 4 goals to finish the home-and-away season in style against UQ.

Centre Half-Forward: Steph O’Brien (Southport) (captain)
13 matches, 9 goals, 63 inside 50s (2^nd), 178 contested possessions (4^th), 294 disposals (5^th) at 59.2%
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2022; 2023 (captain)

O’Brien got through a mountain of work for Southport in 2023, but the addition of the similar-in-style Kierra Zerafa to the Sharks’ midfield in 2024 allowed O’Brien to increase the quality of her output. Her disposal tally dropped by 77 this year, but her effective disposals increased by 2 while she made 16 more clearances. Statistics for broken tackles are not kept, nor are numbers recorded for opponents backing off at the contest because they see O’Brien coming. One can only imagine. O’Brien has now captained the Bond University QAFLW Team of the Year more often than she has captained Southport.

Best match stat: 21 effective disposals, 7 clearances, 7 inside 50s and a goal in a final round demolition of Yeronga.

Left Half-Forward: Summer Hamilton (Wilston Grange)
13 matches, 10 goals, 65 tackles, 25 marks

Making her state league debut against Southport in Round 1, then 16-year-old Hamilton was unable to get on the scoreboard. That wouldn’t happen again for two months as the Jimboomba junior rattled off 8 goals in 7 matches. Hamilton’s forward pressure game and hunger for tackling was evident early, but her leaping mark over the Bond defence in Round 4, nominated for Mark of the Year, suggested we hadn’t seen half of her skills yet.

Best match stat: 11 contested possessions, 10 tackles, 4 inside 50s and a goal against Maroochydore in Round 7.

Forward Pocket: Maddy Baldwin (Southport)
10 matches, 25 goals (2^nd), 20 forward 50 marks (5^th)

After one game as a defender and an injury, Baldwin played Reserves in Round 4 as a forward and kicked 5 goals. So, they tried her as a forward in seniors and she scored 11 goals in the next three matches. Baldwin led for marks and slotted set shots like she’d been playing forward all her life, plus created many goals for teammates with her relentless forward pressure.

Best match stat: 3 forward 50 marks, 5 goals against Coorparoo in Round 13.

Full Forward: Jess Stallard (Aspley)
11 matches, 32 goals (1^st), 33 forward 50 marks (1^st), 26 contested marks (1^st)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2023

Across 2023 and 2024, Stallard has scored at least one goal in 24 of her 25 home-and-away matches. Often, it’s more than one: this year she had six against Yeronga, five against Bond University, and four against Wilston Grange. Stallard is a mark-and-score full forward straight from central casting. Knowing what she’ll do is easy, stopping her is not.

Best match stat: 12 effective disposals, 4 forward 50 marks, 7 tackles, 5 goals defeating defending premiers Bond University in May.

Ruck: Georja Davies (Southport)
8 matches, 3 goals, 171 hit-outs (3^rd), disposal efficiency of 77.3% (8^th)

Thanks to her sisters, the Davies surname carries expectations, pressure and unwanted attention. Georja responded to all of that in 2024 by becoming the best ruck in the Bond University QAFLW. As well as winning an insane number of restarts, despite sharing the ruck role with Tayla Gregory, Davies’ ability to cover the field from goal square to goal square gave Southport the equivalent of two extra players.

Best match stat: 22 hit-outs, 9 inside 50s and 2 intercept marks away to Wilston Grange in June.

Ruck-rover: Maddy Watt (Southport)
13 matches, 1 goal, 183 contested possessions (3^rd), 87 tackles (3^rd), 139 effective handballs (1^st)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2023

Watt was the central cog in Southport’s 2024 premiership wheel. The many clearances and inside 50 entries from O’Brien and Kierra Zerafa were mainly the result of Watt winning the hard ball and handballing out of the congestion. Any opponent silly enough to get the ball first felt Watt slamming into them a nanosecond later. In a competition full of hard-running tacklers, no-one ran or tackled harder than Watt in 2024.

Best match stat: against UQ in July, 34 disposals at 71%, 24 contested possessions (season record), 7 clearances, 13 tackles, 3 inside 50s, 3 intercept marks, 0 Zielke Medal votes.

Rover: Louise Tyson (Aspley)
14 matches, 3 goals, 325 disposals (2^nd); 211 effective disposals (3^rd); 68 clearances (4^th); 53 inside 50s (4^th)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2023

If Watt was the outstanding hard-hitting midfielder of the year, Tyson was the outstanding creative midfielder of the year. The Papuan had begun her move from half-forward to the engine room in 2023, but with Davy, Jasmine Kawa and Lucia Liessi for company in 2024, Tyson’s had the protection behind her to attack the ball hard and zip away with it into space.

Best match stat: 23 effective disposals, 20 uncontested possessions, 5 clearances, 4 inside 50s at home to Maroochydore in July.

Interchange – inside midfield: Laura Roy (University of Queensland)
7 matches, 4 goals, 7.4 clearances per match (1^st), 17.6 contested possessions per match (1^st), 5.1 inside 50s per match (2^nd)

Limited to seven matches by her Lions Academy and Queensland Under 18 commitments, Roy the Younger won, cleared and passed the ball from midfield like few others in 2024. Her raking left-foot passes, not dissimilar to Brisbane Lion Ellie Hampson, gave UQ a forward momentum that they would love to have enjoyed for the whole season. Laura and Gracie are the first sisters to be named in a Bond University QAFLW Team of the Year since Mica and Casey Cubis from Kedron in 2013.

Best match stat: 20 contested possessions, 12 clearances, 7 tackles, 5 inside 50s and 2 goals against Maroochydore in Round 2.

Interchange – inside midfield: Jane Childes (University of Queensland)
14 matches, 4 goals, 104 tackles (1^st), 76 clearances (eq. 1^st), 198 contested possessions (2^nd)

Since debuting in 2018, Childes has been known for her speed and endurance on the wing; this year in the centre, she showed that she had every other skill as well. Oppositions had to dispose away from the contest twice to get far enough away from Childes to take her out of the game. Any fewer than that and her tackles were either causing restarts or jolting the ball loose to enable a clearance.

Best match stat: 18 contested possessions, 7 clearances and an equal season-record 16 tackles against Bond University in June.

Interchange – inside midfield: Lucia Liessi (Aspley)
14 matches, 7 goals, 178 uncontested possessions (eq. 1^st); 225 effective disposals (2^nd)

Liessi has been threatening to have a season like this for a while. Having missed 2022 with injury, “Looch” increased in confidence through the Hornets’ Grand Final charge of 2023 before beginning 2024 with a hat-trick. Her long kicks were more accurate, her running was harder, she found space more often, every part of Liessi’s game levelled up in 2024.

Best match stat: On opening night against UQ, 7 clearances, 6 inside 50s, 5 tackles and 3 goals.

Interchange – inside midfield: Chelsea Winn (Yeronga South Brisbane)
14 matches, 2 goals, 337 disposals (1^st), 199 contested possessions (1^st), 76 clearances (eq. 1^st)

In the side that finished bottom of the ladder, Winn fought for everything in 2024. After some brilliant early-season numbers, oppositions often put a tagger on Winn. It never really worked; only once was she kept to fewer than 20 disposals in a match. She kept winning contested ball, kept clearing, kept getting into space to take uncontested marks. If Chelsea keeps playing like that, the results for Yeronga will come.

Best match stat: 29 disposals, 19 contested possessions, 10 clearances and 6 tackles against Aspley in Round 8.

Interchange – inside midfield: Courtney Sexton (Bond University)
14 matches, 6 goals, 103 tackles (2^nd)
Previous Team of the Year selections: 2022, 2023

If you ask ten people who the toughest player in the Bond University QAFLW is, nine will say Sexton immediately; the other one will think about it and then say Sexton as well. Without the ball, any team that plays Bond must assume that Sexton is about to tackle them even if they can’t see or hear her. With the ball, Sexton is improving every year and has learned to dispose almost as well under pressure as when not.

Best match stat: 23 effective disposals, 17 contested possessions, 17 uncontested possessions, 7 inside 50s at Maroochydore; also 16 tackles (equal season record) at home to Wilston Grange.

All statistics used in this article are from the iSports records on the Bond University QAFLW Hub. Finals matches not included.