It sounds funny to say that a back-to-back winner of the Zillmere Eagles QWAFL Best and Fairest got her mojo back, but that’s exactly what Ally Anderson did this year.
The 2014 best and fairest winner polled 72 votes this season, 20 ahead of Emma Pericic, to add another trophy to her growing collection.
It would be way off the mark to describe Anderson’s 2014 season as sub par, but this year the self-belief came back.
“Last year I had a few confidence issues. I wouldn’t really perform as well in some games,” Anderson said.
“I was lacking a bit of confidence early on this year as well, but a few months in, I wasn’t thinking the same way at all. All I was thinking was go play footy.”
She didn’t just ‘go play footy’; she dominated.
When it comes to racking up possessions though the middle of the ground, there aren’t many better. Whether it’s for the Eagles on a Saturday afternoon, or when she pulled on the Queensland jumped twice this year, Anderson just gets the job done week in week out.
Not only was she one of the best running around in the QWAFL this year, she was also the umpires choice as best on ground in the Queensland state game against NSW/ACT.
What makes her year even more remarkable is the fact that Anderson carried a foot injury through the majority of the season.
“It’s nice to have a break now because most of this year I battled injury. I think it was in February or March I got a foot injury, which got worse pretty much every week. Hopefully this off-season has really helped me rest up and get over it,” she said.
Anderson admitted that the slow start to the season for Zillmere did catch her off guard a little.
“We had a really good pre-season cup. We tied with Coolangatta-Tweed, we had a really good first game, but just started a bit slow,” she said.
“Every week we thought it would get better, but it definitely took us a little while to get going.”
Once the familiarity was there in the team, the results started to come.
“At the start of the year, we had a lot of new players and a lot of younger players stepping up to the team. By the end of the year, we definitely gelled a bit more and understood each other’s games a lot more,” Anderson said.
On the Zillmere front, Anderson believes that a successful 2016 starts now.
“As a team, we need to do all the right things. We need to keep getting numbers to training, and we need to gel on field as well as off field, the team bonding stuff,” she said.
“With our younger girls coming through, it will be really good to get them involved. Hopefully some of the senior girls can take them under their wing.”
She’s also definitely looking forward to pushing her case for Queensland selection again, something which she should have no problem obtaining.
“I would love to be able to be a part of the women’s academy again, and who knows, maybe even get drafted,” she said.
“I love doing all that stuff. It’s great to be able to go to training with all these people with amazing skills, and that are so competitive to be able to learn off.”
At just 22 years of age, Ally Anderson is not only a star of the present, but of many, many years to come.
Zillmere Award Winners:
QWAFL Top 3 in Best & Fairest:
1 – Ally Anderson (72 Votes)
2 – Emma Pericic (52 Votes)
3 – Kylie Lawrence (36 Votes)
QWAFA Top 3 in Best & Fairest:
1 – Mimi Hoger (31 Votes)
2 – Amanda Whitehead (16 Votes)
3 – Ali Roy & Roxanne Brock (15 Votes)
ZILLMERE EAGLES CLUB PERSON OF THE YEAR – Ashleigh Hales
ZILLMERE EAGLES PLAYER PREMIERSHIP – 1st Maxine Timms (1739 points), 2nd Donna Davis (1718 points) and 3rd Emily Brown (1686 points)
QWAFL PLAYER’S PLAYER – Ally Anderson (280 Votes)
QWAFL PLAYER’S PLAYER RUNNER UP – Madi Crowley (166 Votes)
QWAFA PLAYER’S PLAYER – Mimi Hoger (60 Votes)
QWAFA PLAYER’S PLAYER RUNNER UP – Katrina Patch (22 Votes)
BEST FINAL’S PLAYER – Georgia Byrne
ZILLMERE EAGLES RISING STAR – Kiana Riley
QWAFL MOST IMPROVED PLAYERS – Samantha Klose & Donna Davis
QWAFA MOST IMPROVED PLAYER – Louise Payne
QWAFL COACH’S AWARD – Mikayla Anderson
QWAFA COACH’S AWARD – Nathalia Ahmat
QWAFL LEADING GOAL KICKER – Tayla Harris (22 Goals)
QWAFA LEADING GOAL KICKER – Amanda Whitehead (25 Goals)
100th ZILLMERE GAME – Monica Allen
50th ZILLMERE GAME – Tayla Harris, Samantha Klose, Emily Brown, Kiana Riley, Georgia Byrne, Mimi Hoger
VALUABLE VOLUNTEER AWARDS – Colley Family, Byrne Family, Tania Brown, Anderson Family, Bronwyn Donoghue, Katrina Lynne & Jacob Flugge and Leonie Johnson
By Andrew Wiles
Follow @andrewjwiles
