AFLW 2022: Farm life to playing fabulous footy, how Richmond’s Courtney Wakefield made it all work

The Richmond forward and mum-of-two fills with emotion talking about the family sacrifices she has had to make in order to fulfil her AFLW ambitions as she chases a grand final berth with the Tigers.

Hailing from the remote 109,000 acre Top Hut Station, 110 km north of Mildura, Wakefield has made the temporary move to Melbourne each AFLW season since 2019 while her husband, Tom, and two children, Tilly, 8, and Sidney, 5, remain at home on the family’s sheep farm.

The 35-year-old admits the logistics have been “crazy” to make it work and FaceTime has become her best friend while she has been separated from her family.

“It has been difficult, but I guess as a mum all you can ask for is when you are not there that your kids are loved by whomever as I would love them and they have been,” Wakefield said at Punt Rd this week.

“We have got some amazing supporters in our family and the kids haven’t gone without.

“But there is no love like a mum’s love and it has been difficult, lots of tears have been shed, but what we have achieved has been pretty special.

“And once they are old enough to know what role they played in that, I think they will be really proud, too.

“There has been a lot of Facetime but they love farm life … we have had some longer stints like two or three weeks this season where I haven’t seen them, which has been really tough, but we also know it’s not forever.”

Now in her fourth season with Richmond, Wakefield’s sacrifices have paid dividends this year as she earned All-Australian selection and has played her part in the Tigers’ first finals series.

One of four Tigers to make the All-Australian line-up, Wakefield finished equal third in the league’s goal kicking this season, cementing her status as one of the game’s top forwards.

Not bad for a mum who had a 20-year break from playing football.

Wakefield played junior footy until under-11s before switching to netball to play with friends. It wasn’t until she as 27 that she was enticed back to the sport when she decided to “rock up” to a trial day for Richmond’s VFLW team in Bendigo when her son was just seven weeks old.

Despite not knowing she had to register, the trial day turned out to be a success and Wakefield’s football career was reborn.

Initially, during her first two VFLW seasons with the Tigers, Wakefield would make the weekly 1300km round-trip from the family’s farm at Top Hut to Melbourne.

But since stepping into the AFLW, Wakefield has stayed with family friends in Pearcedale during the season due to the greater training demands, but she still makes the trip home as often as she can.

“When I think about how we’ve made it work for four years, it has probably been three seasons longer than my husband would have hoped, but I think he has loved it just as much as I have,” Wakefield said.

“We have been fortunate enough to live the best of both worlds because the two worlds we live, Top Hut and here, are so far apart from each other but it has been amazing.

“I keep saying we probably made the impossible possible. Never did I think it would work, the logistics are crazy.”

When she is not kicking goals on the football field, Wakefield is fully immersed in farm life.

The family keeps about 7000 sheep on the farm and she is not afraid to roll up the sleeves.

“I’m absolutely very hands on, riding motorbikes, mustering sheep and goats, shearing sheep,” Wakefield said.

“You name it, I will give it a crack. Many hands light work for Tom and I. It is a real team effort on this football journey but it is a real team effort back at Top Hut as well.

“I’m a lady of the land, I married Tom, who I love dearly, so I moved to Top Hut to become a farmer’s wife and a mum. But obviously I went there with dreams and goals still, but never did I think that they would be lived out and here we are doing that for four seasons now so it’s been remarkable.”

Wakefield’s family will make the trip to Punt Rd to watch Saturday’s semi-final against North Melbourne.

At 35, Wakefield is unsure how long her football will extend, but she is determined to make it count.

“We’re just making the most of it while we can,” Wakefield said.

“If this fairytale got a happy ending this season then this could be it.

“But if not, we are still capable of competing at this level, the club thinks for another five years, but I don’t think so. No decisions have been made at this stage, we’ll just see how this season pans out.

“We are daring to dream at the moment and there is no reason why we can’t.”

Why Tigers skipper supports controversial home final

Richmond captain Katie Brennan has backed the Tigers’ right to play their sold-out AFLW semi-final against North Melbourne at their “spiritual homeland”.

After calls this week for the match to be moved away from Punt Rd Oval to accommodate a larger crowd and fuel the competition’s growth, Brennan said the Tigers had earned their home-ground advantage.

The semi-final was sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale on Monday afternoon, forcing hundreds of fans wanting to attend the match to miss out. Richmond’s home ground has a capacity of just 2800 people.

Preparations for the match at the venue were in full-swing on Wednesday with AFLW finals logos and signage being painted on the ground.

Tigers chief executive Brendan Gale said the Tigers – as the home team – had requested the match be played at Punt Rd Oval to give the team “every possible opportunity of winning”.

Asked how she felt about the prospect of fans being locked out of the match given the push to grow the game, Brennan said the players backed the decision to play at home.

“For us, it is just a really exciting moment just to be able to play in finals and to play a home final,” Brennan said at Punt Rd Oval on Wednesday.

“I feel like the decision was given by the AFL to Richmond to decide where we wanted to play, and to play at our spiritual homeland here is really exciting for us.

“We’re just backing in that decision and we just can’t wait to get out here on game day and just attack the game against North Melbourne.

“There is the discussion around the home final and what that means, but for us we are just really focused on our performance and making sure we put our best foot forward in our preparation across the whole week.”

North Melbourne is yet to lose a match at Punt Rd Oval, winning all four of their previous games there. But Brennan was confident the venue would deliver a home-ground advantage.

“I guess any team has a home-ground advantage when they are playing at their home ground and I feel that most teams would probably want that home-ground advantage when you’ve put yourself in a position to be able to earn that,” Brennan said.

“We love Punt Rd, we love playing here. It’s our spiritual homeland, we have got a deep connection with this area here in Richmond, this is where we prepare, it’s where our people come to work and we love Punt Rd.

“We have been given an opportunity to play here by the AFL and we have taken that.

“I think a few teams had the wood on us in the early days, we won six games in three seasons and it’s fair to say there were a fair few that beat us on this deck.

“But we have won three games here this season, we love Punt Rd …. we’re just really excited to be able to have our fans here and have our Tiger army here on game day.”

After losing their first final against the Brisbane Lions last week, Brennan said the Tigers were hungry to taste their first finals victory.

“We’re first time in finals but we know we can grow our game from week to week and we know we are just getting started,” Brennan said.

“I think coming off the loss last week, we haven’t had a loss since the early days in the season and those two losses against Geelong and Adelaide really set us up for a bit of a streak coming into finals.

“We want to be hungry to improve our game every week and I think we have been doing that this week, we have been doing that every week.”

Having managed a foot injury during the season, Brennan, who kicked all three of Richmond’s goals last week, said nothing would hold her back for the rest of the finals series.

“I’m bullish about playing every game going forward and the medical team has done an incredible job being able to manage the foot through,” Brennan said.

“It’s finals, I want to be out there with the group.”

Brennan expected midfielder Meg Macdonald to be at the top of the list for the job on North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner after tagging her in the final home-and-away round.

“Meg has played an enormous role for us week in, week out. She earned her position in the team by such a selfless act by tagging the most respected opposition player within every team she has played so far,” Brennan said.

“She did an incredible job on Jazzy Garner, who is one of the best players in the competition … we highly respect Jazzy and we highly respect her game and how much she can impact for the Kangaroos.

“Know doubt, I think Meg’s magnet will be up there, but I think it will be a bit of a team role to support Meg.”

Family, friends miss out as North calls for please explain

North Melbourne AFLW coach Darren Crocker says league bosses should be pushing Richmond for justification as to why they will lock out so many fans by playing their semi-final at Punt Road Oval.

Richmond is refusing to back down amid calls for Saturday’s sold-out clash to be moved away from Punt Rd Oval to accommodate a larger crowd.

Hundreds of fans desperate to attend the match are set to be locked out after tickets for the Tigers’ final against North Melbourne sold out within minutes of going on sale on Monday afternoon.

The Herald Sun understands partners and families of players are among those to have missed out on obtaining tickets, with Richmond’s home ground having a capacity of just 2800 people.

Richmond and North Melbourne played in front of 3147 fans at Arden Street when they last met in the final round of the home-and-away season late last month.

While conceding his team finished lower than Richmond and has no say in scheduling, Crocker was surprised the league would so happily deny itself the chance to get more fans through the gate and “grow the game”.

“I would have thought the AFL would have been asking Richmond why they are so adamant about playing the game at Punt Road where they can only get 2800 people in, and a lot of their own fans are going to get turned away,” Crocker said.

“ … It would make sense to play it on a ground where there is a larger capacity.

“It’s disappointing this topic is overriding what should be a couple of fantastic finals games. “From an AFL perspective, I wouldn’t have thought they’d want these headlines.”

Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale said on Tuesday that while not a “perfect science”, estimates were that around 10 to 15 per cent more fans would have been expected to attend a semi-final between the two clubs, equating to up to 3619 supporters.

On those estimates, more than 800 fans could be locked out by playing the game at Punt Rd.

Collingwood captain Steph Chiocci has backed a push to move the game to a larger venue, with Ikon Park and the AFL-owned Marvel Stadium both available this weekend.

“Personally, I would want to play the game on the best available ground with the biggest crowd available to us,” Chiocci said on RSN radio.

“It’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than the game itself. It’s about promoting women’s footy and putting on a show. That’s the way I look at it. So I would probably be pushing for Ikon Park. It’s the best deck in Victoria. It has wonderful facilities. It can cater for thousands of people. Why not put us on the biggest stage you can?”

Gale said that as the home team, the Tigers had requested the final be played at Punt Rd to give them “every possible opportunity of winning the game”.

However, statistics show that Richmond has won just four of 12 matches it has played at Punt Rd over the past three seasons.

The AFL said on Tuesday afternoon that the match was still scheduled to be played at Punt Rd.

Plans are in place for a $76 million redevelopment of Punt Rd Oval, which will eventually increase the ground’s capacity to 8000 people.

Tigers put team over fans in AFLW finals stoush

Richmond has put the lure of a semi-final victory ahead of fans, backing in a 2800-capacity Punt Road Oval as the venue for Saturday’s semi-final against North Melbourne.

Tickets for the clash were sold out minutes after going on sale on Monday afternoon.

Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale said on Monday that discussions had been held with the league about where to host the game – with Ikon Park and Marvel Stadium both available this weekend, along with nearby ground Victoria Park – but that the home ground advantage had won out.

Kangaroos skipper Emma Kearney told the Herald Sun she would prefer the game was played at Ikon Park.

“When it’s a crucial game, you want to be able to try to get as many fans into the game as possible,” Kearney said.

Another AFLW player told the Herald Sun on Monday: “It’s just pathetic. I thought we wanted to grow the game? How can we when people are being shut-out?”

But Gale maintained that on-field advantage was a priority for the home team.

“We had some discussions with the AFL regarding the venue for this weekend’s game, but ultimately we decided our AFLW team had earned the right to play a home final,” Gale said.

“Our players and coaching staff have worked incredibly hard for this opportunity and are very excited to be playing at the Swinburne Centre.

“While we understand some fans will be disappointed given the capacity of the venue, we owe it to our players to give them the best chance of winning.

“This discussion underlines the significance of our planned redevelopment at Punt Road Oval which will grow our capacity to almost 8000 – a project we are fully committed to delivering.”

The game will be the first-ever final at Punt Road Oval. This season marks Richmond’s finals debut, having finished fourth on the ladder.

The decision was lashed on social media by fans, who declared “fans deserve better” and labelled facilities at the ground, which is set to undergo a $65 million redevelopment in coming years that will include “equitable, state-of-the-art facilities” for female players, as “woeful”.

The AFL backed its scheduling call.

“Richmond earned the right to host the semi-final and indicated a very strong preference to play on their home deck at Punt Road,” a league spokesperson said.

“When scheduling finals matches, the AFL takes into consideration number of factors including the home team venue preference, days breaks for clubs (both the week before and the following week), timings for fans, clubs and broadcast, and forecasted crowd/venue capacity.”

Kearney, who will lead her side in the sudden-death final on Saturday, said she “can see from Richmond’s point of view why they want to play there”.

“I guess from our point of view, and more so for the fans, it’s better if it’s played at a venue that can hold more fans,” Kearney said.

“When you compare (2800), when you’ve already got Richmond who has got a big fan base, and we had 4000 at GMHBA (Stadium on Saturday).

“I think Ikon would be the perfect venue. A bit easier for parking, more seats in the stands. I just think that it’s better for spectators to watch from the grandstands.”

Kearney, who said more notice on finals venues should be a priority, also said on Monday that the league “like that tag of being able to sell out games” despite the low capacity on offer.

Geelong has never been permitted to host a fellow Victorian team in a men’s final at GMHBA Stadium.

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Former Collingwood AFLW player and Australian Diamonds star Sharni Norder questioned both the location and timing of the game.

“Why do we keep putting a lid on AFLW and or women’s sport? Why are we restricting how many people go to games?,” Norder said on The W podcast.

“(People) want to come to finals – they’ve been coming along and probably supporting both teams all year, and now they’re going to be locked out, probably standing along Punt Road. We might have to get some scaffolding up to try to see the game.”

Originally published as AFLW 2022: Farm life to playing fabulous footy, how Richmond’s Courtney Wakefield made it all work