on that aflw delisting: a conversation with sophie molan

My dad said to me, just after the sign and trade period finished, ‘You know it’s okay if you don’t want to play anymore. You don’t have to if you don’t love it.’ But I knew I loved it.

Sophie Molan was at the Richmond verse Collingwood game for the final round of the 2023 AFLW regular season when a young girl came up to ask her for a photograph. 

‘It’s so weird,’ Sophie said as we were walking away. ‘That’s the third person who’s asked me today. I don’t even play anymore.’

Sophie was the Richmond Tiger’s first ever AFLW draft selection. She was symbolically given 1 as the number on the back of her guernsey. In 2022, at the end of her fourth professional season, she was not offered another contract. An acclaimed junior, touted as an emerging talent, the delisting came as a shock. I asked Sophie about failure, enduring ambition and, ultimately, the liminality of athlete identity.

On that AFLW Delisting has been published, as of Friday November 10th.

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