AFL Sydney Women’s Rising Star – Round Six Nominee
Meet our Round Six Women’s Rising Star nominee, Saskia Johnson:
Player Profile
Name: Saskia Johnson
Nickname: Sas
AFL Sydney Club: Sydney University
Position: Midfield
Junior Club: Newtown Swans
Favourite activity to do outside of football:
Doing anything with my mates.
What is one thing that we don’t know about this Rising Star that they are well known for around the club?
It’s hard to tell you much about Sas as she is very quiet and unassuming. When we discussed it with her, Sas was very surprised to find out she was being considered for selection in Prems, so if anything, I think it’s humility and modesty that we know her for.
What role do they play for the club both on and off the field?
Sas is a part of a group of young girls that have come into our program this season from our junior pathway clubs (Newtown, Glebe and Canada Bay). She has been outstanding in the way she has gone about learning our systems and improving herself. Sas is a player that is very self-motivated and trains hard and applies herself to improving her game. Sas is a role model of what you want from a young footy player coming into a senior squad that’s developing a high performance culture.
The night before the game what will they most likely be doing?
Watching some footy and getting as much sleep as possible.
Nomination Details
Reason for nomination this round:
In her first four matches as a 17-year-old playing Prems, Sas has been named in the best three times. In Rd 6, Saskia put on another strong performance earning her 2nd best on ground for Sydney Uni. Her hard running and ability to provide support highlight her strong work rate. In addition, Sas has not been afraid to take responsibility for winning contested ball. We could not be happier with the way Sas has hit the ground running since joining the program and she continues to improve and become more consistent with every training session and every game.
Coach quote on Performance:
“Sas came to us in pre-season with fantastic skills and a great work ethic. She was very quiet and due to the disruption we had with COVID and the rain, it was hard to get a fix on where she was in relation to potentially playing in Prems. We knew she had the skills and conditioning, but because of her small frame we were unsure about how she’d handle the physicality. After seeing Sas in match sim, we could tell that she played well above her size and had great toughness when it came to the physical stuff so we selected her to play North Shore. Although she was nervous at the start Sas looked very much at home at Prems level. She saw plenty of the ball and laid a fantastic run-down tackle to complete a pretty good debut.”
