Star midfielder Alicia Eva will once again captain the GWS Giants AFLW side after being reappointed for the 2021 season.
The 29-year-old took the reins from inaugural AFLW captain Amanda Farrugia following the 2019 season and did a tremendous job during the toughest year in the club’s short history.
Eva said she was excited to begin a new season and praised the group for their resilience.
“It’s exciting and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into a new season with the rest of the leadership group,” Eva said after being reappointed captain.
“It’s important that you don’t dismiss or try and hide the fact that we’ve had really significant challenges in the last 12 months and particularly the last six months.
“We have an incredibly resilient group. We have lost one of our own and that’s still very raw for our group.
“We’ve just been really big on making sure we support our team – not just the players but our staff and everyone in the wider club.
“The focus is on making sure we acknowledge that but we put ourselves in a great position to support our people. When we’ve got good support around us, that enables us to focus on the task at hand.
“We’ve got some really clear objectives we want to achieve this season.”
Eva will be ably supported by the same leadership group as last season – Jessica Dal Pos, Britt Tully, Cora Staunton and Pepa Randall.
Eva said the diverse make-up of the leadership group gives them the ability to connect with all 30 members of the squad.
“When we put the leadership group together last year, we came up with a different process and part of that process was identifying the different skill sets our team needs in their leaders,” she said.
“Through that, we’ve got some girls that are complete polar opposites.
“But we’ve got a list of 30 girls and not everyone’s the same so we tick all of those boxes and together as a collective unit, we make sure we’re meeting the needs of the playing group.”
The side relocated to Albury in southern NSW on January 1 due to COVID concerns in Sydney and will move to another location late next week ahead of practice matches scheduled for the weekend of 16/17 January.
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