Queen of the kids
LILY Mithen bleeds yellow and black and she’s devoted to teams in red and blue (AFLW) and the blue and white hoops (VFLW).
But Mithen may be faced with a difficult decision in the not too distant future.
Will the star midfielder choose Melbourne, the club that gave her an opportunity in the inaugural AFL Women’s competition, or head back to her heartland and pull on the jumper at Geelong?
“I’m not sure,” Mithen said when pressed about her football future this week. “There’s a lot of pros and cons and it’s hard to predict what the AFLW structure might look like.
“There’s certainly a lot of things to consider, but I’m pretty lucky that I’ve got two clubs to choose from, hopefully.”
Mithen, 19, splits her time between the clubs, plying her trade at Simonds Stadium in the VFLW from April to September before crossing to the Demons in the AFLW across February-March
“The VFL at Geelong is my main focus at the moment, but I do have a bit of contact time at Melbourne with a few skills sessions,” Mithen said.
“They’re not compulsory but it’s good to get back in the club and be involved.”
Regardless of what strip she wears from next season on, Mithen believes the Cats deserve an opportunity to join the AFLW in 2019.
“Geelong has put in so much work to provide the best pathway possible and the way they have conducted themselves with the VFLW side has been phenomenal,” she said.
“The resources we have access to is so helpful to the girls. The coaching staff are putting in an incredible amount of work to make sure the girls are AFL-ready and when the time comes for an AFL licence they will be ready to go.”
Mithen, a Newtown & Chilwell product, returned to her roots on Wednesday night bearing gifts — a bag full of Sherrin footballs and a $1000 cheque from NAB.
“They’ve been very supportive of me over the years, so it’s nice to repay them,” Mithen said.
“I just had a kick with the under-12s and had a chat to the under-15s and under-18s and there’s a lot of talent in the footy club, which is exciting to see.
“One of the coaches asked, ‘Do you know who this is?’ and everyone put their hands up. It was pretty cool to see that the girls are aspiring to get to that next level.”
Mithen’s next challenge comes in the form of top-three side Melbourne Uni, which has won four of its five matches this season.
The Cats, however, have lost their past two matches after a strong start to the year.
“The girls have responded well to a few losses and we’re really positive at the moment,” she said.
“We’re definitely not playing bad footy and it’s exciting to see where we can take it.
“These losses don’t hurt at the early stage of the year and we’ll use it to get better and take (lessons from) it. There’s a lot of new girls in our team. We’re a developing side and we haven’t played much footy together as a group. So we’re still finding that synergy and we’ll continue to get better.”