MITHEN TORN BETWEEN CATS, DEES

Mithen caught between Demons and the hoops

MELBOURNE AFL Women’s star Lily Mithen says she is torn between deciding whether to stay at the Demons or be part of Geelong’s first AFLW team. The 20-year-old was Geelong’s VFLW bestand-fairest last year, but has played the past two AFLW seasons at Melbourne. Mithen told the Geelong Advertiser the Cats and Demons were the only two teams she was considering for 2019, but she would not be playing VFLW until she had made a decision on her AFLW future.

“I’m just working through it all without a lot of clarity, but both clubs I’m dealing with are very good at sharing all possible information,” she said.

“There won’t be any VFL signing until AFL is sorted.

“I’ll wait for my AFL decision to be set in stone before I sign with a VFL club. I think it’s best to align all footy streams and be connected with the one club, so that’s my mentality around that.

“I’m just sitting tight and waiting for a few more things to unfold. I guess it’s just a bit of a waiting game.”

While Mithen is enjoying a mental and physical break from the football routine that has encapsulated her life for the past 18 months, she said there were a number of things to weigh up before deciding what her future holds.

“I guess there’s a combination where I see myself best served as a player, where I get opportunities to develop, where I want to see my life being lived, things like that . . . along with who I want to play with, who I want to be coached by and what colours I want to be wearing,” she said.

“It’s not as simple as, ‘Give me a couple of contracts and I’ll sign one of them’.

“There’s a lot of things that go into the whole process.

“It’s obviously super difficult because they’ve got great cultures, I’ve got great relationships at both clubs.

“There are other factors that come into a decision like where I play footy but either way I’ll be at a great club.”

While the rules surrounding AFLW signings are yet to be clarified, Mithen said she was OK with watching the VFLW season kick off this weekend without her.

“I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at the moment,” she said.

“Hopefully things are cleared up in the next few weeks and I’ll be back on track.

“It’s been a full on 18 months worth of footy; I played a lot of footy last year, so I’ll give my body a rest, which has been quite nice and I’m just keeping fit.

“I’m pretty sure I haven’t lost my footy touch, so I’ll be out there soon enough.”