Farmer’s daughter becomes a footy champ

WHILE growing up in country Victoria, never did Sally Riley imagine becoming an AFLW champion for the Adelaide Crows — while living in Darwin.

But that was the incredible situation she found herself in at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, after her team prevailed 4.11 (35) to 4.5 (29) over the Brisbane Lions in a grand-final thriller yesterday.

“It absolutely blows my mind. Everything feels a bit surreal right now,” Riley told the Sunday Territorian after the game.

The Crows went into the title decider as underdogs after losing to the Lions by three points in Round 5.

And with players based in Adelaide and Darwin — with the logistical difficulty that brings — few gave them a premiership hope at the start of the inaugural AFLW season.

Through hard work and unbreakable team spirit, this tight-knit group climbed the mountain together.

Riley has also overcome hurdles to become a champion.

Who would have thought the 26-year-old would be a national premiership winner after starting her journey on a humble Bullarook property, near Ballarat?

There, Riley would spend countless hours on ice-cold mornings helping out her potato-farming father.

She then made the move to Katherine to do her teaching rounds, before joining Tracy Village Football Club.

Riley spent two seasons doing the six-hour round trip from Katherine to Darwin just to play football, before moving to Darwin in 2015.

The now-Crows joint vicecaptain stayed in the NT because her dream of playing in the historic inaugural AFLW competition as a “Territory Crow” burned fiercely.

And she was still pinching herself while reflecting on her fairytale, with a grand-final winners’ medal hanging around her neck, yesterday.

“Not at all did I imagine a move to the Northern Terri- tory would result in this,” the midfielder said.

Riley said regular communication was the key to this unique “long-distance relationship” between her Darwin and Adelaide teammates.

“It’s like a long-distance relationship — we haven’t had a divorce yet, and hopefully we don’t for a long time,” Riley said.

“The coaches gave us great leadership and guidance, and we’d be on the phone to each other 10 times a day sometimes.”

Riley’s life story up until this point has seen her achieve success against all odds, and the Crows’ 2017 campaign had a similar theme.

“We started our season and just took it all week by week — we celebrated after beating GWS like it could be our last win,” Riley said.

“Then we got some more wins and people started taking us seriously.

“For me, missing social events and working hard — it’s absolutely all worth it now.”