Goodman fit for a new shot
Study key to Ben’s decision to pull pin
North Cairns junior Selina Goodman (above) is banking on a career-best fitness level as well as a positional change to deliver a second chance in the AFLW. Delisted after one season at the elite level with the Brisbane Lions, the athletic Goodman is searching for another crack at the bigtime and is using the Gold Coast Suns’ Winter Series squad as her starting point.
FORMER North Cairns Tiger Selina Goodman is banking on a career-best fitness level as well as a positional change to deliver a second chance in the AFLW.
Delisted after one season at the elite level with the Brisbane Lions, the athletic Goodman is searching for another crack at the big-time and is using the Gold Coast Suns’ Winter Series squad as her starting point.
The emerging Suns female side fell to Northern GWS Giants in their first game as a group earlier this month and get another chance to push their case for an AFL position on Saturday at Southport.
The schoolteacher by trade was deployed as a ruckman in her days at the Lions but a shift inside 50 for club team Coolangatta Tweed, and now the Suns, has given Goodman a new lease on life.
“Leading into the trials with the Suns I made sure I was as fit as I could be and the Suns coaches noted that to me that I looked super fit,” Goodman said.
“For me, it is about playing really good QWAFL football at the moment and hopefully I can get picked up in that 2020 draft.”
Goodman is third on her QWAFL club’s leading goalkicker tally midway through 2018.
“Playing in a new position with the Suns and at club level, it gives me a different card to play, so to speak, because now I can play in a few areas of the ground,” Goodman said.
“It is a challenge playing in the forward line.
“There is a lot of stuff I need to know and learn after playing in the ruck mostly for the Lions.”
The 22-year-old is one of four AFL Cairns players who have been selected for the Suns’ inaugural squad for the 2018 Women’s AFL Winter Series, alongside Sodyla Kris, Kitara Farrar and Luana Healey.
A mentor of Goodman’s, Jo Butland, is also an assistant coach for the Suns.
South Cairns junior Farrar, considered a lock to be drafted into the AFL in the coming years, missed the first winter series game while representing Queensland at junior level and is expected to feature this Saturday.
Goodman will rest against the Giants but is raring to go against her old club next month.
“It is great to be able to share this experience with a few girls from Cairns,” she said. FORMER Richmond forward Ben Griffiths has opened up on his shock retirement from the AFL as he ramps up training ahead of a move to the United States to take up a college football scholarship.
After a career plagued by multiple concussions, Griffiths chose in January to turn his back on the Tigers and take his life in a new direction despite having been contracted to the Tigers for the 2018 season.
The 26-year-old said his decision to quit football had not been based around the concussion problems but an opportunity to study that was too good to pass up.
“I was only talking to Mum a little while ago saying I haven’t had a migraine in over a year now,” Griffiths said yesterday.
“The concussion side of stuff wasn’t really a factor in the decision in the end because I was cleared to play at the end of last year and came back and finished off the year. I think for Mum it was probably a bit more settling knowing I wasn’t getting hit anymore but for me it was more just the appeal of getting the university degree.”
Griffiths is currently training in Melbourne before he moves to the University of Southern California later this year to begin his four-year scholarship with an eventual eye on an NFL punting career.
However, he said there was part of him that missed life at Punt Rd as Richmond continues to excel after claiming last year’s premiership.
“I certainly miss the team environment,” he said.
“So I struggle a little bit with that, dealing with not seeing all the boys and my close mates every day like I used to. That’s certainly one of the harsh realities of leaving the system.”
Griffiths retired with 63 AFL games to his name.