Moving goals is tricky
SHE’S already changed sports but uprooting her life in Adelaide and moving to the Gold Coast has been the biggest challenge of Cheyenne Hammond’s sporting career.
Hammond, 21, was an elite soccer player and represented Adelaide United in the WLeague in 2016 but, desiring a new challenge, footy became her code of choice in 2017.
After 12 years of soccer, Hammond followed her boyfriend’s sister down to local football club Willunga and then trialled for South Adelaide, where she went on to play 11 games in her SANFLW debut season in 2018. She won the premiership and was named best on ground in the grand final.
“I thought I might give it a go and see if I liked it,” said Hammond.
“I played the first game and loved every bit of it.
“When I first got tackled, I thought: ‘Oh no what have I got myself into.’ But you get used to it and now tackling is fun for me.”
Hammond’s star continued to rise to the extent that the self-confessed homebody decided to nominate for the Queensland AFLW draft pool after flying north to represent the Suns in the final QW Winter Series game of 2019.
At pick 57, the Suns swooped and Hammond is now on the cusp of debuting in a second professional sport despite struggling at first with the cross-country leap.
“I was at home and watching the draft, not really knowing if I was going to get picked up or not, but when my name got called out, I was lost for words and started crying,” she said. “I’m a massive homely person and I love being home so moving to the Gold Coast was a big thing for me. I have really good days when I don’t really think about home because I’ll be busy with sport and training but then you have days off when it hits home.”