For AFLW draft prospect Bella Smith, a passion for Australian rules football has seemingly always coursed through her veins.
The 17-year-old began her footy career playing as a junior in her brother Hunter’s team at the Noosa Tigers, where their father Damian “Butch” Smith is a past premiership player and club legend.
“I was around eight years old when I first started playing,” she said.
“I was watching my brother’s team on the sidelines and they were a bit short on numbers, so I decided to join in and have never looked back.
“I remember I had a set shot right in front of the goals and I missed. I don’t think I was very good, but I stuck at it because I loved it.”
The fearless teenager credits her upbringing as the main reason she has developed into the exciting player she is today.
“I think growing up in a footy family and watching the game from such a young age really helps you as you get older because you just understand the game more,” she said.
“You can read the play better.
“I just think that being around the game from a young age really helps a player’s development.”
Playing with and against boys up until the age of 14, Smith carved out an impressive junior career which included taking out both club and league best and fairest awards, making multiple representative teams and winning the MVP for AFL Sunshine Coast Talent Program award at the Queensland State Championships in 2017.
The dynamic midfielder played a season for Narangba before joining the Maroochydore Roos, where she was named the QAFLW rising star for 2020 in just her second season at the club.
The hard-working Year 12 student, at Good Shepherd Lutheran College, admitted she was shocked to receive such a wonderful recognition.
“It was pretty cool,” she said.
“I wasn’t really expecting it to be honest as there were a lot of good players my age who were eligible to win it.
“I want to take that momentum into this season and look to try and dominate.”
Smith’s QAFLW form so far this season has somewhat mirrored that of her team’s, with the Roos starting the year with three straight losses before reeling off five straight wins prior to going down to a loaded UQ last weekend.
The team’s turnaround in fortune is thanks in large part to Bella, who has been named in their best few players two out of the past four weeks, including a scintillating best-on-ground performance in Round 7 against Aspley.
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“We started the year off a bit rough but now we’re winning some games which is great,” she said.
“It will be great to have some AFLW girls come back as it will really lift the competition standard.”
It is this sort of magnificent match-winning ability that has seen Bella named in the NAB AFLW national academy squad two years in a row and what has draft scouts for the 14 clubs, including the premiership-winning Brisbane Lions, keenly monitoring the 17-year-old ahead of October’s draft.
“The Lions coach has reached out to my parents, and they’ve been in contact, and he said to just keep playing well,” she said.
“He said they will get in contact towards the end of the year and see how it all pans out but that they definitely have an interest.”
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The versatile X-factor says being able to fulfill her childhood dream by being drafted later this year would mean the world to her.
“When I first started playing there wasn’t actually a women’s pathway to the elite level so to now actually have a pathway to become a professional women’s AFL player is awesome,” Smith said.
“I remember when I was 10 years old, I told my dad that I was going to play AFL and be the first girl to get paid.
“I remember him saying ‘sorry but that’s not going to happen’ and then a few years later the AFLW competition started up.”
Smith is especially excited by the possibility of joining the club she barracked for as a child, the Brisbane Lions.
“I’m from Warrnambool in Victoria originally and when I was younger, I supported the Lions because at the time there were a few players, including Jonathan Brown, who came from there too,” she says.
The humble youngster refused to get too far ahead of herself and insisted that she hasn’t been focusing on the draft too much, and is instead concentrating on the here and now.
“I’m hoping to have a really strong year in the QAFLW,” she said.
“I’ve also got a couple of games coming up for Queensland against Victorian teams, so I am hoping to play well in those, and if that all goes well then at the end of the year it will all come together and look after itself.”
