Fremantle forward Gabby O’Sullivan has had enough of 2020.
It’s less to do with the Covid-19 crisis and more to do with her wanting to get Freo’s AFLW gang back together after a successful, but ultimately heartbreaking, 2020 AFLW season.
O’Sullivan was extremely optimistic of Fremantle’s hopes in 20201 after going unbeaten in 2020 before the season was cancelled.
“In 2019 when we lost in the finals, we felt like we could go on a couple games better and this year, I think there was no doubt in our minds at all,” O’Sullivan said.
“If we can keep our list healthy and relatively unchanged...I don’t see why we can’t do as well as we did this year. I want it to be 2021 already so I can get back in the purple kit!”
Until then, O’Sullivan hopes to turn her focus to defending East Fremantle’s premiership in the WAFLW, although the season is still up in the air.
The star forward also has her sights on the next generation, with training set to resume for the Sharks’ youth girls team.
“I’m coaching our youth girls and there’s been some word on being allowed to have 20 or so girls at a session in the near future,” O’Sullivan said.
“It’s going to be hard as I think we’ve got about double that, which is a good problem to have, especially in our younger ranks.”
A physical education teacher at Court Grammar School, O’Sullivan has navigated an interesting period at work as students return to class.
She said she had to get creative to keep her students active while they were learning from home.
“For three or four weeks, we were mostly teaching the kids online and if there were kids in school, there was only a handful,” O’Sullivan said.
“That was pretty strange, especially teaching a practical subject.
“For our footy academy, we had them doing trick shots, weekly challenges and daily challenges which worked well.
“The kids are starting to trickle in now and there’s a lot more people, which is good.
“It’s a lot easier for us, if they’re here, we can teach them face to face and get to have a bit of fun with them and joke around.
“They get a sense of normality as well as us. It’s just trying to keep everything as normal in the crazy time that it is.”
