By Meg Kennedy<\/p>\n
She might have started her sporting journey on the netball courts, but Bacchus Marsh student Lilli Condon is fast becoming one of the young football players to watch.
\nAt 15-years old Lilli captained the Greater Western Victoria Rebels after playing just seven games of football in the NAB league and is set to be picked to be part of the Victorian under-16 team.
\nLilli says that playing football was never on the cards, as she \u201cwas confident I would continue playing netball,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t until coming across an advertisement for the Greater Western Victoria Rebels team that she decided to give it ago.
\n\u201cAfter meeting the rest of the team and playing my first game, I knew that footy was what I wanted to do, and ever since then I haven\u2019t looked back and it was possibly the best decision I have made,\u201d she said.
\nLilli said her favourite thing about the sport is \u201cthe culture that has been created in women\u2019s football,\u201d and the new opportunities that are arising with the growing popularity of AFLW.
\n\u201cEvery one of us has one passion which is to just play footy and not let anything stop us,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI love the freedom that footy involves, [there\u2019s] no restrictions to where you are allowed to go, as well as the competitiveness which is like no other game I have played.\u201d
\nOn becoming captain of the Rebels, Lilli says the opportunity funnily presented itself after she was picked \u201cbecause I was the smallest.\u201d
\n\u201cIt turned out to be an awesome opportunity to be able to improve on my leadership skills and to settle my nerves I had building up.\u201d
\nIf her recent success is anything to go by, then it is no wonder AFLW could be on the cards in the future.
\nLilli said that being on an AFLW team \u201cis definitely a recent goal of mine.\u201d
\n\u201cWatching girls footy grow around Australia has really made me think how awesome it would be to play footy at such a high level,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cAchieving this will take a lot of hard work and dedication but at the moment I\u2019m just focused on playing footy for the teams I am in now and enjoying it.\u201d
\nAlthough AFLW is a dream goal, Lilli also hopes to finish year 12, go to university and to travel around the world with friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Meg Kennedy She might have started her sporting journey on the netball courts, but Bacchus Marsh student Lilli Condon is fast becoming one of the young football players to watch. At 15-years old Lilli captained the Greater Western Victoria Rebels after playing just seven games of football in the NAB league and is set […]<\/p>\n