Tara Murray
Western Jets’ Sierra Grieves hard work is starting to pay off as she hopes to achieve her AFLW dreams.
Seen as one of Australia’s top up and coming footballers having been part of the AFLW National Academy, Grieves has taken her game to another level this year.
While she’s likely set for a big couple of months ahead of the AFLW draft, Grieves isn’t thinking too much about it.
“It would honestly mean the world to me,” she said. “I always wanted to be drafted and be in that professional environment feel like I can thrive off the professionalism and really get working and not take it for granted.
“I haven’t really thought about it [the draft] in a way because if I think about it, then I’m just gonna overthink everything.
“I’m really excited for the draft and I can’t wait until I get into that professional environment in a club.”
Grieves started playing football when she was younger and quickly found it was the sport for her.
While she lives in Tarneit, she quickly found herself playing at Yarraville Seddon.
“My dad has played there… My nan, she has basically been there forever,” Grieves said.
“Even now she’s older, she goes to every game of my brothers, mine, everything.
“She is a big influence at Yarraville.”
After Covid, Grieves decided to take her football more seriously and decided that it was what she wanted to do.
She was part of the Western Jets premiership side that year, with several of those girls since being drafted.
“I trained heaps more and I knew that I had to work on my fitness in order to play in the midfield,” she said.
“Playing with Montana Ham and Charlotte [Baskaran], I rotated with them when I was playing forward. I looked up to them, saw how they went about footy and they influenced me in a way with my footy.
“The premiership was probably the best experience I’ve ever had in footy.”
Grieves continued her development and became part of the AFLW academy squad this season.
She said it’s been an eye opening experience.
“It’s such a good experience being with the best girls in Australia,” she said. “When you get to training everyone is training their best and everyone’s skills are around where you are, it makes you want to do better.
“You want to try and prove yourself, it was a really cool experience.”
Grieves was named the academy’s best in a match against an all-stars team.
She said it was nice to be recognised for the hard work that she’d been doing.
It was the first of two big awards.
She was recently named the most valuable player at the under-18 Australian national championships while playing for Vic Metro.
Vic Metro also claimed the national championship.
“That one was definitely a better feeling,” she said of the most valuable player award.
“That was a fun experience at metro. Just the training, we all got along the vibes were there and I felt when we were on the field we all just connected and it wasn’t just one girl performing it was all of us. We got the reward for it.”
Among her teammates was Lou Lou Field.
Like Grieves, Field plays for Yarraville Seddon and the Western Jets.
“We are close mates and practically done everything together,”she said of Field. “I like having her there in a way. I’m quieter and having her there is always good for me.
“It was probably our last time playing together.”
Grieves, who models her game on Monique Conti, is now focusing on the draft combine later this year.
“That is the next step working towards and I’ve got a plan leading up to the combine, and I’ve started training for it and want to be the best I can for it.”
