Gigi!

Gigi was born on December 20th in Canberra, grew up in the Nation’s Capital and she was always a lot taller than the other kids at school. She knew about AFL football because the GIANTS had been playing in Canberra for years. She knew Jon Patton and Callan Ward and some of the other GIANTS and had even been to a few games. It wasn’t until 2017 that Gigi truly fell in love with the game.

Gigi went along to Manuka Oval in March 2017 to watch the GIANTS’ AFL Women’s team play in their very first season. She was amazed. Here were girls, just like her, playing on the same grounds as the boys. And just as good! She was among more than 6,000 people who watched the AFLW team play that night.

After the game she met Erin McKinnon, the GIANTS’ ruck. Erin was even taller than Gigi! Erin told her that she started playing when she was a kid and fell in love with the game immediately. Being so tall, Erin told Gigi that her height was an advantage. She could jump higher than the other players and take big marks.

That season she signed up for Auskick so one day she could be a GIANTS AFLW player too. Gigi learned that AFL is a game that boys and girls of any size can play and soon she was attending as many games as she could both in Canberra and Sydney.

One day, at a GIANTS post-match event with their families at the GIANTS HQ, Gigi met a big strong boy from Blacktown called GMAN.

Having been impressed by her skills, GMAN immediately introduced himself to Gigi and they started talking about their favourite GIANTS players.

Since that day GMAN and Gigi have become inseparable and attend all the GIANTS AFL and AFLW matches together and love to run around during kick-to-kick after the game with the rest of the kids!

Make sure you come and say “Hi!” to Gigi next time you’re at a GIANTS function or game.