Woodend-Hesket young gun Mariam Habib has won the Riddell District Football League best and fairest in her first year of senior football.
Habib played for the Hawk’s youth girls side last year and joined the senior women’s team this year for the RDFL’s inaugural women’s competition.
Being so young Habib was taken aback by winning the award, especially seeing as she came runners up in her club’s best and fairest award.
“I was pretty surprised to be honest because I didn’t really expect it,” she said.
“I didn’t think I had a good season that would win the best and fairest, especially for the senior womens.
“This year the competition was at another level, because Kyneton moved in and there were a lot of women who were amazing footy players, so I really didn’t think I would get it.”
From playing youth girls last year which was equivalent to an under 18s competition to playing senior footy was a big jump Habib said, but one that she enjoyed.
“It was a lot more intense this year,” she said.
“Last year there was barely any competition with just the four teams but with the new sides coming in, Melton and Kyneton, it was really good.
“It was nice to play in good contests, I felt like that probably helped me a lot with my game too.”
Habib said that winning this award was a goal of hers and put a lot of work in throughout the year to achieve it.
“It was something that I’ve been working towards,” she said.
“I really focused on my own footy this year, and just went for extra kicks and worked with one of my coaches who is helping me in the midfield a bit.
“I was just playing my own footy this year and also just helping the team out where I could.
“I actually want to play at a higher level of footy, hopefully one day I’ll get there but it’s all through hard work.”
Last season, Habib’s youth side won the premiership, this year the Hawks lost in the first elimination final, returning to success is something she said she is determined to do.
“We were hoping this year to go back to back, especially with the team being quite the same,” she said.
“We didn’t get in a lot of girls that were above 18, a lot of the younger girls stepped up too, so we were pretty happy with how we went with the young girls and everyone put what they could into it.”
Harper Sercombe
