At just 14, Madison Prespakis is taking women’s football by storm in her first season.
Having played previously with the boys at Romsey Junior Football Club, Prespakis was forced to make the move to women-only footy due to her age.
Her first move was to join the Sunbury Lions youth girls’ side, which plays in the Essendon District Football League.
“I’ve played boys footy all my life,” Prespakis said. “So girls’ footy is new to me,” the youngster said.
“I then found out there was a girls’ Calder Cannons development program, so I went down there, tried out for that and got selected.”
Despite being new to women’s footy, Prespakis continued to excel and was soon part of not one, but three Victorian squads.
She was selected in the under-16 School Sports Victoria team, the under-18 Vic Metro team for the national championships and the Victorian team for the indigenous Kickstart youth girls national championships.
In the first two competitions, she was part of the championship winning team, and her performances in the under-18 titles saw her picked in the carnival’s All-Australia side.
“Sometimes it can be overwhelming being the youngest,” she said. “I was the youngest in my team and the youngest in division 1, but when you start playing, it doesn’t feel like you’re the youngest.”
Her performances at the Kickstart youth girls championships were rewarded when she was named in the 40-girl Woomeras squad and considered her side’s most valuable player.
She was also part of Gisborne Secondary College’s school side that finished second at the School Sports Victoria junior female football competition.
Last Saturday, Prespakis capped off the season, finishing second in the EDFL’s ‘youth girls’ best and fairest award on 16 votes, eight behind Pascoe Vale’s Sarah Dargan.
“I only played seven games,” Prespakis said. “I missed the first five or so due to Victoria commitments and after that I started my local club season.”
Prespakis is hoping her football will lead her into the new women’s league, with the AFL committing last month to a launch by 2017.
“My dream since I was little was to play AFL… now I’ve seen there is going to be a women’s AFL league so I want to work hard to achieve that.”
