After playing three seasons for the Geelong Cats’ VFL side, the Riverina’s Abby Favell has landed a spot in North Melbourne’s AFLW squad. Photo: Arj Giese/Geelong Cats Media.
While growing up and playing Australian rules football in Griffith, Abby Favell knew it was going to be an uphill battle to play the sport at the top level.
While teenage girls in Griffith were lucky to play more than five games a year, their Victorian counterparts were playing full seasons and seeing what professional football looked like.
Despite the odds, Abby persevered and recently signed with AFLW’s two-time reigning premiers and arguably the best women’s team of all-time, the North Melbourne Kangaroos.
So, how did a player from regional NSW land a spot with the team that hasn’t lost a game in two seasons and enters the 2026 competition as heavy favourites?
“The biggest factor that got me where I am was my parents,” Abby said.
“They were willing to take time off work; they would drive me for lots and lots of hours, and not only them, but there were also other girls who I would be playing with, and their parents would do the same, and we’d kind of rotate through.
“Living in a town like Griffith and Leeton, there was a lot of travel needed to make playing sport work.
“There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to play growing up. I would say it was pretty much in primary school galas, where we would play against other schools from Griffith, and then we might get the opportunity to go to Wagga and play there.
“I would say that’s probably where most of my footy came from, within the school environments.”
Abby played most of her school footy at St Patrick’s Primary School before completing high school at St Francis in Leeton. At 17 she made the Murray Bushrangers squad, an U18 representative team in Victoria.
“In regional NSW, it is really tough to make it through to that next stage of competition,” she said.
“But there was always that carrot dangling there, and it was always just a little bit too far out of reach.
“Lots of people would have said, ‘There’s no way you could play football. You live in country New South Wales; it’s impossible’. But I like to prove people wrong; that was probably the biggest thing that motivated me, the fact that I couldn’t do it, and people believed that I wouldn’t be able to.
“I like to think I proved them wrong.”
Abby Favell (second from left) made Geelong’s VFLW leadership group in just her first year at the club. Photo: Geelong Cats Media.
Despite interruptions due to the COVID pandemic, in 2022 Abby landed a spot in Hawthorn’s VFLW side, in the second-most prestigious league in Australia.
After one season she made the switch to arch-rival Geelong Cats in 2023, where she was named in the squad’s leadership team in just her first season.
After three seasons at the Cats, Favell moved across the Princes Highway to play for North Melbourne’s reserve side in the VFL earlier this year.
After consistent performances in which she averaged more than 20 disposals a game on the wing, and an injury to player Amy Smith, who was placed on the inactive list for the senior side, a position opened up for Abby in the Kangaroos’ senior AFLW team.
“I think [getting named] initially was honestly the biggest shock of my life. I never thought that they would want someone like me to be part of their amazing program, and it feels pretty cool,” she said.
“I’m learning something new every day, but in terms of just watching what the girls do in their preparation during the training and the effort that the coaches put in; they’re definitely overworked and underpaid for all the things that they’re doing.
“You can see when you’re in there why they’re so successful and how they’ve had the success that they’ve got, and they’re really not done yet.”
The Kangaroos will seek to win the AFLW premiership for a record-breaking third time in a row this year, as well as continue their 27-game winning streak, a record in the AFL for both the men’s and women’s competitions.
While Abby said she still had a bit to learn, she hopes she can make her AFLW debut sometime this year.
“Hopefully I do get a game at some point, but at the moment, we’re so excited to get into this season; everyone’s got this buzz around the club,” she said.
“Everyone’s really enthusiastic. I think that the pressure being on the North girls to back up last year has just made everyone stronger and brought us together, and it’s something really cool to be a part of.
“It’s something that I’ve looked up to since being a teenager, as an opportunity that I could chase. And now that it’s right in front of me, it’s unbelievable, but really exciting.”
The Kangaroos’ first game of the season kicks off on Saturday 15 August against the Geelong Cats at Marvel Stadium.
