WAFLW debut quite the feat for Irish basketballerThursday, March 7, 2024 - 1:30 PM - by Chris Pike

The WAFLW competition didn’t even exist when Holly Coomey made the move down under from Ireland, but after a strong basketball career her transition to a new sport saw her make her debut for Peel Thunder in Round 1.

Converts to Australian football from rival sports has become one of the more fascinating aspects of the growth of the female game across the country whether it be making the jump to play AFLW or also closer to home in the WAFLW competition as it continues to grow.

Peel has an increasingly young team in the WAFLW as well as it looks to build back up to being a premiership contender after the back-to-back triumphs in 2020 and 2021, but it's one new face from their Round 1 contest that has had her own remarkable journey.

Coomey played for Peel in Mandurah on Saturday against West Perth and can't wait to build on it now.

"I am absolutely loving the ride and hope I can continue to develop and have an impact in games by playing the role that I am tasked with," she said.

"I'm excited to play with this amazing group of young women and watch everyone grow around me."

After moving to Perth to call Australia home just over 13 years ago having grown up in Ireland, it was basketball that Coomey focused her attention on and she was doing a fine job at it.

She would end up playing 113 games at the Rockingham Flames in the SBL, now NBL1 West, competition which included being part of groups that won championships in 2014 and 2015, and made another Grand Final in 2012, while the league's leading three-point shooter the same year.

One of her more famous teammates is former Perth Lynx captain, WNBA championship winner and Australian Opals medallist Sami Whitcomb, and the pair couldn't have had more wildly contrasting weekends.

On Sunday afternoon, Whitcomb was back in Perth playing for the Townsville Fire in a WNBL semi-final loss to the Lynx. And 24 hours earlier, the remarkable journey of Coomey to make her WAFLW debut at Peel Thunder came to fruition.

"In the lead up to the Round 1 team being announced, I was so nervous. I have worked so hard during the pre-season but the amount of talent in the squad was not lost on me and I knew some good players were going to miss out," Coomey said.

"Once the team was announced and I was in it, the nerves were amplified! However, when game time came and it was my time to run out, I felt so fine.

"I think the two pre-season scratch matches we had played helped calm the nerves and I knew I would just give it my best shot and hope that playing the game how I've always played it would be enough to help the team.

"Despite the outcome of the game, I really loved being out there and even though I'm one of the oldest on the team, I am a rookie at this level so it's great to keep learning from the girls around me, especially the young guns coming up."

While Coomey is only one game into her WAFLW career, given her experience of playing high-level sport she provides a level of maturity for a Peel team that is ever increasingly youthful coming into the new season.

"This Peel team is very exciting. In Round 1, we had 11 girls under the age of 18 playing. They are weapons and the absolute future of footy in WA," Coomey said.

"I am not a very loud or vocal person in the team, I just go about my business and continue to learn from everyone around me, whether they are 15 years younger than me or not.

"I think we can all learn something from each other and whichever way the season goes, I think we will all come out better, stronger and more confident on and off the field from feeding off and learning from each other.

"Ethan has created a sense of professionalism and pride within the group which will stand to everyone throughout their footy, personal and professional lives."

Now aged 33, Coomey was knocking on the door of 30 when she took up the new sport but she took to it like a duck to water playing locally with the Rockingham Rams and then also last year leading Peel to a country championship victory.

That led to her making the leap to join the Thunder for the 2024 WAFLW season and she impressed sufficiently over summer to be in the team for Round 1.

"I joined footy in 2020 at the ripe old age of 29 having never picked up an oval ball in my life," she said.

"Playing basketball my whole life, I never really thought I would play a different sport as I got older but when I left basketball, I needed a team sport for my mental and physical (and competitive) health!

"I saw a post on social media somewhere about Rockingham looking for women and I thought why not give it a crack? I didn't join to get anywhere with it but I'm a sucker for a challenge so I just tried to soak it up and learn.

"I do remember in my first season, my coach at the time, Greg Ingram said in a speech that if I stuck with it, I could make it to WAFL level.

"At the time I was flattered and shocked because I had only been playing a few months but it stuck with me and he truly believed I could go further than community footy which was so nice to hear."

Basketball and football might be two vastly different sports, at the same time a lot of the skills and understanding of what to do in a game is transferrable.

That's where playing state league level basketball is something Coomey thinks helped her know what to do to a degree on the football field.

"I think playing basketball, particularly playing in the SBL (now NBL1) with the Rockingham Flames, has definitely helped me," she said.

"Being able to read the game has definitely come from basketball and being able to keep level headed during high-pressure times comes from having played in big, important basketball games. Although the sports are so different, the concept is very similar."

It has been quite the ride for Coomey since she made the move to Perth from Ireland.

Living a busy life means she's never getting stale or bored in any one thing and that's show she likes it.

"Since moving here in 2010, studying, having a few different jobs and then playing basketball with Rockingham and having some stints with Cockburn and Mandurah at a Division 1 level to now playing footy at WAFL level, it's been a wild ride," Coomey said.

"My life is chaotic but I wouldn't have it any other way! I am always up for a challenge. Last year I played footy with Rockingham and Division 1 basketball with Mandurah so I was training three to four times a week and then playing footy every Saturday and basketball every Sunday.

"I felt like I was 18 again and I figured I would just keep pushing myself because these opportunities won't last forever.

"I said goodbye to basketball this year so I could put all my focus and energy into WAFL."

Coomey is also ever so thankful to those who firstly helped her learn to play a completely foreign game after a lifetime of playing basketball, and then to continue to improve to the point where she could continue rising through the ranks.

She loved her time at Rockingham even though she will be playing at Secret Harbour in this season's Peel Football League to reunite with Greg Ingram, and also had a tremendous time at the country championships with Peel.

"I will always have a soft spot for Rockingham and the girls there because I found a family that kept making me want to return for four seasons," Coomey said.

"Last year when I played for the Peel Cavaliers in the WA country champs, I got a taste of higher level footy and I loved it.

"The conversation about Peel Thunder pre-season was tossed about and then went I got the invitation to attend pre-season I was shocked, nervous but so excited for the next challenge.

"As well as Greg Ingram, Steve Markham, who coached the Peel Cavaliers team that I played in, has been another coach who saw something in me and believed I could take the next step and I'm very grateful for them both for instilling confidence in me to go for it.

"At the end of the day, my age is only a number. I will keep pushing forward until I can't keep up with the young guns anymore!"