Sydney Swans co-captain Chloe Molloy oozes quiet confidence.
It’s a quality that’s evident in both the sporting prowess that she’s displayed this AFLW season, as well as in her off-field leadership that has cemented her place as one of the competition’s most influential young players.
Speaking to Women’s Agenda recently, the 24-year-old explained why she made the decision to transition from her established career at Collingwood, and move to the Sydney Swans, a club in its second season this year, saying it was a growth opportunity that felt like “something special”.
“I was blessed because the call to leave Collingwood and move to Sydney for the club’s second season was on my individual terms,” Molloy shares.
“As a player, I was looking at where I needed to go and how I wanted to be remembered. I felt like I could keep growing at Collingwood, but I just thought that my growth was going to be amplified if I moved and changed my environment.”
“And then there was Scottie Gowans. He had coached the Swans in their first season and as much as they didn’t record a win – I just really liked the way they went about building their list. You could see from the outside they were starting to create something special.”
Molloy believes it’s a privilege to be able to contribute to the growth of a club from its early stages and was also attracted to the idea of having a lasting impact and building a legacy from the ground up.
“I’m so excited, and we’re only just scratching the surface. I just think about what this team can do six seasons from now,” she says. “It makes my hair stand up on my skin when I think about it.”
With more than 54 games under her belt as an AFLW player across a period of more than six years, Molloy is one of the league’s more experienced players. She has been awarded an AFLW Rising Star, Collingwood’s Best and Fairest, and earned two All Australian jumpers.
And now, having taken on the role of co-captain at the Sydney Swans alongside Lucy McEvoy, Molloy said her approach to leadership is to make sure each one of her teammates feels valued and heard.
“I never want to be viewed as any better than anyone else. There’s no hierarchy, there’s no vertical relationships,” Molly explains. “I want anyone in the club to be able to come and speak to me no matter who they are.”
“It’s about getting to know the person, their family, and what makes them who they are, so that when it comes to the tough moments I have an understanding of who the person is and how they respond to adversity and to feedback.”
With young leaders like Molloy at the forefront of the AFLW, there’s no doubt the league will continue to build from strength to strength. And as Molloy notes, that’s exactly what’s happening.
In the time she’s been in the AFLW, the quality of the competition has improved exponentially. Molloy has witnessed the game move from involving a lot of “contested footy” with a focus on just keeping the ball moving forward. To now, where teams are able to establish fully-fledged game plans and have a new-found balance between handling and kicking, and defensive mechanisms.
“It’s all about professionalism,” Molloy says. “The girls are stronger, we don’t go down in contests as easy anymore. The goal accuracy has gone up. We train more hours and have more time to work on our craft.”
The professionalism of the women’s league is continuing to grow, with the first collective bargaining agreement to cover both AFL and AFLW players finalised this year, including a deal that saw an immediate 29 per cent pay rise for the game’s female players.
It’s a significant milestone that means AFLW players have a new sense of security in their game.
As for the remainder of Season 8 of the AFLW, Molloy says the Swans are focused on ensuring they commit to the full four quarters each match.
“We can’t be worrying about what’s happening next week or what other results are happening across the league,” she says.
“Once that first siren goes, you need to play that first quarter of football and then at the second quarter football you need to be able to reset if things haven’t gone our way, and carry that through the game.”
You can catch Chloe Molloy and the Sydney Swans when they take on Collingwood on Sunday, October 29. Find tickets to this game, and all other AFLW games here.