Victorian AFLW legend and Gisborne local, Shannon McFerran, is preparing for yet another season to follow on from her best and fairest wins in the Bulldog senior women’s football team in 2022 and 2023.
Gisborne women’s senior team has been in pre-season training for several weeks, and during the just completed AFLW’s eighth season, Shannon proudly joined with 20 other legacy AFLW players in the ‘Keep Walking Boldly’ campaign.
In a partnership with major sponsor Johnnie Walker, they created five individually handcrafted football boots to embody the spirit of progress.
These were produced from boots previously worn by Shannon and the other legacy players, and gifted to outstanding young athletes in the league.
The special boots symbolised the bold steps that have been and continue to be taken from one generation to the next.
With AFL Women’s Football general manager, Nicole Livingstone, the specially created boots were presented to rising stars Ashleigh Brazill (Collingwood), Ally Anderson (Brisbane Lions), Chloe Dalton (GWS Giants) and Emily Bates (Hawthorn).
Shannon McFerran’s prolonged football involvement story is more than inspirational, and she is looking forward to making a further positive contribution in her role with Gisborne this season.
From pushing for her right to play footy, to battling a brain tumour, Shannon has overcome adversity at almost every turn.
She eventually earned a place in the top 100 Australian Sportswomen list.
A secondary school teacher, Shannon has helped countless numbers both on and off the field over the years.
She fell in love with football at a very early age, enjoying kick to kick with her older brother, and going along to his training with the under 9s at St Albans.
Her mum said she may as well play such was her interest; this ended at the age of 12 when girls could not play in boys’ teams.
So Shannon became an umpire, both boundary and field, and as a 17-year-old she located a women’s league to join; being “too small” was overcome by skill, ability and enthusiasm.
She went on to play more than 200 games for St Albans, and represented Victoria 12 times.
Shannon was held in high regard on and off the field, and was All Australian Women’s captain on two occasions.
In June 2007, Shannon was one of two women to play in the E.J. Whitten Legends match.
She also played in the international game against Ireland, and finished up winning the Victorian Women’s League best and fairest on five occasions.
Shannon was in premiership sides in 2004 and 2011, and has won numerous club best and fairest awards over the years. St Kilda Sharks was one of the women’s teams that benefited from her presence.
Coaching also became a prime interest, and she spent time as a development coach with Collingwood.
She progressed to being assistant coach and VFLW coach at Carlton for several seasons.
Along the way, Shannon gave birth to twin boys and she is understandably keenly interested in their football development.
The boys, Billy and Elijah, play for Gisborne Rookies and were in the Under 11s premiership side last season.
Shannon estimates she has taken part in about 300 games as a player and umpire over the years, with more to come.
Gisborne Football Netball Club club leaders are very pleased to have someone of Shannon’s calibre in the ranks as the 2024 season approaches.
