Paxy Paxman and Ellie Blackburn are as synonymous with Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs as any player/club combination in the AFLW.
They are both premiership winners and club games record holders for their respective sides, yet they played for the opposite team when the Demons and the Bulldogs played their women’s exhibition game in 2013, with that game and subsequent ones in 2014 and 2015 a precursor to the creation of the AFLW.
The two clubs will once again do battle on Saturday and, just as they did in 2013, they play for the Hampson–Hardeman Cup which was struck in honour of pioneers Barb Hampson and Lisa Hardeman, who developed the women’s championships in 1992.“I’m pretty sentimental, so I tend to keep things that were special at that time – that jumper is tucked away somewhere,” Paxman said with a laugh this week.
“I was initially with Melbourne and then for the last year [2016], I was with the Bulldogs as I had signed with them as a marquee player [for the inaugural AFLW season]. This game arrives at another important moment as AFL and AFLW players consider a collective bargaining agreement that will“To think there were only enough players to fill two teams in 2013 to now having 18 clubs, all with 30 players on their lists, in a fully established competition in that space of time – it’s truly remarkable to see how far it has come,” Blackburn said.
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