Women Lead Story - Erin Phillips

Born in Melbourne but raised and resides in Adelaide, is AFLW legend Erin Phillips. Erin has always had a passion for the Australian Football League, after her father was an extremely successful eight-time premiership player, who played the majority of his career at the Port Adelaide Football Club. 

Prior to her career in the AFLW league, Erin made her professional sporting debut in the Australian Women’s National Basketball League for Adelaide Lighting in 2002 at age 17. She has also represented Australia at the Olympics at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games prior to this. Turning her focus to basketball as a result of discovering the lack of opportunity for females in the AFL space being a strict men's only professional sport.

Starting her AFLW career in the inaugural Adelaide Crows team, as a Co-captain with Chelsea Randall. Erin had always made it clear that she wanted to follow in her fathers footsteps of playing for PAFC. In 2022, this dream became a reality as she captained the team for their debut in the AFLW league. 

Erin is also a proud member of the LGBTIQA+ community and has been with her partner Tracy since 2014. She is also the most decorated AFLW player to this date, and South Australia is very blessed to have her playing in our state. Her story is extremely admirable and inspiring and we cannot wait to see what she achieves next.