In today’s AFL Briefing, your daily wrap of footy news
- Flight due to bring the Lions’ to Melbourne has been delayed.
- Laura Kane can add another accolade to her resume.
The flight due to bring the Lions’ players and staff to Melbourne for the AFL grand final has been delayed due to lightning in Brisbane.
The Lions were reportedly due to fly from Brisbane to Melbourne at 3pm, but storm activity in the area has delayed their takeoff.
“Flights delayed due to lightning… can you not?” the Brisbane Lions tweeted, tagging the Port Adelaide Power.
Delays are also likely to impact footy fans planning on travelling down from Queensland.
Nine news reporter Joshua Dawe tweeted: “Flights out of Brisbane Airport have just been stopped due to incoming storms. Lions are due to fly to Melbourne at 3pm.”
The Lions are booked in for a captain’s run at the MCG at 9am on Friday morning, before the grand final parade.
Football Woman of the Year
Laura Kane, who was recently appointed as the executive general manager of football after a successful stint in North Melbourne’s football operations team, can now add another accolade to her resume: 2023 Football Woman of the Year.
New AFL footy boss Laura Kane.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Kane is a former Melbourne University women’s football club player and administrator, who worked as a lawyer before joining the Kangaroos in 2016. There, she was instrumental in the club obtaining its AFLW license and mentoring women in decision-making roles.
After being nominated for the award in 2017 but losing out to AFLW premiership coach Bec Goddard, Kane said she was grateful to be named alongside the past winners, who have included Goddard, Shelley Ware, Daisy Pearce and commentator Kelli Underwood.
She said her love started of the game started at community level when she played junior footy and then grew as she worked through different roles in administrating and playing the game.
“It is a privilege really now to work at the elite game, turning my hobby into my career,” she said.
In her speech, Kane said she hadn’t thought too much about thank-yous but spoke of how pivotal her time at North Melbourne was.
“What I was able to learn and the experience I was able to have at North Melbourne is the reason that I’m here in this role and my biggest takeout is having really supportive men and women who give you space to learn and do you thing and understand what your strengths are. And that’s something I’ve carried forward.
“And the last thing too is my mum because she wrote a letter when I was five years old saying I didn’t want to play netball, I want to play AusKick. And here we are.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
