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Subscriber only Gold Coast Suns AFLW coach David Lake has led the plaudits for star ruck Lauren Bella, labelling her one of the best rucks in the competition following the 20-year-old s NAB AFL Women s Rising Star nomination for Round 7. Averaging a league-best 21 hit-outs per game entering last Friday s clash with Richmond, Bella s tap work was again a feature as she finished with 25 hit-outs in the 15-point loss to the Tigers at Metricon Stadium. She s shown so much improvement in the past 12 months and has now developed her game further to become more effective across more parts of her game, Lake said of Bella.
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Wallis Randell’s journey from a cane farm in Carmila to the AFLW will add its next – and greatest – chapter when she makes her Gold Coast Suns debut against West Coast on Sunday.
Randell, 19, has been named to play for the first time since she was taken with Pick No. 61 in the 2020 AFLW Draft, and will become the third Mackay product after Lauren Bella and Emma Pittman to play for the Suns.
Like many in the AFLW, Randell’s sporting background is not founded in Aussie rules.
Before she was lacing up for Magpies in the AFL Mackay competition, Randell was a member of the Mackay Meteorettes’ Queensland Basketball League side.