Seven-time Richmond Best and Fairest winner, Monique Conti, has added another feather to her cap with her selection for the inaugural AFLW Australia vs Ireland match.
Joined alongside Richmond co-captain Ellie McKenzie, the pair will represent Australia in the historic match against Ireland, set to take place on August 1 at North Sydney Oval.
With the growing influx of Irish players in AFLW, Conti believes the match will be a great showcase of women’s football, with the best talent across the league going head-to-head.
“We've got a lot of Irish talent in the AFLW and in the men's [AFL] as well, but I think it's a super great opportunity to be able to showcase women's football,” Conti told SEN.
“There's so much Irish talent, so it's really cool to be able to actually play a game against them, and I’m very honoured to pull on the green and gold. It'll be a super fun, fast game for sure.”
Conti has enjoyed a football focused pre-season, no longer juggling her basketball commitments, where she most recently spent the 2024-2025 WNBL season with Geelong United.
“No basketball this year, so lots of freedom,” Conti admitted.
“[It's led to] a lot of [football] training, a lot of running, a lot of gym, just a really long off-season. Fingers crossed, in the future, we get to play more games, so we don't have much of an off-season.
“It's been really nice. Rhyan [Mansell] and I went to Europe at the end of the year and had a Euro Christmas, which was quite nice.
“It's good to be able to have a bit of a life there, but at the same time, it's really cool to be able to do football for 12 months of the year, and even though the off-season's long, I'm very fortunate to be able to call football a job as well."
The five-time All-Australian and 2018 premiership player has been a part of the AFLW since the competition's inaugural season in 2017. The 25-year-old has been encouraged by the league’s continued growth, particularly the influx of younger players who have established pathways as juniors.
"In the first season, it was only like $8,000, for all that training the girls did, and all those really late nights at the club and everything like that, so it's come a really long way,” Conti said.
“A lot of the girls don't have to work full-time anymore, so that's been really great, but it's just developed so much since day one, and I'm very fortunate to be a part of that journey as well, and actually experience the growth and see it happening.
“It's just super cool to see young girls coming into the league that have played football their whole entire life, and they don't know any different.
“I think that's really awesome for them to be able to come in and make an impact like that, and for the younger girls and boys as well to look at women's football, and that's all they've ever known.”
