TATYANA Perry is in the mix to be the next member of her talented family to join the top echelon of football.
The niece of Aaron and Alwyn Davey, and cousin of Alwyn jnr and Jayden, Perry is a classy player in her own right. She's versatile, but has settled across half-back of late, nominating Chloe Molloy and St Kilda's Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera as those she looks up to.
Hailing from Darwin, Perry plays for Palmerston in the NTFLW and was selected for the Allies for this year's under-18 national championships.
"I would say my strengths are probably my run and carry, and my speed to take on the game," Perry said.
"I like you can see the whole game from the backline, and get your structure right."
Soccer was Perry's first sport, and her lateral movement on the field gives hints to her early development, while she also played basketball up until a few years ago.
She started playing in Darwin's Thunder juniors competition around the age of 10.
"Growing up watching my family play, and being involved with that at such a young age, just made me want to be like my uncle, or my mum, or my dad, just wanted to play," Perry said.
"I've been playing with my mum (Hayley Davey) for two seasons now, I made my (seniors) debut in 2023. I love playing with my mum. It's a bit funny, but it's really good.
"In some cases, if I do something really good on the field, she's like, 'oh yeah, really good job', or if I give her a bit of advice, it's like 'don't tell me what to do'. There's a bit of biff sometimes, but it's really fun."
The national draft holds no fears for Perry, who alongside her job as a primary school teacher's aide, has also developed a modelling portfolio over the past few years, requiring some interstate trips.
"I'm pretty comfortable. Obviously living in Darwin, I know that I have to eventually move somewhere else, but I've got a big family, so there's basically family everywhere," she said.
"Modelling started when I was about 15. It honestly just popped up randomly. One day my (now) manager just messaged me on Instagram asking if I wanted to model.
"I thought I'd give it a try, it was something out of footy. But it's been really good, so I've been modelling since I was 15, and still do to this day.
"Normally they have me fly to Melbourne or Sydney, and I do shoots for clothing companies.
"Starting modelling at a young age, it's brought a lot of confidence out of me, just getting to meet new people and getting comfortable around getting to meet new people."
As an NT talent pathway player, Perry spent some time with Gold Coast's AFLW and Academy teams earlier this year.
"I had the opportunity to go to Gold Coast and train with them, and see how they use their facility, how they recover and stuff like that, which was really good," Perry said.
"I got a lot of experience and knowledge from them, it was fun. I played two games with them, one was an autumn series against West Coast.
"It was a different level of footy, their structure and their fast play, they know how to move the ball from one side to the other in like 10 seconds."
