MAGPIE Cecilia McIntosh will be one of 176 players to make their NAB AFL Women’s competition debuts this weekend.
McIntosh is known for her tough and physical style and is a fierce one-on-one competitor.
The veteran Melbourne University defender and multi-sport star caught the eye of observers when she kept star goalkicker Moana Hope quiet in a VFL Women’s competition preliminary final last year.
Only a few months later, the pair would become teammates in the new AFLW competition, with Collingwood drafting McIntosh in the 16th round. The Magpies had earlier nominated Hope as one of two marquee players, and the pair will shape up against Carlton at Ikon Oval on Friday night in the opening AFLW match.
Five key facts about Cecilia McIntosh:
- McIntosh competed in javelin at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and won a silver medal with a throw of 57.42 metres.
- After a serious shoulder injury cut short her javelin career, McIntosh took up bobsled and qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with Astrid Loch-Wilkinson.
- McIntosh won the under-20 division at the 1997 Australian Weightlifting Championships. She also competed in the open division and finished second.
- In just her second season of football, McIntosh won the Helen Lambert Medal as the VWFL’s best and fairest player.
- At 37, she was the oldest player selected at the AFLW Draft, having recovered from tearing her ACL in an AFL women’s exhibition game in 2015.
