After being named an emergency for the first two rounds, the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos’ Courteney Munn was awarded her chance on Friday night against the reigning premiers. After kicking four goals on debut against the Western Bulldogs, pick 36 in last year’s draft took the opportunity to reflect on her debut and her moments of impact.
I was in the car on Wednesday morning when I received a phone call from our coach Scott Gowans.
He’d called to tell me I’d be making my AFLW debut against the Western Bulldogs after being named emergency for the first two rounds of the season.
It was a pretty special moment and a dream come true.
That phone call from Scott was a bit of a shock. Being named emergency in the weeks before the earlier phone calls hadn’t been the ones I was hoping for, so for him to tell me that I’d finally be playing was a bit of a surprise.
I tried to keep it cool while I was on the phone talking to him but as soon as he hung up I was screaming in the car. I was so excited!
The pre-game nerves started to hit me really early on game day. The girls could sense it but they were really supportive which helped me.
I had a lot of the girls come up to me and let me know it’s just another game and to do my best and play my role.
They reminded me that being a first-gamer no one was expecting anything brilliant from me which helped to settle me.
Half an hour before the game my nerves turned to pure excitement and I was just happy to be there and finally get a game.
I went into the game thinking that if I kicked one goal it would be pretty exciting, so I definitely wasn’t expecting to go in and kick four on debut.
I didn’t know what was happening, I just kept kicking them. It was a bit weird and didn’t actually sink in at the time.
Once I kicked my first goal it helped with my confidence which mean I was able to focus on playing my role for the team.
For me, I was just out there playing another game of footy and have a bit of fun with my teammates.
It was amazing to celebrate the win afterwards.
Singing the song was great and I was pretty grateful to actually remember the words — it took me a while to learn it!
My family was there with me and they were so excited. They’ve been great in supporting me with everything so having them there was really special.
Now I’m looking forward to hopefully playing again this week. The rest of the season is going to be great.