Amanda Farrugia (born 24 January 1985) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Greater Western Sydney Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

competition. She was the club's inaugural AFLW captain and played in all 21 possible matches across her three seasons at the club.

Early life and state league football

Farrugia was born and raised in the western suburbs of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Her parents are of Maltese descent and she attended Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School, Greystanes. She began playing football in 2011 when she joined

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

in the lower divisions of the

Sydney Women's AFL The Sydney Women's Australian Football League (SWAFL) was the governing body of the sport of Women's Australian rules football in the state of New South Wales from 2000 to 2011. In 2012 SWAFL ceased to exist and the women's competition came und ...

(SWAFL). She missed the 2012 season while completing recovery for a knee reconstruction after sustaining a pre-season injury. In 2013, she won the league's division two

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award, as well as the division 2 premiership with Macquarie University & was also named Best on Ground in the Grand Final. Farrugia was also awarded 'Best Athlete' at the 2013 Macquarie University Sporting Awards. In 2015, she became captain of the club's division one side, a role she continued into the 2016. She was awarded the Mostyn Medal as the SWAFL's best and fairest player in the 2015 season. She finished second in the 2016 award, behind Sydney University's,

Nicola Barr Nicola Barr (born 13 June 1996) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the AFL Women's competition. Early life Barr was born in Melbourne but spent most of her early years living outside of Australia ...

. Upon completion of the 2017 AFLW season, Farrugia once again returned to captain Macquarie University who finished the 2017 season in 3rd place. Farrugia's brilliant form was once again rewarded with her second Mostyn Medal, as best & fairest player for the Sydney Women's premier division. Nicola Barr polled highly once again to finish runner-up. In 2016, Farrugia played exhibition series matches for 's representative team. She went on to join the side in the year's women's all star match in September 2016.

AFL Women's career

Farrugia was drafted by the

with the club's eight pick and sixty-fourth overall in the

2016 AFL Women's draft The 2016 AFL Women's draft consisted of the various periods when the eight clubs in the AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football league for w ...

. She was named the club's inaugural AFL Women's captain in January 2017. Greater Western Sydney signed Farrugia for the 2018 season during the trade period in May 2017. In November 2019, Farrugia announced her retirement from the game.

Statistics

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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Personal life

Off-field, Farrugia works as a physical education teacher at Our Lady of Mercy College in

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

. She lives in the western Sydney suburb of Seven Hills. Her husband Daniel Repeti is a high school teacher at

Wyndham College Wyndham College is a public senior secondary school located at Nirimba Fields, New South Wales, Nirimba Fields, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1999, its intake of students come from three surrounding high schools: Quakers Hill High ...

Quakers Hill Quakers Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is westnorth-west (WNW) of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown. Quakers Hill is part of the Greater Wes ...

and a professional photographer. They married in 2015 and have two dogs, George and Sasha.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farrugia, Amanda Living people 1985 births Greater Western Sydney Giants (AFLW) players Australian people of Maltese descent Sportswomen from New South Wales Australian rules footballers from Sydney Australian schoolteachers