Emma Grant (born 22 July 1989) is a retired

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 Collingwood in the AFL Women's (AFLW).

Early life and state football

Grant grew up in Gisborne and played her junior football at Gisborne from under-9s to under-12s, being the first girl to play at the club. At the age of 12 she had to stop playing football due to league rules and switched to

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

. After moving to

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

for her university studies, she joined

VWFL The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of over 1,000 players. The ...

club Bendigo Thunder in 2011 as a foundation player. She captained them in the 2016 season, when they were unbeaten until losing the premier division grand final to Deer Park, and won the

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 by 10 votes. During the season she also represented in two exhibition matches. During the off-season between the

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and

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

AFLW seasons, Grant played for Diamond Creek in the VFLW, helping them to the grand final, but they lost the premiership match to

Darebin Falcons The Darebin Women's Sports Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and primarily notable for its Australian rules football team which competes in the highest-level Victorian state league – the VFL Women's (VF ...

AFL Women's career

After being drafted by Collingwood, Grant impressed in a practice match 10 point win over the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

, playing each quarter in a different position. She made her debut in round 1, 2017, in the inaugural AFLW match at

IKON Park Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the wider Princes Park in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venue, ...

against

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

, in which she left the field in the second quarter after

Brianna Davey Brianna Iris Davey (born 13 January 1995) is an Australian footballer in both the Association football (soccer) and Australian rules football codes. In soccer, she was a goalkeeper for the national women's team the Matildas and played in the W ...

's arm hit her in a tackle. She did not return to the field after failing a concussion test. After playing all 7 matches in the inaugural season and placing 4th in the best and fairest, Collingwood re-signed Grant for the 2018 season during the trade period in May 2017. Collingwood re-signed Grant for the 2019 season during the trade period in June 2018. In March 2020, following the 2020 season in which she didn't play due to a head concussion she got in pre-season, Grant announced her retirement.

Personal life

Apart from her sports career, Grant worked as a PE and Grade 1-2 teacher at Bendigo Violet Street Primary School and then at Moonee Ponds Primary School. Currently Grant is teaching PE at

Bendigo South East College Bendigo South East College (BSE) is an Australian secondary school in Bendigo, Victoria, for year 7-10 students. History BSE occupies a building originally known as the Bendigo Girls' School. That school had been founded in 1916, originally loc ...

. In March 2023, Grant initiated a civil lawsuit in the

County Court of Victoria The County Court of Victoria is the intermediate court in the Australian state of Victoria. It is equivalent to district courts in the other states. The County Court is the principal trial court in the state, having a broad criminal and civi ...

against the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

due to concussion-related injuries that she suffered during her playing career which resulted in her early retirement.

Statistics

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, style="text-align:center;", , 5 , , 7 , , 0 , , 0 , , 43 , , 19 , , 62 , , 17 , , 18 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.1 , , 2.7 , , 8.9 , , 2.4 , , 2.6 , - style="background-color: #eaeaea" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Emma Living people 1989 births Collingwood Football Club (AFLW) players People from Gisborne, Victoria Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Sportswomen from Victoria (state) Australian schoolteachers Victorian Women's Football League players