Emma Michelle Kearney (born 24 September 1989) is an
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 and former
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er. A decorated
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
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 ...
(AFLW) competition, Kearney won the
league's best and fairest award while playing for the in 2018 and has captained since 2019. She previously played cricket for the
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melb ...
in the
Women's Big Bash League
The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the Weber WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 ...
(WBBL) and for
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in the
Women's National Cricket League
The Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) is the national domestic 50-over competition for women's cricket in Australia. Featuring seven teams—one from every state, plus the Australian Capital Territory—each season's winner is awarded the ...
(WNCL).
Early life
Kearney was born in the
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
n town of
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, and raised on a
sheep station
A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...
in nearby
Cavendish
Cavendish may refer to:
People
* The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family
* Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist
* Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...
.
She played football through her early years, but was forced to give up the sport at the age of twelve when barred from playing with the youth boys team.
She attended high school at
Monivae College
Monivae College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational high day and boarding school of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) tradition located in , Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat. Set ...
in Hamilton.
Australian rules football
State league and representative football
Kearney returned to football while studying a physical education teaching degree at university in
Ballarat
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...
.
She began playing state league football in 2010, joining
Melbourne University
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
in the
Victorian Women's Football League
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), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...
(VWFL).
Kearney won her club's
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 five times, and she was a member of the
2016 grand final team that ultimately lost to the
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 ...
.
In 2013, Kearney was a member of the triumphant Victorian team at the
AFL Women's National Championship
The AFL Women's National Championship was the premier national and international competition in Women's Australian rules football. The championship was held every year between 1992 and 2015.
The tournament was organised by the sport's governing ...
in
Cairns
Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
.
That same year, she was selected by the with the tenth overall pick in the
first national women's draft, and played for the club in
AFL-sanctioned exhibition matches through to the end of 2016.
AFL Women's career
Western Bulldogs
Kearney was signed by the Western Bulldogs as a priority player in August 2016 as part of the
inaugural AFL Women's draft. Per the newly formed league's rules, her off-field work at the club made her eligible for the special pre-draft signing.
She faced a limited pre-season, missing eight training sessions due to cricketing commitments across the 2016–17 summer.
Making her AFLW debut in the club's inaugural match, in round one of the
2017 season against at
VU Whitten Oval, Kearney recorded a game-high 23 disposals on the night.
In round six against at
South Pine Sports Complex
South Pine Sports Complex is a sport and leisure centre in Brendale, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
It was the primary home ground for the Brisbane Lions in the AFL Women's competition during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. On 18 Febru ...
, she gathered 30 disposals during the match, becoming the competition's first player to achieve the feat. At the end of the 2017 season, Kearney was listed in the
All-Australian team
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...
and finished equal-first in her club's
best and fairest count alongside
Ellie Blackburn
Ellie Blackburn (born 25 March 1995) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She served as Western Bulldogs co-captain in 2019, and has served as the sole captain since the 2020 season. Bla ...
.
Having re-signed with the Western Bulldogs during the trade period in May 2017, Kearney enjoyed a standout individual 2018 season, winning the league's
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 ...
and the
AFL Coaches Champion Player of the Year (tied with
Chelsea Randall
Chelsea Randall (born 14 June 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She is one of the club's inaugural AFLW team co-captains.
Early life and state league football
Randa ...
from ) awards. She also shared in ultimate team success as the Bulldogs defeated Brisbane in the
2018 AFL Women's Grand Final
The 2018 AFL Women's Grand Final was an Australian rules football match held on 24 March 2018 to determine the premiers of the 2018 AFL Women's season, the league's second season. It was contested by the and and was won by the Western Bulldog ...
. With five minutes left in the match, Kearney ran down
Kaitlyn Ashmore to win a crucial holding-the-ball free kick. She subsequently converted a set shot 30 metres out from goal to give her team a twelve-point lead and help clinch the premiership.
North Melbourne
In April 2018, Kearney accepted an offer to play with expansion club for the
2019 season.
In November 2018, she was announced as the inaugural captain of the team. In each of the following three seasons, Kearney finished runner-up in the club's best and fairest award.
She also polled well in the
2020 league best and fairest count, receiving eleven votes to place third.
Kearney earned her fifth consecutive All-Australian selection in
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
, making her one of only two players to manage the accomplishment (the other being
Karen Paxman
Karen Paxman (born 25 November 1988) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). A defender, tall, Paxman plays primarily on the half-back line with the ability to push into the midfi ...
from ).
In June 2021, North Melbourne confirmed she was contracted with the club for the following season.
Kearney was forced to miss the first round of the 2022 AFLW season after contracting
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. She returned shortly thereafter and became a consistent player across both the backline and in the midfield. She was named captain of the
2022 AFL Women's All-Australian team, and her presence in the team made her the only player in the history of the competition to feature in all six of the league's first six representative teams.
Cricket
Kearney played grade cricket for Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Cricket Club in Melbourne's inner-north.
She was selected for the
Victorian Spirit
The Victoria Women cricket team, previously known as Victorian Spirit, is the women's representative cricket team for the Australian State of Victoria. They play their home games at Junction Oval, St Kilda, Melbourne. They compete in the Wome ...
during the
2013–14 season for the first time, and played 20 WNCL matches with the team through to the end of the
2016–17 season.
Having been signed by the
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melb ...
ahead of the
inaugural WBBL season, Kearney took seven wickets from twelve matches in 2015–16,
then claimed eight wickets from fourteen matches at an
economy rate
In cricket, a bowler's economy rate is the average number of runs they have conceded per over bowled. In most circumstances, the lower the economy rate is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare ...
of 5.27 in
2016–17.
Dual sports controversy
Kearney garnered media attention in December 2016 on account of her dual-sports status. She revealed that she had been asked by
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...
to sign documents committing her to prioritise cricket training and matches over AFL Women's training sessions held during the cricket season. At the time, Kearney voiced public criticism of the decision by cricket bosses in light of the semi-professional nature of the league.
Personal life
Outside of cricket and football, Kearney has worked as a physical education teacher, including at
Mount Alexander College in
Flemington.
She holds a bachelor of physical education from
Ballarat University
The University of Ballarat, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the university to provide diploma, unde ...
.
As part of her move to play football for North Melbourne, Kearney accepted employment as sport and recreation coordinator at the club's community organization, The Huddle.
Kearney's partner is
Kate Shierlaw, a fellow footballer who has played for and captained .
AFL Women's statistics
:''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2021 season''.
, - style=background:#EAEAEA
, scope=row ,
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 ...
, , , , 5
, 7 , , 0 , , 4 , , 82 , , 68 , , 150 , , 17 , , 20 , , 0.0 , , 0.6 , , 11.7 , , 9.7 , , 21.4 , , 2.4 , , 2.9 , , 7
, -
, scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C ,
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 ...
# , , , , 5
, 8 , , 3 , , 5 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 123
† , , 29 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 152
† , , 27 , , 41 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 15.4
† , , 3.6 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 19.0
† , , 3.4 , , 5.1 , , bgcolor=98FB98 , 14
±
, - style=background:#EAEAEA
, scope=row ,
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 ...
, , , , 9
, 7 , , 1 , , 2 , , 96 , , 45 , , 141 , , 22 , , 36 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 13.7 , , 6.4 , , 20.1 , , 3.1 , , 5.1 , , 3
, -
, scope=row ,
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- ...
, , , , 9
, 7 , , 3 , , 1 , , 91 , , 53 , , 144 , , 24 , , 31 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 13.0 , , 7.6 , , 20.6 , , 3.4 , , 4.4 , , 11
, - style=background:#EAEAEA
, scope=row ,
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
, , , , 9
, 10 , , 4 , , 3 , , 118 , , 90 , , 208 , , 28 , , 46 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 11.8 , , 9.0 , , 20.8 , , 2.8 , , 4.6 , , 4
, - class=sortbottom
! colspan=3 , Career
! 39 !! 11 !! 15 !! 510 !! 285 !! 795 !! 118 !! 174 !! 0.3 !! 0.4 !! 13.1 !! 7.3 !! 20.4 !! 3.0 !! 4.5 !! 39
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, Emma
1989 births
Living people
Western Bulldogs (AFLW) players
Australian women cricketers
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)
Cricketers from Victoria (Australia)
Victoria women cricketers
Melbourne Stars (WBBL) cricketers
All-Australians (AFL Women's)
North Melbourne Football Club (AFLW) players
Lesbian sportswomen
Australian LGBT sportspeople
LGBT cricketers
LGBT players of Australian rules football
Melbourne University Football Club (VFLW) players
Federation University Australia alumni
People from Hamilton, Victoria
Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia)