Shannon McFerran (born 13 June 1979) 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 ...

player 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 ...

. She currently plays at St Kilda Sharks women's football team.

Playing career

McFerran began playing for a St Albans FC boys' team at the age of nine. She played at St Albans with the boys until 12 years of age as girls could not play with boys after age 12. She went into umpiring and umpired in the FDFL now WRFL umpiring the boundary before taking up the field. At 17 McFerran joined the Sunshine YCW Spurs Women's football team. Sunshine moved to St Albans in 2000. She became captain of the Spurs in 2005. McFerran was part of the 2004 and 2011 premierships at St Albans Spurs. In June 2007 Shannon was one of two Victorian Women's Football League representatives in the E. J. Whitten legends match where she played alongside former

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

players such as Scott Cummings,

Nick Holland Nick Holland (born 29 July 1974) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played 179 games for Australian Football League (AFL) club Hawthorn between 1994 and 2005, serving as Vice Captain between 1999 and 2003. Holland is ...

, Mick Martyn and

Nicky Winmar Neil Elvis "Nicky" Winmar (born 25 September 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his career for and the in the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as in the West Australian Football League. Growing up in Pin ...

. In March 2009 she was diagnosed with an

acoustic neuroma A vestibular schwannoma (VS), also called acoustic neuroma, is a benign tumor that develops on the vestibulocochlear nerve that passes from the inner ear to the brain. The tumor originates when Schwann cells that form the insulating myelin sheath o ...

, a tumour in the canal that connects the brain and ear. Despite losing hearing in her left ear, she played out the 2009 season. She was named All - Australian captain and was best on ground in the grand final at the Australian AFL championships, she also won the Debbie Lee medal for player of the championships. After surgery to remove the tumour in December 2009, she sat out the 2010 season. Returning after a season on the sidelines, McFerran played her 200th VWFL match for St Albans in May 2011. She has been named as best and fairest player (Helen Lambert medal) in the Victorian women's league five times and is a 10 time best and fairest club winner. She has represented Victoria 12 times, captained Victoria a number of times and was All Australian captain 2009 and 2011. She retired from playing at St Kilda Sharks and took on the role of head coach in 2015. In 2009, she featured in Women's Health magazine and was most recently named in the top 100 Sport women in Australia. Most recently Shannon was a development coach at Collingwood in the AFLW. She is now the head coach of Carltons VFLW team and assistant coach in Carltons AFLW team.

International rules football

McFerran was a member of the

Australia women's international rules football team Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

that played against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the

2006 Ladies' International Rules Series The 2006 Ladies' International Rules Series was the first and, as of 2019, the only ladies' International rules football series played between Ireland women's international rules football team, Ireland and Australia women's international rules fo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McFerran, Shannon 1979 births Victorian Women's Football League players Living people Australian schoolteachers Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australia women's international rules football team players