Ebony Marinoff (born 15 November 1997) 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW). She is a three-time AFL Women's premiership player, seven-time AFL Women's All-Australian and three-time Adelaide Club Champion winner. In 2017, Marinoff won the

inaugural In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...

AFL Women's Rising Star The AFL Women's Rising Star award is presented annually to the best young player in the AFL Women's (AFLW) during the home-and-away season. The first award was awarded in 2017 AFL Women's Rising Star, 2017. The award has been sponsored by Telstr ...

award and represented The Allies in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match, and in 2024, she won the

AFL Women's best and fairest The AFL Women's best and fairest is awarded to the best and fairest player in the AFL Women's (AFLW) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game. It is the most prestigious award ...

, AFLPA AFLW most valuable player, AFLPA AFLW best captain and AFLCA AFLW champion player of the year awards. Marinoff has served as Adelaide co-captain since 2024, and is the AFL Women's equal games record holder and Adelaide games record holder with 93 games.

Early life

Marinoff's first introduction to the sport was through the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian football to children aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective program. It has incre ...

program. She first played competitive football at the age of five in the boys team at Lockleys Football Club in the

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

suburb of Lockleys. She remained at the club through to the age of twelve. She later moved on to play with an all-girls team at Morphetville Park. In 2014, at sixteen years of age, she played in her first premiership with the senior side at Morphettville Park, and played in two more premierships in 2015 and 2016. Marinoff represented South Australia in under-16, under-18 and open age teams. In 2015, she was named in the youth girls All-Australian team. Marinoff played for South Australia in the 2016 women's exhibition series. She was named best-on-ground for a 37-disposal performance in a South Australia intra-club match at

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

in April and kicked the match-winning goal in the late stages of the final quarter against NSW/ACT at Adelaide Oval in June. In September, she played for in the women's all-star exhibition match at VU Whitten Oval.

AFL Women's career

2017

Marinoff was drafted by with the club's first selection and seventh 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 competition recruited players prior to the competition's 2017 AFL Women's season, inaugural season in 2017. Draftees and signings over the peri ...

. Marinoff made her debut in the club's inaugural match in round 1, 2017 against at

Thebarton Oval Thebarton Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia currently used for a variety of sports including Australian rules football. It was the home ground of South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club West Torrens Football Cl ...

, where she gathered a game-high twenty disposals and six tackles in the 36-point win. Her performance earned her a nomination for the 2017 AFL Women's Rising Star award. Marinoff was a member of the Adelaide team that won the

AFL Women's premiership in 2017, defeating by six points at

Metricon Stadium Carrara Stadium (also known as People First Stadium under naming rights) is a stadium on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara, Queensland, Carrara. The stadium is primarily used for A ...

. A few days later, Marinoff was named in the

2017 AFL Women's All-Australian team The 2017 AFL Women's All-Australian team represents the best-performed players of the 2017 AFL Women's season. It was announced on 28 March 2017 as a complete women's Australian rules football team of 22 players, the first and only time that thi ...

and announced as the 2017 AFL Women's Rising Star. She also led the competition in tackles (76) and average tackles per game (9.5) in its inaugural season. Adelaide signed Marinoff for the 2018 season during the trade period in May 2017. Following the AFL Women's season, Marinoff played for in the

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victori ...

(VFLW), also winning a premiership. She later played for The Allies in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match on 2 September, where she was named among the Allies' best players with 13 disposals and five tackles.

2018

After an impressive start to the 2018 season, in round 4, Marinoff set a new record for tackles with 21 in her side's draw against Greater Western Sydney in heavy rain at

Blacktown ISP Oval Blacktown International Sportspark Oval is an Australian rules football and cricket ground located in Rooty Hill, a suburb in Sydney, Australia. The stadium was constructed in 2009 as part of the Blacktown International Sportspark. It has a cap ...

, breaking the record of 16 set by midfielder Sarah Hosking two weeks earlier. The effort also bested the existing men's league record of 19, thus setting the national senior-level record across men's and women's competitions for tackles. Marinoff was selected in ''afl.com.au''s Team of the Week in rounds 3, 4, 5 and 7, and finished equal-fifth in the

2018 AFL Women's best and fairest The 2018 AFL Women's best and fairest was the second year the award was presented to the player adjudged the best and fairest player during the AFL Women's (AFLW) home-and-away season. Emma Kearney of the Western Bulldogs The Western Bull ...

count with six votes. She was also named in the initial 2018 AFL Women's All-Australian 40-woman squad. Marinoff again finished the season leading the competition in tackles (82) and average tackles per game (11.7); both statistics were better than her previous season and in less games (Marinoff played eight of eight possible games in 2017 and seven of seven possible games in 2018). Adelaide signed Marinoff for the 2019 season prior to the trading and signing period in May 2018 after she chose not to accept an offer from one of or .

2019

In round 3 of the 2019 season, Marinoff broke the league disposal record of 30 set by Emma Kearney in round 6 of the 2017 season, recording 33 disposals in Adelaide's win against at

Norwood Oval Norwood Oval (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from the Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery) is a suburban oval in the western end of Norwood, South Australia, Norwood, an inner eastern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The ...

(a record which was later broken by teammate

Anne Hatchard Anne Claire Hatchard is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. AFL Women's career Hatchard was drafted by Adelaide with their eleventh selection and eighty-seventh overall in the 2 ...

in 2020), and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week in rounds 1, 3 and 6. Marinoff went on to play in Adelaide's second premiership, when they defeated Carlton by 45 points in front of a record AFL Women's crowd at Adelaide Oval, and was named among their best players. She was also named in the

2019 AFL Women's All-Australian team The 2019 AFL Women's All-Australian team represents the best-performed players of the 2019 AFL Women's season. It was announced on 2 April 2019 as a complete women's Australian rules football team of 21 players. The team is honorary and does no ...

, her second All-Australian selection, and finished equal-fourth in the

2019 AFL Women's best and fairest The 2019 AFL Women's best and fairest was the award presented to the player adjudged the best and fairest player during the 2019 AFL Women's season. Erin Phillips of the Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows ...

count with seven votes. Marinoff finished the season leading the competition in kicks (130), disposals (205) and average disposals per game (22.8), along with finishing second in handballs (75), average handballs per game (8.3), tackles (74) and average tackles per game (8.2), in a career-best season. She also kicked her first AFL Women's goal in round 7 and followed up with two in the preliminary final, and finished the season as one of only three players (along with teammates Deni Varnhagen and Stevie-Lee Thompson) to have played the most AFL Women's matches to that point with 24. Adelaide signed Marinoff for the 2020 season during the trade and signing period in April 2019.

2020

Leading into the 2020 season, ''womens.afl'' journalist Sarah Black named Marinoff at no. 15 on her list of the top 30 players in the AFLW. She was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week in rounds 2 and 3. Marinoff finished the home-and-away season equal with 's Ashleigh Riddell in first for kicks (94) and average kicks per game (15.7), also improving her career-best average in disposals per game (23.2), and was one of fourteen players to have played the most AFL Women's matches to that point with 30. She was selected in the initial 40-woman squad for the

2020 AFL Women's All-Australian team The 2020 AFL Women's All-Australian team represents the best-performed players of the 2020 AFL Women's season. It was announced on 27 April 2020 as a complete women's Australian rules football team of 21 players. The team is honorary and does n ...

, and was also selected in the

AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association (AFLPA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFLPA promotes and protects its member ...

's inaugural AFL Women's 22under22 team, having earlier been selected in the retrospective 2017–2019 team.

2021

During a practice match in the 2021 pre-season, Marinoff made front-on contact with Greater Western Sydney player Bríd Stack in an incident that saw Stack suffer a fractured vertebra and was given a three-match suspension, the longest suspension in the competition's history to that point. Commentators such as

Kane Cornes Kane Graham Cornes (born 5 January 1983) is a sports journalist, commentator and former Australian rules footballer who played for Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League (AFL). Known primarily as a tagger, Cornes is a four-time John C ...

and his father, inaugural Crows AFL coach

Graham Cornes Graham Studley Cornes OAM (born 31 March 1948 in Melbourne, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, as well as a media personality. From 1995 until early 2013, Cornes co-hosted a weekday drivetime sports program that he ho ...

, suggested that the incident was unavoidable and the club should appeal the decision. Adelaide eventually announced that it would appeal the decision, with the club calling it "grossly disproportionate" and coach Matthew Clarke calling the incident an "unavoidable footy collision". After the appeal was initially delayed due to new video evidence found by Marinoff herself, her suspension was successfully overturned by the appeals board after a hearing that lasted more than three hours, allowing Marinoff to play in the opening round of the season. captain

Daisy Pearce Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club#AFL Women's team, Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagle ...

voluntarily provided a character reference. After leading the competition in total and average kicks during the 2021 season, Marinoff was named in the 2021 AFL Women's All-Australian team and won her first Adelaide Club Champion award. In June, she declined a large offer from to re-sign with Adelaide. Marinoff was also selected in Champion Data's 2021 AFLW All-Star stats team, after placing in the top ten for every midfield statistical category.

2022

Season 6

Marinoff was named at no. 6 in Sarah Black's 2022 season 6 list of the top 30 players in the AFLW, which was Marinoff's first appearance in the top ten. She was among Adelaide's best players in its opening round win against Brisbane and was best afield in Adelaide's win over in round 3 with a game-high 23 disposals and six tackles; she polled eight coaches' votes and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for that round. Marinoff was named among Adelaide's best players with 26 disposals in its win over Melbourne in round 4 and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for that round. She was best afield in Adelaide's win over Carlton in round 5 with 31 disposals, eight marks and ten tackles; she polled the maximum ten coaches' votes and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for that round. Marinoff was Adelaide's best player in its loss to the in round 6 and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for that round. She was best afield with 24 disposals, 16 tackles and a goal in Adelaide's win over Greater Western Sydney in round 7; during the match, she became the first player in AFLW history to record 1,000 career disposals. Marinoff also received seven coaches' votes and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for round 7. Marinoff was among Adelaide's best players in its round 8 win over , polling the maximum ten coaches' votes, and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for round 8. She was best afield in Adelaide's win over Collingwood in round 9, which was her 50th AFLW match; she also won eight coaches' votes and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for that round. Marinoff was among Adelaide's best players in its win over St Kilda in round 10; she polled eight coaches' votes to finish fourth in that year's AFLW champion player of the year award, and was selected in ''womens.afl''s Team of the Week for round 10. She was named in Champion Data's 2022 season 6 AFLW All-Star stats team after leading the competition for metres gained with 395.7 a game.

Season 7

Marinoff had another strong season in 2022 season 7, finishing second in Adelaide's best and fairest and again being named 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-perfo ...

2023

Leading into the 2023 season, Sarah Black named Marinoff at no. 3 on her annual list of the top 30 players in the AFLW. Marinoff was selected for her sixth

at the conclusion of the 2023 season, tying her in second place for the most selections in the team. Despite Adelaide finishing first on the home-and-away ladder, they exited the premiership race in the preliminary finals for the second consecutive year. Marinoff collected her second Club Champion award following the season. She also signed a contract extension, keeping her at until the end of 2027.

2024

Leading into the 2024 season, Marinoff and

Sarah Allan Sarah Allan (; born 1945) is an American paleographer and scholar of ancient China. She was a Burlington Northern Foundation Professor of Asian Studies in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College ...

were announced as Adelaide's new co-captains, replacing

Chelsea Randall Chelsea Randall (born 14 June 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club#AFL Women's team, Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She is one of the club's inaugural AFLW team co-captains, and ...

. In week 1, Marinoff won the

Showdown Medal The Showdown Medal is the medal awarded to the player adjudged best on ground in the Showdown (AFL), Showdown Australian Football League, AFL match between Adelaide Football Club, Adelaide and Port Adelaide Football Club, Port Adelaide. It is t ...

for best afield in the

Showdown A showdown is a duel. The term may also refer to: Places * Showdown Ski Area, in Montana, United States Books * ''Showdown'' (Amado novel), a 1984 novel by Jorge Amado * ''Showdown'' (Dekker novel), a 2006 novel by Ted Dekker * ''Showdown'' (F ...

against with 29 disposals and nine tackles, polling nine coaches' votes, and was among Adelaide's best players in its win over Fremantle in week 2, polling nine coaches' votes. She was named Adelaide's best player in its win over Hawthorn in week 3, its win over Essendon in week 4, its loss to Brisbane in week 5 and its win over St Kilda in week 6, polling six, nine, nine and a perfect ten coaches' votes respectively. Marinoff was again Adelaide's best player in its week 7 loss to Melbourne with 29 disposals and 17 tackles, becoming the first AFLW player to record 2,000 career disposals, and was best afield in its week 7 win over Greater Western Sydney with a career-high 41 disposals and 17 tackles; Marinoff's 19 votes across Adelaide's week 7 matches saw her lead the voting for the AFLCA AFLW champion player of the year award after the compressed period of the season, having averaged career-highs in disposals (31), clearances (6.8) and tackles (12.9) to that point, and she would go on to win the award with 91 votes, ahead of three-time winner Jasmine Garner on 79 votes.

Statistics

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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2020 The year 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 even ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, , , , 10 , 14 , , 4 , , 4 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 321^† , , 106 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 427^† , , 51 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 171^† , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 22.9^† , , 7.6 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 30.5^† , , 3.6 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 12.2^† , , bgcolor=98FB98 , 23^± , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 93 !! 15 !! 16 !! 1589 !! 638 !! 2227 !! 275 !! 873 !! 0.2 !! 0.2 !! 17.1 !! 6.9 !! 23.9 !! 3.0 !! 9.4 !! 98

Honours and achievements

Team * 3× AFL Women's premiership player ():

, S6 * 3× AFL Women's minor premiership ():

, S6,

Individual * Adelaide co-captain: 2024–present *

* AFLPA AFLW most valuable player: 2024 * AFLCA AFLW champion player of the year: 2024 * AFL Women's equal games record holder * Adelaide games record holder * 7×

AFL Women's All-Australian team The AFL Women's All-Australian team is an all-star team of women's Australian rules footballers playing in the AFL Women's (AFLW), selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including interchange players and a ...

, S6, S7,

* 3× Adelaide Club Champion: 2021, 2023, 2024 * AFLPA AFLW best captain: 2024 * Allies representative honours in AFL Women's State of Origin: 2017 *

: 2024 *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marinoff, Ebony Living people 1997 births Adelaide Football Club (AFLW) players Australian rules footballers from South Australia All-Australians (AFL Women's) Darebin Falcons players