Ebony Marinoff in action. Picture: Jack Hudson
Adelaide Crows midfield superstar Ebony Marinoff has again created history for the AFLW competition, notching up 1000 disposals in a career littered with premiership success and individual accolades.
At only 24 years of age Ebony Marinoff has done nearly everything she can in the AFLW competition already, but yesterday she reached territory no AFLW player has done before in reaching her 1000th career disposal milestone.
Coming from humble beginnings, she started playing Aussie Rules football at five years old at the Lockleys Football Club where she played for seven years before moving to Morphettville Park.
Success at Morphettville Park followed and by 16 years of age, she had won her first premiership in the senior side. The next two flags followed for her in 2015 and 2016 which quickly elevated her status and talent to prospective scouts.
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Representing South Australia at under-16 and under 18 levels, and open age teams, it was no wonder that she was going to make it at the top level and she did. She played for her home state in the Women’s exhibition series where she dominated. She was named best-on-ground with a masterful 37 disposal performance at the Intra-club game at Adelaide Oval for South Australia.
This led to her being selected for Melbourne in the Women’s all-star exhibition match at Whitten Oval, the first match that most AFL fans had ever seen of the women’s game.
One of her biggest milestones so far was being drafted to the Adelaide Crows with pick seven which was the first crows pick.
She made her debut for the tri-colours in the clubs debut game at Thebarton Oval in 2017 against the GWS Giants where she immediately showed her class. She gathered a game-high 20 disposals and laid six tackles in which would become the trademark tough Marinoff style.
This performance earned her the first rising star nomination and subsequently the award at the season’s end.
Other milestones and awards she has received have been unparalleled and she is one of the stars of the competition at the moment.
She is a dual premiership player with the Adelaide Crows in 2017 and 2019 as well as a VFL Women’s premiership player in 2017.
The Crows also awarded her the yellow jacket last year as the Club Champion and she was awarded three All-Australian nods in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
Against the GWS Giants in round four 2018, she set the record for the most amount of tackles in an AFLW game with 21 tackles. Only weeks after Sarah Hosking set the new marker at 16 tackles.
In 2020, she was the fastest player in AFL and AFLW history with 250 tackles, which occurred in just 27 games.
When playing SANFLW after the AFLW season concluded in 2021, Marinoff also won a flag with the Glenelg Tigers.
On the horizon, Marinoff could be the first AFLW player to reach 50 games with a tally of 47 games after this weekend’s win she is also the current Adelaide and AFLW games record holder.
During her club’s 40 point drubbing of the GWS Giants at Henson Park this weekend, Marinoff’s tackle pressure and ability to win the football were on full display.
She dominated the game for her team by kicking a goal and racking up 24 disposals. Taking four marks, two clearances and a massive 16 tackles, which was a game-high, meant she was pressuring the Giants all day helping to keep their midfielders accountable.
Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Clarke had nothing but praise to give to his star midfielder after the game. He explained that it was her role that was crucial to the team’s success given her recent form and her role to keep the Giants’ star midfielder Alyce Parker in check.
“I think in particular her pressure, her tackle pressure and she laid a ridiculous number of tackles, obviously Alyce Parker for them is a really good midfielder and so we wanted Eb to have some level of accountability there,” Clarke said.
“It certainly wasn’t a tag, it was an awareness that she was up against a really good mid and I thought she took that challenge on really well.
“Parker was also really strong but it was two really good players go head to head and it was great.”
The only concern for the Crows was a potential knee injury to star midfielder/forward Erin Phillips. She will be assessed on Sunday after coming off the ground after an awkward landing during a marking contest and sat out the rest of the final quarter.
The Crows are eyeing off a mouth-watering top-of-the-table match-up with Fremantle on Saturday at Fremantle Oval to claim back top spot, while the Giants look to crack into the top six with a win against Carlton at Manuka Oval on Sunday Night.
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