Regional teen travels 8 hours for AFLW dream

Moree teenager Lauren Appleby has her eyes set on being drafted to the AFLW as she trains at the Sydney Swans Academy.

Transcript

00:00I'd love to, you know, be one of the best players in the AFL Derby.

00:03I'd love to be drafted one day and it's a goal of mine especially coming from more of a remote area.

00:10It just makes it 10 times harder and even 10 times more, I suppose, of a goal.

00:18And I just love to make the family back home proud.

00:21From Moree to Moorpark, Lauren Appleby travels eight hours to play AFL in the Sydney Swans Academy.

00:30My flight would usually be just over an hour and a half and by car it's about eight hours.

00:35For Lauren, a weekend game of footy is a three-hour drive away in Tamworth.

00:40Well, at home we don't even have AFL posts put up at all.

00:44We don't have anything like that.

00:46So training at home has to be done all by myself and with my own motivation.

00:51The 17-year-old keeps up her training with her homemade goalposts.

00:55Dad put up some posts in the backyard for me to aim at and that's my training.

01:01That's probably the only post that are in town.

01:05The talented athlete is starring in a TikTok series,

01:08Youngbloods, which is documenting young athletes journeys to elite sports.

01:13Lauren, take two.

01:15Oh no.

01:17That's a motocross track there.

01:18Over that way.

01:19Over that way.

01:20Good job.

01:21Now have a sleep.

01:23The reality in the last 10 years at the academy, we've taken 12 to 15 players.

01:28You're sharing the exact same grounds and training fields

01:31with the professionals, the people that are, you know, getting paid to play the game.

01:35I'd love to be able to encourage other people from around

01:39more remote areas to be able to chase their dreams and,

01:42you know, put your mind to something and be able to do it.