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Condell Crew underpins Giants' women's AFL push

James Buckley

Meet the Condell Crew – 15 interstate GWS Giants recruits playing in the inaugural AFL Women's season who are all bunking together in a south-western Sydney duplex.

They're an eclectic bunch from Western Australia, Victoria, Canberra and country NSW, ranging in profession from physiotherapist to player agent to ex-WNBL superstar to member of the Australian Army.

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The set-up is simple enough with the five Victorians, Ashleigh Guest, Louise Stephenson, Alex Saundry, Phoebe McWilliams and Jessica Dal Pos, occupying one half of the duplex. The rest are cramming into the other, which bulges with 10 residents at full capacity.

On the Victorian side each woman has their own room but next door things become slightly more complicated.

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The four WA players, marquee signings Emma Swanson and Renee Forth, plus Alex Williams and Aimee Schmidt, are there full-time and have claimed a room each. But when the Canberra contingent come up to stay, it becomes a bit more of a juggle.

There's a double mattress spread out in the living room, three single beds packed into the downstairs bedroom and then a chunky couch in the lounge which can accommodate anyone left over.

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"Occasionally you'll walk downstairs and there'll be girls on the couch," Swanson said.

"When the Canberra girls come up they're usually up for about four or five nights and their way of paying their rent is by cooking up a big feed.

"On occasion we'll do a family dinner on a Sunday night, generally we'll all go out for breakfast on the weekend together and then from there everyone just spreads out and does their own thing.

"It's just kind of like being in college I guess, you suck up the fact that you're with everyone else and you just enjoy the experience."

They're not bunking together out of financial necessity, but more for the experience, say team members.

"We're splitting rent between six of us, we're not going to live anywhere else in Sydney for as cheap as what we live here," said Swanson.

Guest and her stepmother Sarah set up the Condell Park residence in November as the Giants embarked on their maiden pre-season campaign.

Guest, a midfielder, was looking for a place to live in Sydney after being drafted to the club, and her stepmother helped find the place with the real estate contacts she has through her construction company.

Sarah then took care of the bond and helped furnish both places.

"She's pretty passionate about females in male-dominated industries and knowing that we were probably going to struggle to get something," Guest said.

"I flew up and down about six or seven times from Melbourne pre moving up here. We had to come and view the house, we had to sign a contract, then move in the furniture."

Once the furniture was in, Guest and her new Giants teammates soon followed.

There's no cleaning roster, and no cooking schedule or set parking spaces, but they manage to make it work. Three bathrooms on each side of the duplex certainly helps in that regard.

Hannah Wallett, Ella Ross, Clare Lawton, Britt Tully former Canberra Capital Jess Bibby and Canberra United W-League star Ellie Brush round out the crew.

Most of that group would travel the Hume Highway between Canberra and Sydney multiple times a week during pre-season, slumping on whatever bed they could find when they landed in Condell Park.

"Everyone's in each other's pockets anyway so we're used to it by now and we're all really good mates. If you need some alone time you can just separate yourself, go for a walk and get yourself some coffee," Wallett said.

"We're all pretty cruisy actually, there literally has not been a single issue. One of the good things about it, there's three bathrooms.

"If there was more of an issue with the bathrooms that could've been a problem but so far everyone's got their own schedule with showering and we've got the option to shower at the club if we need to so you can just jump on in after training."

The Giants begin their AFL Women's campaign against the Adelaide Crows on Saturday at Thebarton Oval in Adelaide. The match will be broadcast live on Fox Sports, with opening bounce scheduled for 5:05 AEDT. 

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