Securing an AFLW contract is Danika Spamer's "end goal", but first the talented midfielder wants to lead her beloved Cardiff Hawks to their first grand final appearance in Black Diamond Cup Women.
The 20-year-old from Cardiff came through the Hawks junior program and is now a key player in their senior squad.
Cardiff entered Hunter Central Coast AFL women's competition in 2016 and fielded two teams for the first time last year.
"This is my sixth season with Cardiff," Spamer said. "I played three with juniors and it's my third with seniors. It's a really good community environment.
"For the past couple of years they've been trying to link more with the junior club and get some of those 17s players training with us and playing on the weekends to introduce them to seniors instead of just being thrown into it when they start the senior program.
"It's so good to see all of the teams growing. In our squad we have around 51 players and it's so good having such a big group of women to train with. We mostly train as one and having that broad range of skill just brings everyone up."
Cardiff's girls program starts from under 11s. Their 17s have already won several flags, including on Sunday after beating Newcastle City 4.4 (28) to 2.3 (15) at Feighan Oval.
Spamer won three grand finals with Cardiff's 17s but is yet to get to one in the senior ranks. The Hawks finished second to City on the points table in the Cup competition and were minor premiers in the Plate division.
Cardiff's Plate side have already won through to the September 17 grand final. Their Cup team lost to City in the qualifying final at Pasterfield Sports Complex on Saturday and must beat Killarney Vale in the preliminary final this weekend to book a grand final showdown with the Blues.
"In 2020, we made it to the first round of finals but got knocked out by City," Spamer said.
"In 2021, we didn't even have finals because of COVID. This year hopefully we're looking to make a bit of Cardiff history and get to the grand final.
"City have definitely been the benchmark team to beat over the past couple of years. But we've definitely improved over the season and crept closer, so hopefully we can keep going and make it to that grand final and make it a good game to watch."
Spamer, the 2020 Black Diamond Cup Women's player of the year, played for the Swans Academy in this year's AFL NSW/ACT Women's Summer series and Female Winter series.
"The [Swans Academy] training has helped me improve my game so much," Spamer said.
"I'm just looking to keep improving and AFLW is my end goal in the next couple of seasons."
