Suddenly Shierlaw: How Roo found her feet – and form

Kate Shierlaw is in career-best form at the age of 35. She tells Dylan Bolch why it’s all coming together at North Melbourne.

THROUGH eight seasons and three clubs, Kate Shierlaw has been chasing one thing.

Now in career-best form at North Melbourne, the spearhead would love nothing more than to deliver an elusive premiership for her footy club.

Last year, Shierlaw and the Roos had a golden opportunity to become the first North Melbourne premiership team in the AFLW competition, but the Brisbane Lions proved too strong in 2023.

This weekend, the Roos have a chance to turn the tables and etch their names into footy folklore.

“Super excited, I’m probably a little bit calmer than last year. Last year was probably a bit of a whirlwind with the finals series that we had,” Shierlaw told AFL.com.au.

“We’ve learned a lot from last year, the experience throughout the week. We’re keeping everything as normal as possible. We had a good training session on Wednesday morning and will have another little captain’s run on Friday and hopefully be good to go for Saturday night.”

Shierlaw says the Roos took plenty of confidence out of their week one performance against the Lions, where they were dominant from start to finish.

A six-goal third term broke the game open that day and it was no surprise to see star midfielders Ash Riddell and Jasmine Garner leading the charge.

“The season as a whole has probably given us a lot of confidence. We know it’s going to be a really hard battle against Brisbane. We’re looking forward to the contest,” she said.

“In round one we showed ourselves that we can do it against them, and we’ve proved throughout the year that no matter what teams throw at us, we can sort of match it and go one better.”

“There might be a little bit of that bubbling away, but we don’t really talk about it. We’re really process driven, which is really cliché, but we are very process driven. Hopefully that holds us in good stead,” she said.

Despite being 35 years of age, Shierlaw is in a rich vein of form.

She has booted 18 goals this season, ranked fourth across the competition, as the focal point of the Roos attack.

She’s averaged career-high numbers for disposals (11.4), marks (4.5) and score involvements (4.5) and is showing no signs of slowing down.

“I’m just so lucky to play in this team. I’m playing with some of the best players we’ve ever seen at AFLW level, so I’ve benefited from that,” she said.

“The forward line is very cohesive and any one of us can stand on any day, which makes us really dangerous.”

Her connection with fellow tall forward Tahlia Randall is strong, Vikki Wall (who returned from Ireland) is a human wrecking ball, Alice O’Loughlin has had an All-Australian calibre campaign and Bella Eddey is improving every time she steps onto the field.

“Tahls (Tahlia Randall) and I in particular work well together as the two talls. We bring the ball to ground which is our job at a minimum. The smalls are so dangerous, adding Vikki (Wall) to the mix has just brought a bit of grunt, it’s really cool to play as a group,” she said.

“It’s just more experience, the longer [Randall and I] play together. I was new last year so it just takes a bit of time, connection with the mids and backs as well. The more exposure we’ve had, the better we’ve got over this year in particular.”

Shierlaw and partner Emma Kearney have taken Eddey under their wing this year which has culminated in a career-best season for the former Sandringham Dragon.

Eddey has snagged ten goals this year, averaged 12.5 disposals, 7.3 contested possessions and 3.5 tackles a game.

“She’s like our little sister, I love the way Bella goes about it. She’s a bit of a quiet achiever. It’s probably not until you watch games back you see the impact that she has on a lot of games, her hands and how clean she is, is just elite,” Shierlaw said.

“I’m just so excited to see how the rest of her career plays out, but she’s stepped up massively already this year. For a young player, she probably doesn’t get the credit she probably deserves, I just couldn’t speak highly enough of her.

“She worked hard on her fitness over the off-season. She’s got the footy smarts and the skills, so just being able to get to more contests, to be clean when she does get to the contests because she’s not as fatigued maybe as last year, she’s covering the ground really well.”

Shierlaw saw first-hand how hard it was for captain Kearney to watch from the sidelines for a large chunk of the 2024 season.

But despite the rollercoaster journey, Kearney epitomised the team values that have vaulted North Melbourne into a competition powerhouse.

“Up and down, she was really good. Very supportive of the team, a very team-orientated player. Nothing really changed, every week she came in and was looking for ways for us to get better and drive particularly the back line, the way we moved the ball and defend and those sorts of things. She was a really good support for everyone,” Shierlaw said.

“It is hard, we’ve been pretty lucky with injuries, so we’ve had a pretty stable team. It’s hard for those girls who haven’t been able to play, but they’ve held themselves so well and it actually really helps us. They’ve trained really hard, pushed us and been really positive, which makes a huge difference.”

It’s that team-first, whole-club mentality that has seen the Kangaroos reach the pinnacle again this season. Shierlaw hopes it will lead them to go one better and secure the ultimate prize.

“You’re not worried about how they’re feeling, and you can get around them and they get around you as well. It’s been a whole group mentality, which really helps us,” she said.

So now the focus turns towards Saturday night, with the chance for Shierlaw and her teammates to create history.

“It would mean everything. That’s why we play, for the big games. Hopefully we can go one better than we did last year, it would be amazing. First for the club which would be really special,” she said.