Jules hits the hundred

Sunday’s match for the East Fremantle Women’s Football Club against Claremont will be a day of celebration, with Julie ‘Jules’ Nichols notching up her 100^th game for the club.

But there’s no doubting that Nichols will settle for anything other than a victory as they face a relatively unknown Claremont side that has expanded to have both a Reserves and League side, along with Youth Girls, in the WAWFL competition for the 2016 season.

With more than a decade of football under her belt wearing the Blue & White, Nichols will be the first to admit she’s done it the hard way as she approaches her century of games, enduring two long stints on the sidelines through injury.

There’s going to be a few mixed emotions I think,” said Nichols ahead of Sunday’s game.

“I’m just starting my 11^th season so it’s certainly taken a while. I had the two seasons where I missed out for 12 months after doing my knees, but I think I’ll sit back on Sunday afternoon and really reflect on all of those games and how fortunate I feel to have played them for the East Fremantle.”

“It’s something that I’m really proud of, I feel really loyal to this club and I’ve gotten so much out of it. It’s early in the week at the moment but probably Saturday I’ll start to get pretty nervous. I normally get nervous before a game too and this one I’ll obviously want to put in a really good showing so I’m looking forward to it.”

The milestone game comes on the back of an AFL first in WA, with the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers contesting a women’s derby exhibition match ahead of the the launch of a national women’s competition next year.

While Nichols missed selection for Derby curtain raiser, she’s easily kept with the women’s game going from strength to strength over such a short period of time.

“In the early days people would just rock up five to ten minutes before the game, there’s people running around in sneakers, and at half time it was just a bit of a chat instead of analysing what happened,” said Nichols.

“Training was very different too, it was very basic and there wasn’t a lot of strategy or the push to be an elite athlete. I’ve just seen a massive improvement in the skills, the structures, the training, recovery and nutrition. All of those things have really come into play because footy’s changed and people could see that there were pathways developing for women in footy -- if they wanted to jump onto the bandwagon they really needed improve along with it.”

"We’ve had girls bring in these elite behaviours to our club and it drags people along, and that’s the most pleasing thing I think. It’s been massive.”

In a sign that Nichols is the kind of player that gives much more than she receives, she’ll be stepping in as the ground announcer on Saturday at ATOM Stadium for the WAFL clash between the Sharks and the Tigers. Coincidentally she’ll have the peculiar job of reading her own name in the milestone announcement alongside Matthew Jupp’s 50^th.

Even when on the sidelines with injury, Nichols continually put in many hours at training to impart her knowledge and help teammates on their skills. For she Sharks number 4, it’s clear the game and the club has now become an integral part of her life.

“It takes a lot to get to 100 games, and you can’t do that without your team mates. Over the years there’s been so many amazing girls I’ve run along beside and some of them are my best friends now.”

“It’s been a huge journey and I’m super proud to run out in the jumper on Sunday.”