Hawthorn ruck Lucy Wales this week joined the Credit to the Girls podcast to discuss the Hawks' 2024 AFLW campaign.

We summarised some of the key points below.

On the Hawks' improvement

“It’s hard to put it down to one thing I guess, I mean you mentioned new faces in at the club and having Daniel Webster as our coach has obviously propelled us forward up the ladder. New faces on the ground, Casey Sherriff who’s injured at the moment but her, Eliza West and then all our draftees as well that I think have helped steer us in the right direction, you’ve seen Westy’s having an incredible season. And then I guess we all just in the off-season put our heads down and worked really hard and we’re all buying into this 'hokball' thing going on at the club and the momentum stemmed off the boys as well going far in finals, so we’re kind of riding a wave of momentum but we all put our heads down in the off-season and worked really hard so I think it’s been put down to that.”

On 'hokball'

“Hawthorn’s just got such a great vibe at the moment, still not really sure what 'hokball' means but I think it’s just such a great club to be around at the moment. Plenty of new faces around that are helping bring this awesome vibe and for us to go out on the footy field and be winning is bringing a lot of positivity and energy. And just the whole club getting around us as well, like all the people working upstairs in our departments such as media, they’re all just getting around us and behind us and we’re all feeling the energy and positivity around the club. I think it’s about us playing our brand of footy, so that’s running, that’s attacking, putting speed on the ball but I guess it also stems from the social media side of things. I think it helps with having a young team and it definitely does relate to how we want to play our footy but again, no one can quite put their finger on what it means.”

On the midfield group

“I think our midfield has just really gelled this year and I think with our system and how we play, you can kind of chuck anyone in there and it works. For example, we put Aileen Gilroy in there against Freo because we were down Mattea Breed and she just came in, played her role and that worked for us. So, I think the way we’re all across our system and the way that DWeb tells us how we want to play and everyone’s across it so the personnel that goes in there as much as they’re all doing an incredible job, it’s down to the system and how we want to play.”

On her personal journey

“It’s been an incredible journey so far. I think the thing I wanted to improve on for this year is playing consistent footy and showing up week in week out, and I think working with DWeb around my mindset going into each game and I do a lot of work with Keegan Brooksby our mids coach, who helps me out with ruck stuff as well. I think just showing up each week and making sure I’m impacting the game, not just a few times a year but in every game, that’s been a main focus for me and hopefully I’ve been able to show that so far.”

On her nickname, 'Penny'

“So it stemmed from Pendles which was from when I got drafted, the only real thing they knew about me was that I had a basketball background. I like to say it’s because of my silky skills but I’m not sure many will agree with that.”

Watch the full interview with Gemma Bastiani and Lucy Watkin below.