Hawthornfc.com.au caught up with VFLW Hawk Julia Crockett-Grills to see how pre-season is progressing and to ask all the hard questions.

LIFE AT THE HAWKS
How are you finding preseason?
I’m finding it really good. We’ve got great support staff and we want to be fit, we want to be strong so its sort of what we’re aiming towards leading into the season and it’s been good so far.
Which position do you think you’ll spend most time in this season?
I generally play a fair bit through the midfield. I’ll spend a little bit of time back sometimes but predominantly midfield.
How would you describe yourself as a player?
I do like to run a lot, run off a player sort of thing, be quite attacking but when its time to defend I love to get the opposition to the ground. I try to bring run and carry in as much as I can, I love doing it, and with women’s footy as much ground as you can make is going to benefit the team majorly.
What areas of your game would you like to improve?
Learning to use the ball better, be much more efficient, hitting targets, hitting inside targets, be a bit more bold with my decision making, that sort of thing.
Specific goals for the season?
We do want to do quite well, I mean we’re going to be a new group again but at the same time with all the new teams everyone’s going to sort of be on the same page so its going to make it a little bit exciting I guess.
How excited are you to be part of the Hawthorn’s first ever women’s side in the VFLW this year?
It’s going to be absolutely amazing. They’ve already been so supportive and telling us that they’re 100% committed and making us feel welcome. It’s all very exciting that it’s all changing very quickly and week to week there’s new things popping up that you just would never have thought of or anything like that so it’s quite exciting to be honest.
Do you have a nickname amongst the group?
Probably just ‘Jules’, a few of the girls have started to mention ‘Crock’ but generally just ‘Jules’.
What are you looking forward to most this season?
I’m looking forward to a fairly new bunch of girls and see what we can do and bring it to the table and it’s going to be exciting for the whole league with the new teams and just to play some footy I guess.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLUB
Do you have a favourite player?
I’m a big Bombers fan and I love the way that Dyson Heppell plays. He’s a great player, he’s sort of an inside mid, he does a lot of run and carry so he’d probably be my favourite player.
How did you first get into playing football?
I grew up in Kyabram and so I played under 12s with the boys but there was no girls teams or women’s teams or anything back then. I wasn’t allowed to play older than that but when I moved to Melbourne I started playing footy again so this’d be my fourth season playing women’s footy. The first few years I was with Scoresby football club and we turned into Knox Football Club and then that’s where I played for a few years before Box Hill Hawks.
What’s your favourite football memory?
My first year with Scoresby we won the premiership so that was pretty cool, and probably the low light was the next year we lost the grand final by a point, so it went from one extreme to the other.
How do you spend most of your time outside of football?
I do like playing sport, I didn’t play cricket this season but I do miss playing, but just hanging out with friends, going to see some gigs, that sort of stuff.