For North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos AFLW recruit Brittany Gibson, the opportunity to play for her childhood club and move closer to family made perfect sense.
After playing 16 games for Brisbane, the midfielder/forward joined North’s foundation team during this month’s expansion signing period.
“To finally go to the childhood club that you have been supporting your whole life, I am ecstatic and I can’t wait to get started,’’ Gibson told Fairfax Media.
“I think my mum struggled to get my North Melbourne jumper off me when I was kid, as I was always running around wearing it, or if I was at school for sport or something, I always had the blue and white on.”
Gibson is one of three Tasmanian players to commit to North.
“I’m delighted there are some other Tasmanians on the team like Daria (Bannister), and I couldn’t be more delighted for Maddie Smith to break into the league,’’ she said.
“She’s a phenomenal footballer and deserves this, so I am super excited to finally be on the same team as her and see what she does, as the AFLW won’t know what’s hit it.”
A fan favourite, Gibson will live in Melbourne rather than Tasmania after receiving a job with DP World, but the chance to move closer to family was a big drawcard for the former Brisbane Lion.
Gibson’s fiancée is pregnant with their first child, and her mother is battling multiple sclerosis, making the need to live closer to family a priority.
“It was a big decision to make, but obviously it wasn’t just my decision as Jaime is up here as well, so we did weigh up all the pros and cons together of leaving Brisbane,’’ Gibson said.
“It was an incredibly hard decision as we have made some wonderful friends up here and I really enjoyed my time up here.
“One of the main reasons why I decided to get closer to home, and this might sound corny, is you can’t buy time with family. With the little one on the way, which will be Jaime’s parents’ first grandchild, this will make it just that little bit easier and quicker to get home.”
Dedicated to developing talent at the grassroots level, Gibson hopes the move can allow her to give back to the Tasmanian football system which gave her a break into the AFLW world.
“(The move) will allow me to come back and touch base with all the girls that are still playing in Tassie, and have an almost an ambassador role to promote women’s footy and show how far we can go,’’ she added.
“I have always been strong in youth development, and I’ve done that up here in Queensland, so to have the opportunity to do that in my home state, knowing how hard it is to progress, will be great.”
