In her debut season, Gold Coast SUNS winger Mikayla Nurse has made “seismic” progress according to co-captain Niamh McLaughlin.
The young gun’s trademark speed and running ability has been invaluable to the side, with the SIXT Star in the making averaging 10.7 disposals and 237 metres gained across her nine AFLW games.
This comes as no surprise, with the StreetSmarts SUNS Academy graduate having made an impressive showing at the AFLW Draft Combine, recording second in the 2km time trial with a time of 7:18 and placing third in 20 metre sprint with a time of 3.207 seconds.
The 19-year-old’s breakout game came in Round 9 against the Melbourne Demons, where she kicked her first two AFLW career goals in scintillating fashion and rounded out that game with 13 disposals and five marks.
Mclaughlin was full of praise when talking about Nurse’s growth and impact on the side over the season.
“Mikayla’s improvement from the start of the year to now has just been seismic,” the co-captain said.
“She's such a workhorse for us. I love her on the wing because she gets back to help me in the halfback and is always an outlet for us as well there.
“She's a really important player for us. I think a lot of the work that she does goes unnoticed, but without her we wouldn't be the team we are.”
In her junior years, Nurse was an inside midfielder but was encouraged to utilise her strengths outside of the contest by her former Academy coach and current AFLW Head Coach Rhyce Shaw.
“(In the Academy) I bonded really well with Shawry and he gave me the confidence to keep going and play that wing role and I think that’s helped me develop my footy so much more,” Nurse said.
“Now I’m on the wing, I have my own space and more freedom out there.
“I also have a big running tank and running up and down the wing is my weapon. That is probably what influences the team mostly from my behalf.”
With the SUNS preparing for another finals berth, Nurse is excited for the challenge ahead but remains focused on performing her role.
“I’m definitely excited but we've spoken about it as a team, we have to reassure ourselves not to get ahead of ourselves and just take it step by step, day by day,” Nurse added.
“We’ll keep looking for what we can keep improving on and hopefully we can perform that and get the job done.
“I think for me, it's just knowing our structure and what I have to do that gets me going.”
