Sydney Swan Alice Mitchell to make AFLW debut

The Sydney Swans - a club Mitchell has supported since childhood - have named her on the interchange bench for Sunday's season opener against the Giants at North Sydney Oval.

The 22-year-old's selection in the side comes after she ruptured her ACL during Swans pre-season training ahead of the 2022 season, which was supposed to be her debut AFLW season.

Mitchell's former Gunnedah Poochettes teammate Georgia Tibbs - whose brother, Will, once dated the Swans rookie - said her good friend's AFW debut "was a long time coming".

Tibbs said Mitchell - who lived with her family when she moved to Gunnedah in 2020 - spent last season "monitoring the game" while sidelined, and had come into this season mentally strong.

Read more: Georgia Tibbs on Alice Mitchell's positive impact on her

"And I think she's gonna go great this year," the Poochette said, adding: "We're all pretty keen to watch her first game." The 183 centimetre defender, she said, had "made a lot of friends" in Gunnedah.

When the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Mitchell losing her job as an AFL coach at her former Sydney school, Pymble Ladies' College, she relocated to Gunnedah with Will Tibbs.

There, she signed with the Gunnedah Bulldogs. The previous year, she had trained with GWS's Winter Series squad, in the hope of earning a spot in the 2020 AFLW draft.

Stress fractures to both legs cruelled that ambition.

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Mitchell - described by Swans coach Scott Gowans as having "elite hands and a left foot that can find targets" - has said that playing AFLW was the furthest thing from her mind when she arrived in Gunnedah.

But after inspiring the Poochettes to the 2020 premiership in their debut season, and then the minor premiership in the COVID-derailed 2021 season, Mitchell adopted what she labelled a "f*** it" mentality when she played for the Swans in the inaugural 2022 Women's Summer Series.

In June that year, the Swans chose her as the No 13 pick in the 2022 AFLW draft.

But then heartbreak came calling again.

At the time of her ACL injury, Mitchell told the Leader that she was "a big believer in everything happens for a reason".

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"And I know this is just the start of my story, and the start of a good story," she said.

Nine months later, Mitchell - who had just started a job in content acquisition at Fox Sports - said she was set to resume full-time training. She found that prospect "really exciting" but also "daunting".

"I'm really happy with how things are going at the moment," she said. "Life's good. Got a good job. I'm training."

Mitchell and positivity have always been close.

"I've had my fair share of meltdowns about it," she has said of the injury, adding: "I definitely think the world is unfair sometimes.

"But, as I said before, when these things happen you really just have to stay positive ... It's made me realise how much I really want this, and how much I wanted to take this opportunity and really go for it."

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