Cora Staunton's Greater Western Sydney Giants lost their opening Women's AFL (AFLW) game 7.3 (45) - 6.3 (39) to Melbourne but the Mayo woman shone nevertheless receiving widespread praise on her debut.
Staunton has taken to the game like a duck to water after impressing during pre-season recently. Yesterday she landed a goal early on as she lined out against Cavan's Laura Corrigan Duryea.
GOAL for Cora Staunton in the first quarter of AFLW 2.0! Not a bad way to start the debut! #aflw #arfliw pic.twitter.com/vxvClF4BRy
— ARFLI Womens (@arfliwomens) February 3, 2018
Cora Staunton is going to light it up this season
— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) February 3, 2018
How good was that from Cora Staunton!!! First goal kicked by an International Recruit in the #AFLW. Outstanding stuff.
— Andy Maher (@AndyMaherDFA) February 3, 2018
Caught the replays of last night’s #AFLW games. Lots of excitement and yes, the quality is getting better.
How about Cora Staunton. She’s like a fish in water, looked completely composed.— Brian Barrish (@BarrishUSAFL) February 3, 2018
In true GAA fashion, she laid down a marker early as she tackled superstar Daisy Pearce to ground during the opening exchanges,
Speaking to balls.ie prior to her move, Staunton revealed she'd never played the game until quite recently.
No I’ve never played AFL before. I played rugby and I've played rugby and GAA which is a good combination of all the three sports for AFL. I have had an AFL ball at home for a couple of months when one of the coaches comes over the end of July/start of August I did a kicking test with him.
It’s completely different game in some respects but in other regards, you’re still using a lot of the same skills that you do like catching, like footwork. It’s quite a physical game that doesn’t bother me and the biggest thing is to learn the kick, shooting probably doesn’t bother me as much.
Her instant impact is a testament to her character.
